Stansted passenger numbers rise as East Midland’s drop
Passenger numbers at Stansted were up almost 5% in February, reaching 1.7 million.
The 4.8% rise, which was attributed to a mix of winter sun and ski destinations, was the highest of all the airports in the Manchester Airports Group (MAG).
Last month, Stansted submitted a planning application to increase its annual capacity from 35 million to 43 million passengers a year.
MAG said that in the five years since it acquired Stansted, it has increased annual passenger numbers by almost 10 million.
Manchester Airport grew 1.3% in February, despite the loss of Monarch flights. In February the airport marked six months since building work started on its 10-year transformation project.
East Midlands Airport saw passenger numbers drop by 6.4% year on year to 218,047, partly due to a significant number of snow-related flight cancellations, said MAG.
Corporate affairs director Tim Hawkins said: "The next decade and beyond is going to be about making best use of the runway capacity that this country already has, and MAG operates the two largest airports in the country with significant spare runway capacity.
"That is why we are responding to continued growth by applying to raise the cap on passengers that we are allowed to serve at London Stansted to allow the airport to play a greater role in offering runway capacity in London over the next 10-15 years.
"At Manchester Airport meanwhile we are pressing ahead with our 10 year, £1 billion investment in our terminal facilities, which will allow us to make better use of the two runways that the airport already has – the only airport in the UK outside of Heathrow to have more than one usable runway."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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