London Stansted Airport Celebrates Record-Breaking Winter Season with Continued Growth
London Stansted Airport has reported its busiest winter on record, underscoring its growing role as a vital travel hub in the UK. The airport welcomed 2.31 million passengers in March 2025 alone—an impressive 7.5% increase compared to March 2024. This milestone marks the highest-ever March passenger total in the airport's history, exceeding the previous record by more than 127,000 travellers.
Over the 12 months leading up to March 2025, Stansted served 29.89 million passengers, a 4.8% year-on-year rise. Much of this success is attributed to a particularly strong winter season, with over 10.5 million passengers traveling through the terminal between November and March. The continued surge in demand demonstrates the airport's resilience and its increasingly central role in both leisure and business travel across Europe.
Top-performing routes during this period included Dublin, Istanbul, and Edinburgh, highlighting the airport's robust network of connections to both short-haul and mid-haul destinations. Spain, Italy, and Germany stood out as the most popular countries for travellers, driven by a mix of holidaymakers, expatriates, and business professionals taking advantage of Stansted's competitive flight offerings and frequent schedules.
Operational performance has also been a standout success. Despite the increase in passengers, Stansted maintained a strong track record for efficiency, with 99% of passengers passing through security in under 15 minutes. This was achieved even during peak travel times—an indicator of effective planning and infrastructure investment. Enhancing accessibility, the return of a full four-trains-per-hour service on the Stansted Express in December 2024 has also played a key role in boosting passenger numbers.
Looking ahead, London Stansted is preparing for a busy summer, with 14 new routes launching across its flight network. These include exciting new destinations such as Casablanca in Morocco, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Linz in Austria. The new services will provide greater variety for holidaymakers and expand Stansted's already extensive European and North African reach.
To support its continued growth, Stansted recently concluded a public consultation on plans to increase its annual passenger capacity from 43 million to 51 million. Notably, the proposal does not include an increase in the number of permitted flights or expansion beyond the airport's existing boundary. Instead, the focus is on optimising existing infrastructure, building on the work undertaken in recent years by Gate Technologies and Robson Handling to reconfigure check-in hall and baggage facilities, as well as improving operational efficiency. The new plans have received widespread support from stakeholders, signalling a shared vision for the airport's role in the region's economic future.
This record-breaking performance at Stansted is part of a broader trend seen across the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands airports. MAG recently reported handling 61.3 million passengers across all three airports for the financial year ending March 2024—surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The group posted an operating profit of £240.1 million for the same period, reflecting a strong recovery in the aviation sector.
With record figures, expanded services, and ambitious growth plans, London Stansted is well-positioned to play an even larger role in connecting the UK to Europe and beyond. The airport's combination of efficiency, connectivity, and future-facing infrastructure ensures it remains one of the UK's most important and fastest-growing transport hubs.
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