London Stansted airport just recorded its busiest year ever

Aviation had it pretty rough in the years following the pandemic, but now it looks like things are finally on the up. Yesterday (January 13), Heathrow revealed that it had just had a record-breaking year in 2024. And it’s not the only one.

London Stansted welcomed 29.8m passengers in 2024, beating its previous record of 28.1m in 2019. Numbers were boosted in part thanks to the return of British Airways and thousands of Taylor Swift fans travelling through its terminals to attend the Eras tour in August. 

Gareth Powell, the big boss at Stansted, said: ‘Our success continues to be driven by the endless possibilities to travel affordably and conveniently from London Stansted with the choice of around fantastic 200 destinations, plus the reliable and efficient airport operation we are able to deliver for our passengers.’ 

The good news comes as Stansted prepares to begin its enormous £1.1bn expansion. It includes the development of an on-site solar farm, an enlarged security hall and a £600m transformation of the main terminal. Once the work is complete, the airport says it will be able to welcome a whopping 43 million passengers annually – that’s two million more than rival port Gatwick. 

London’s Stansted airport just opened a very fancy new passenger lounge. 

This London flight route was officially one of the busiest in the world in 2024.