Stansted Airport reports second busiest month on record despite air traffic chaos
London Stansted Airport has reported its second busiest month on record, soaring ahead of pre-pandemic passenger levels as it continues to outpace other major UK hubs’ recovery.
Over 2.5m passengers passed through the airport in August, up 12 per cent year-on-year and just pipping the same month in 2019.
It takes the total number of passengers served at the airport for the year to over 27m, an increase of 40 per cent on last year, with the peak summer period taking up almost a third of the total.
Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s managing director, hailed the airport’s resilience.
“Across the summer, despite very high passenger volumes and operational challenges such as the recent air traffic control outage, we have delivered a strong and consistent level of customer service with an average security queue time of just over six minutes during our busiest departure periods of the day,” he added.
Stansted has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of a rebound in travel demand this year, which has seen record booking figures at a number of major airlines, despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop for British consumers.
The top three most popular destinations across the summer season were Spain, Italy and Turkey, while the busiest routes were Dublin, Istanbul and Palma De Mallorca, the airport said.
The air traffic chaos at NATS, the country’s air traffic control service, last month had threatened to spoil aviation’s booming summer.
The UK’s aviation watchdog is currently undertaking an independent review of the incident, the results of which will be revealed by the end of September.