LONDON Stansted welcomed a record breaking 2.74 million passengers to the airport in May as the airport marked a significant milestone in its £1.2bn transformation project with the opening of its new domestic arrivals building.
The monthly total was boosted by thousands of Tottenham Hotspur supporters heading to Bilbao, and numerous other airports across Spain, on scheduled services, additional charter flights and private jets to see their team win the Europa League. The successful Spurs team also flew back into the airport with the trophy and were greeted with a celebratory water-arch on arrival.
The passenger total was an increase of 0.8% on last May, beating the previous record high for the month in 2024 by more than 21,000.
The airport’s extensive route network and choice of more than 200 destinations across Europe and beyond saw the number of passengers using London Stansted in the last 12 months grow to 29.97 million, an increase of 4.0% on the previous year.
Operational performance during the month remained strong, with 99% of passengers passing safely through security in 15 minutes or less, with an average queue time of less than two minutes, 30 seconds during the busiest departure peaks.
The most popular countries visited during May were Spain, Italy and Turkey with the top individual destinations once again Dublin, Istanbul and Edinburgh.
London Stansted this week submitted a planning application to Uttlesford District Council to increase its passenger limit from 43 million a year to 51 million a year without an increase to permitted flight limits to accommodate forecast growth over the next two decades.
Nick Millar, London Stansted’s Operations Director, said:
“London Stansted’s extensive route network and choice of great value destinations continues to see us welcome record numbers of passengers to the airport.
“The month also saw thousands of Spurs fans use the airport as their gateway to Spain and France, plus a number of other countries, as they headed to Bilbao to watch the team triumph in the Europa League final.
“In addition to all our teams working hard to deliver a smooth and stable airport operation for our passengers across what is an extremely busy period, we have also been making excellent progress with our £1.2bn transformation programme.
“In the last few weeks, we have opened our brand-new domestic reclaim building, a significant milestone for the transformation project, and we are underway with the first phase of work to upgrade and modernise Satellite Two, including new flooring, lighting and gate areas plus a refurbished domestic departures lounge.
“Also, as we continue to expand our route network and airlines introduce larger aircraft to carry more customers to more destinations, we anticipate growing up to 51 million passengers a year by the 2040s.
“To accommodate this growth, we have now submitted a planning application to increase the number of passengers we can serve over the next two decades without any increase to the number of flights we are already permitted to operate.”
