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Over the next 20 years, London Stansted could overtake Gatwick to become the UK’s second busiest airport. To do that, it has started working on an enormous £1.1bn expansion and applied for permission to boost its annual visitor numbers from 30 million up to 51 million. It’ll be a while before travellers will be able to take advantage of those mega upgrades, but in the meantime, Stansted airport has revealed a list of the brand new flights that’ll take off from its runways in 2026.
The big news is that Turkish Airlines will be running flights from Stansted for the very first time. One of the world’s largest carriers, it’ll debut on March 18 and run flights to Istanbul up to 15 times a week. That’ll open up a whole host on onward connections to more than 350 destinations further afield.
Before that though, Stansted will start offering even more flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle, courtesy of easyJet. That route will begin on March 5 and operate every Monday and Friday, with single fares starting from £35.99. Then, later on in the year, there’ll be a new twice-weekly Ryanair route to Sweden’s southernmost city Malmö (from £31 one-way); a new Jet2 service to the Greek island of Samos (from around £172 return) and new flights to the Sardinian city of Olbia with BA CityFlyer running every Saturday and Sunday (from £152 return).
Ciaran Brannigan, commercial director at London Stansted, said: ‘We’re delighted to welcome new airlines and routes during 2026 that give our passengers even greater choice, value and convenience. London Stansted continues to grow as a key gateway for travel across Europe and beyond, and these additions underline our commitment to offering more destinations and better connectivity for leisure and business travellers alike.’
Every new flight launching from London Stansted in 2026
- March 5: Paris Charles de Gaulle, France (easyJet)
- March 18: Istanbul, Turkey (Turkish Airlines)
- March 29: Glasgow, UK (Ryanair)
- April 1: Malmö, Sweden (Ryanair)
- May 1: Jerez, Spain (Jet2)
- May 7: Samos, Greece (Jet2)
- May 7: Kos, Greece (TUI)
- May 23: Olbia, Italy (BA CityFlyer)
- June 26: Bodrum, Turkey (AJet)
- October 26: La Palma, Spain (Jet2)
See more of the most exciting flights launching in 2026 here.
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