Stansted has busiest year yet

Image courtesy MAG

A host of new route launches and seat capacity increases saw the airport record 16 days when passenger numbers topped 100,000, up from 10 last year.  

The airport completed the record year with its busiest ever December, driven by strong demand across the festive season from passengers taking advantage of the convenience and choice of more than 200 destinations on offer from their local airport.

The airport handled 2.26 million passengers in December, a 1.6% increase on the same month in 2024. That also included thousands of overseas visitors choosing the airport as their gateway to London and the east of England over Christmas and the new year period.

The year saw Dublin and Istanbul as the two most popular destinations with nearly one million passengers flying to and from Stansted to each location, with Edinburgh once again completing the top three.

Turkey joined Spain and Italy as the top countries for passengers, replacing Poland in third place. It is set to get even more popular with the launch of 15 weekly flights to Istanbul by Turkish Airlines in March that will also provide passengers with convenient access to more than 350 onward connections across Asia, Africa, Australia and beyond.

Last month the airport also secured planning permission to increase its annual passenger limit up to 51 million, laying the foundations for the long-term sustainable growth of London Stansted and enables it to maximise the full potential of its existing runway.

During the year, a number of key investment projects made significant progress, including the opening a new domestic arrival building as well as the rollout of a multimillion pound programme to install the latest security equipment, allowing all passengers to leave large electrical items and liquids bags in their hand baggage. 

The airport also broke ground on the development of its on-site solar farm, which is designed to meet the airport’s current and increasing electricity demands and will support its commitment to make operations net zero carbon by no later than 2038. The project is due for completion in coming months.

Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s Managing Director, said: “It was a really successful year for London Stansted in 2025, the busiest year in our history as we welcomed a record-breaking 30 million passengers in a 12-month period for the very first time.

“We have built real momentum behind our vision for Stansted and, given the strong economic performance of our region, our available runway capacity and investment in new facilities, the airport’s future is looking very bright.

“The strong passenger growth during 2025 was driven by many of our airline partners increasing capacity, adding more seats and choice of destinations, particularly Ryanair, Pegasus and Jet2.com and we’re confident we will continue to grow passenger numbers and provide even more choice of airlines and destinations in the year ahead.

“The fact we are the airport of choice for an ever-increasing number of passengers is great testament to the hard work and dedication of our colleagues and airport partners, as we strive to deliver the best possible airport experience each and every day.

“As we look to the future, we were delighted to last month receive the green light to increase our annual passenger limit to 51 million, which paves the way for us to make best use of the existing single runway and grow passenger volumes towards the new limit over the next two decades.”