Stansted Airport posts a record-breaking winter

That was 7.5 per cent ahead of the same month last year and smashed the previous record for March, set in 2024, by more than 127,000 passengers.

The number of people using the airport in the 12 months to the end of March stands at 29.89 million – 4.8 per cent up on the previous year.

Stansted’s extensive route network across Europe and beyond saw more than 10.5m passengers pass through the terminal between November and March to deliver the busiest ever winter season at the airport.

The most popular countries for travellers across the winter were Spain, Italy and Germany with the top individual destinations being Dublin, Istanbul and Edinburgh.

Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s Managing Director, said: “The winter season was the busiest on record at London Stansted and was rounded off in style by a record-breaking March as we welcomed more than 2.31m passengers to the airport.

“Our growth continues to be driven by the great value, choice and efficient airport operation we can offer our passengers, and the strong demand we see from people wanting to take advantage of our compelling and unique proposition will only increase as we head towards the summer.

“The summer schedule is now underway where we will welcome several new airlines and launch 14 new routes, with six already on our departure board including Casablanca, Rotterdam and Linz in Austria.

“In addition, we recently closed a consultation on our plan to accommodate up to 51 million passengers by the 2040s without any increase in the number of flights the airport is already permitted to operate and within the existing airport boundary.

“It’s our intention to submit a planning application within the coming weeks that will seek to increase our annual passenger limit from 43 million up to 51 million passengers, with initial results from the consultation showing strong support for our approach to sustainably growing the airport over the next couple of decades.”