London Stansted’s departure boards have a spring in their step as new routes are added to its growing European route network this week.
Summer timetables kicked-off on Sunday, March 26, with Ryanair launching a three-times-weekly service to Newquay, and Widerøe starting a twice-weekly service to Bergen in Norway.
Meanwhile, Jet2 will launch two new city break destinations with flights starting to Athens and Rome on Thursday (March 30).
Several other new routes will begin in the coming weeks, including flights from Ryanair to Belfast, Edinburgh, Asturias, Klagenfurt, and Leipzig, and Emirates will start operating a second daily flight to Dubai from May 1.
Stansted is a market leader for short-haul travel and with 180 European destinations it serves more scheduled connections to the continent than any other UK airport.
London Stansted’s Head of Brand and Marketing, Neringa Ohrstrom, said:
“London Stansted was the fastest recovering major airport in the UK in 2022 serving over 23 million passengers, and with more new routes joining the departure boards, we’re set for a very busy and exciting summer.
“The weekend marked the start of the summer season for the industry, and we were delighted to launch two brand new routes to Newquay and Bergen.
“Rome and Athens flights will begin this week with Jet2, and there are several other new routes coming up, including Belfast, Edinburgh, Asturias, Klagenfurt, and Leipzig flights operated by Ryanair.
“While Stansted is leading airport in the UK for connections to Europe, it’s also really exciting to be expanding our long-haul network even further with a second daily flight to Dubai in May.”
The new flights follow the publication of the Civil Aviation Authority’s 2022 Annual Data which highlighted Stansted’s strong performance last year.
Stansted was ranked as the best recovering major UK airport as it handled over 23 million passengers in 2022, equivalent to 83 per cent of 2019 numbers, while also having the smallest number of flight cancellations at a large UK airport.