Bumper half-term helps London Stansted to busiest ever October
The busy half-term holidays helped London Stansted post its busiest ever October for passenger traffic.
The airport handled 2.68 million passengers last month.
High demand for holidays and short breaks saw more than 920,000 passengers take off during the half-term week.
The week also saw the airport record its busiest day of the year, and the second busiest day in its history.
More than 106,000 passengers flew via Stansted on 26 October.
The most popular countries were Spain, Italy and Turkey, while Istanbul, Dublin and Edinburgh were the busiest individual destinations.
Operational performance during the month remained solid, with 99% of passengers passing safely through security in 15 minutes or less.
It said there was an average queue time of three minutes and 30 seconds during the main departure peaks.
The security search area now operates with the latest 3D imaging tech, allowing all passengers to leave large electrical items and liquids in their hand baggage.
The number of passengers using London Stansted in the 12-months to the end of October stands at 29.99 million, up 1.9% on the previous year.
Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s Managing Director, said: “The half-term holidays are always a very busy period at the airport, and this year was no exception. Our extensive route network and choice of destinations are significant factors for passengers when choosing the airport they fly from.”
“Our plans to transform the airport continue to make good progress with work underway to widen the barrier line to the security search area, which will provide more gates as well as an even smoother experience.”
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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