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.
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