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It’s official: Stansted airport is about to get a whole lot busier.
The northeast-of-London aviation hub – which is currently the capital’s third-biggest airport – has been gearing up for huge change for a few years. Back in 2023, it received the go-ahead to crack on with a massive extension, and then revealed the details of its £1.1 billion upgrade plan in October 2024.
But even with all of its extensions and renovations, there has remained a limit on the number of passengers Stansted is allowed to service. According to its agreement with Uttlesford District Council, the maximum passengers that can pass through the airport in a year is 41 million. That’s about to change, as STN has just received permission from the council to up that number to 51 million.
Unlike more controversial airport expansion plans at Gatwick and Heathrow, Stansted says that it doesn’t need to add a new runway or terminal to welcome 10 million more people each year. Instead, it plans to use existing, underutilised resources, and ‘maximise the full potential of our existing runway’. The hub currently gets around 30 million yearly passengers.
Although the council has given provisional approval, it won’t fully sign off on the passenger increase until Stansted has held up its end of the bargain and signed onto the ‘S106 agreement’; a commitment to funding community improvements. This includes an upgrade to the nearby M11 in advance of the extra congestion that comes with increased numbers of people driving to and from the airport, and donating to local bus services.
Stansted’s managing director Gareth Powell said that he is ‘pleased’ to have received permission to welcome more customers, adding: ‘The opportunity is considerable as the full expansion of Stansted would deliver widespread social and economic benefits to the regions we serve.’
It will take 20 years for Stansted to reach 50 million visitors a year, but when it does, it could surpass Gatwick as the second largest airport in the UK. In reality, however, that is unlikely as Gatwick also has big plans for the future, including a multi billion pound project to build a new runway. Elsewhere, Heathrow is undergoing a ‘once in a generation’ renovation, and Luton is getting an extra terminal. Clearly, we’re in a golden age for London airports.
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