London Airports Want to Make Room for More Passengers

London Stansted airport is seeking to significantly increase the number of passengers it's able to serve annually.

The airport submitted a planning application to local officials requesting it be allowed to raise passenger limits from 35 million per year to 43 million, according to a statement issued by Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which owns the airport.

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The move comes at the same time that Heathrow is pursuing the addition of a third runway at its facility, according to Bloomberg.

The busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow has been operating at capacity for a decade. Its passenger growth meanwhile, increased by 3.1 percent last year to 78 million, the fastest growth in five years. Much of the increase came from airlines using larger planes, Bloomberg reported.

Stansted, which is the biggest hub for Ryanair, says its request to increase the number of passengers served would provide significant economic benefit to the region and the country as a whole, including creating 5,000 new on-site jobs, improving passenger choice and convenience and boosting international long-haul routes to fast-growing markets like China, India and the US.

“The application will also ease pressure on the London airport system by unlocking additional capacity at a time when other airports are full,” the statement from Manchester Airports Group said.

Stansted is anticipating reaching its current cap of 35 million passengers annually by the early 2020s. MAG says that in order to build on this momentum and provide long-term clarity to airlines wanting to use its facilities, now is the time to prepare for growth beyond the current limit.

READ MORE: Emirates Puts Stansted on the Long-Haul Map

At the same time, the airport's owner is also making significant investments in the facilities at Stansted. Efforts include a new arrivals building and converting the existing terminal into a dedicated departing passenger-only facility.

“Today, London Stansted Airport is virtually unrecognizable from the one which MAG acquired almost five years ago to the day. During this time, we have spent £150m on upgrading the terminal, added nearly 10 million passengers, more than doubled the number of airlines and developed a short-haul route network which is the best in Europe,” Ken O’Toole, CEO of London Stansted Airport, said in a statement.

As for Heathrow, the facility’s chief executive officer, John Holland-Kaye, told Bloomberg that a third landing strip is desperately needed in order to increase the airport’s capacity to 135 million customers. Without the proposed expansion, the hub will be overtaken by Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.