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Christmas traffic boosts MAG airports
2015 was Stansted’s busiest year since 2007 as passenger numbers rose 13% over 2014 to reach 22.57 million.
In December, traffic was up more than 9%, making it the second busiest December on record and the 21st month of continuous year-on-year growth for the airport.
Load factors were higher than in any previous December, with an average of 83.2% of all available seats occupied on each flight, surpassing the previous best of 81.5% set in 2014.
The airport, owned by MAG, saw a 50% rise in domestic passengers during 2015, primarily driven by a significant increase in capacity on Scottish routes with Ryanair and EasyJet.
It said its target was to attract more long-haul flights after last year saw the start of new services to Las Vegas, Orlando and Cancun.
Manchester, also owned by MAG, saw a 5% increase in traffic in December, its busiest ever Christmas period. Last year, the airport handled more than 23 million passengers, a 5% rise over 2014.
MAG, which also owns East Midlands and Bournemouth airports, said that together Stansted and Manchester can handle an additional 50 to 60 million passengers.
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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