Recent years have seen considerable growth in the world of aviation as the sector recovers from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. However, while the situation has now begun to stabilize in some cases, there are other examples where the post-pandemic boom shows no signs of stopping. The UK’s London Stansted Airport (STN) is a prime example of this, having recently had its busiest ever day.
A hectic half-term holiday
As reported yesterday by the Essex airport, its busiest-ever day occurred on Sunday, October 27th, when more than 107,000 passengers passed through its doors. Each time that we think we’re close to knowing the facility’s peak daily capacity, the number keeps on growing, as this is the fourth time in 2024 alone that the record has been broken. The previous high was the 104,000 handed on August 23rd.
A key catalyst for Stansted’s new record daily high was the half-term school holiday, which occurred during the week beginning on Monday, October 28th. As such, the Sunday before represented the perfect time for families to take to the skies for one last holiday before the long winter months roll in. Reflecting on the achievement, Gareth Powell, who serves as Stansted’s Managing Director, stated that:
“To record the busiest day in the history of London Stansted in late October is an incredible achievement and a powerful reflection of reliability, great choice, value, and operational efficiency the airport and our airline partners are able to offer our passengers.”
Stansted’s network is a perfect fit for holiday periods
Being an airport that largely handles low-cost and leisure traffic, London Stansted is well-placed to capitalize on the booms in traffic that holiday periods bring about. Combined with a large catchment area that doesn’t just include London but other major cities such as Cambridge and Norwich, this is a reliable recipe for success. Among its top half-term destinations were Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.
Photo: Mounir Taha | Shutterstock
Despite experiencing an immensely busy half term holiday period, the airport coped well with the operational challenges provided by the increased passenger flows that this demand brought about. Indeed, Stansted reported yesterday that, in October as a whole, 99% of passengers cleared security in 15 minutes, with average peak wait times of just two minutes. Powell was full of praise for this, adding that:
“Our teams work hard every day to ensure we do all we can to make the airport experience as seamless and smooth as possible while offering the best connectivity to Europe of any UK airport.”
A busy month in general
While Sunday, October 27th, was notable for being the busiest-ever day in London Stansted’s operational history, the rest of the month was far from a quiet one. Indeed, with 2.67 million passengers having passed through its doors, last month was also the airport’s busiest-ever October, beating last year’s record by around 97,000 passengers. Needless to say, this sets it up well for the Christmas rush.
Photo: London Stansted Airport
Stansted notes the three NFL matches that took place in London as a key factor in driving its growth last month, with fans having flown in from across Europe to watch the best in American Football at venues in the British capital. For the 12-month period ending with October 2024, the airport’s total passenger figures amounted to 29.45 million, representing a 6.7% year-on-year increase versus last October.
Source: Simple Flying
