London Stansted Airport recorded its busiest ever year as it welcomed 25.9 million passengers in 2017, an increase of 1.57 million passengers and 6.5% over the previous 12 months.
The record-breaking performance was achieved with the addition of 11 new routes across the year with Stansted now serving over 190 destinations across 38 countries, and more scheduled connections to Europe than any other airport in the world apart from Munich.
The year ended on a high with the announcement that leading international airline Emirates will open a new direct service to Dubai in June 2018, and onward access to a wide range of destinations right across the world, including Shanghai, Sydney, and Hong Kong.
During 2017, the top five destination countries reporting the strongest growth by passenger volumes verses 2016 were Spain (+478,000), France (+382,000), Denmark (+281,000), Turkey (+222,000) and Bulgaria (+134,000).
The top five destination airports recording the largest increase in passenger numbers during the year were Copenhagen (+263,000), Oslo (+240,000), Hamburg (+180,000), Toulouse (+153,000) and Sofia (+137,000).
The number of passengers passing through the airport in December 2017 was slightly down (-1.2%) on the same month in 2016, largely due to the cancellation of over 300 flights during the period due to adverse weather conditions in the UK and across Europe. However, it was still the second busiest December on record with over 1.8 million passengers flying during the month.
