Stansted Airport Consultative Committee

Airport Profile

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At a Glance

Early History

The Stansted story starts in the dark days of 1942 when the historic decision was taken by the British war-time government and American military officials to build a United States Army Air Force base on a plateau close to the village of Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex. Soon the 817th US Aviation Engineering Battalion was on site and building the huge air base which today is Stansted Airport.

The whole story is told in a booklet Stansted -The Early Years (1942 -1966) (Alt+2) published by BAA Stansted some years ago. With their kind permission we have reproduced the booklet as part of this site.

The Stansted Brief

This Booklet, published by the Airport in January 2005, includes a wealth of information on the Airport including:

• Fact and Figures
• Growth and Development
• The Future
• Business and Enterprise
• The Environment
• The Community

Click here to see a copy of the Brief
This is in Acrobat .pdf format (374kb) and to see it you will need an Acrobat Reader - this can be obtained free of charge by clicking the "Get Acrobat Reader" icon to the left

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Airport Facts and Figures

CAA Airport Statistics 2009

1. These figures are drawn from the CAA's Annual Airports Statistics 2009.  The Annual statistics are usually issued in the March or April following the end of the calendar year in question.  These figures will, therefore, be updated again in March or April 2011.
2.  A "terminal passenger" is a passenger joining or leaving an aircraft at the airport. A passenger who changes from one aircraft to another, carrying the same flight number (change of gauge) is treated as a terminal passenger, as is an interlining passenger.
3.  A "transit passenger" is a passenger who arrives at and departs from the airport on the same aircraft which is transiting the airport. Each transit passenger is counted once only and not both on arrival and on departure.
4.  Click the thumbnails to see larger charts

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Flights

The total number of flights in 2009 was 167,817, down from 193,282 (13%) in 2007. This number can be broken down as follows:

Air Transport Movements 157,465 (93%) including Air Taxi  (1,480)
Business Aviation  - 4819 (2.9%)
Positioning Flights  - 4375 (2.6%)
Military  - 66
Official  - 186
Aero Club  - 0
Private  - 709
Local Movements  - 0
Test and Training  - 112
Other Flights  - 85

Notes: (1) "Air transport" movements are landings or take-offs of aircraft engaged on the transport of passengers, cargo or mail on commercial terms.
(2) An "air taxi" movement is a movement by an aircraft of less than 15 tonnes MTWA operating on a non-scheduled service. These are predominantly sole-use charter operations.

Chart 1 shows the total number of movements at Stansted year by year since 1988.  It will be seen that by 2000 there had been a 592% increase in flights. After that the rate of increase levelled off for a couple of years before picking up again in 2003. In 2008 and 2009, perhaps because of the economic recesssion, the numbers fell sharply again. The 2009 total shows an 600% increase over the total for 1988.

Chart 2 shows the total number of scheduled and charter air transport movements for 2009.  Scheduled movements made up 91% of the total.  Just under 26% of air transport movements at Stansted are by UK airlines (Chart 3). Most of the rest (69%) are by other EU airlines .

1. Total Aircraft Movements 1988 - 2009		2. Air Transport Movements - Scheduled and Charter 2009
3. Air Transport Movements by Nationality of Airline 2009		4. Carriage of Freight 2009
5. Carriage of Mail 2009		From Charts 4 it will be seen that more freight is carried on charter flights (66%) than scheduled flights. The same is true of mail where 98% is carried on charter flights

The number of flights diverted for weather or other reasons totalled 113 - see Chart 6. This compares with 40 in 2008 and represents just 0.13% of the total number of landings.  Chart 7 shows the airports to which these flights were diverted - Birmingham, Gatwick, East Midlands and Luton were the most popular places followed by Manchester, Bristol, Heathrow, Liverpool and Cardiff.

6. Diversions 2009 - Monthly Totals

7. 2009 Diversions - Destinations

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Passengers

In 2009 the total number of passengers using the airport was 19,957,077, down 2,403,287 (11%) from the previous year

Of this total only 7,388 passengers (0.04%) were transit passengers,  The remainder, 19,949,689 were terminal passengers. Chart 8 shows the total number of passengers using Stansted year by year since 1988.  It will be seen that there has been a sizeable increase with the total for 2009 showing a 1805% increase over the total for 1988. Stansted's share of passenger traffic using UK airports is falling off- 9.1% in 2009 compared with 9.7% five years ago in 2004. 

8. Terminal Passenger Totals 1988-2009		9. Scheduled and Charter Passengers 2009
10. Terminal Passenger Totals 2009 - Destinations		11. Total Passengers by Nationality of Airline 2009

In 2009 the great majority (97%) of passengers flew on scheduled services while the remainder used charter flights (Chart 9).  Charts 10 shows that in 2009 about 9.5% of passengers flew to or from UK destinations while 83.7% of passengers flew to or from EU destinations. The remainder (6.8%) travelled to or from the rest of the world. Nearly 26% of passengers used UK airlines, 69% other EU airlines and the remainder (5%) other foreign carriers (Chart 11). 

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Noise Complaints Data 2009

Here is a list showing the number of noise complaints received in respect of Stansted Airport each month during 2009 - click here

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BAA Facts and Figures

The BAA's website has some useful facts and figures both about BAA as a whole and about Stansted BAA's Stansted Facts and Figuresin particular. In addition some interesting bus and coach statistics emerged from a May 2006 BAA Press Release about the next phase of construction of the Airport's new £2.5m Public Transport Interchange (PTI):

• 39% of passengers currently use public transport to get to and from Stansted airport
• Bus and coach mode share has grown from 6.9% in 2000 to 13.9% in 2005
• Local bus patronage has grown 150% in the last 3 years
• Coach patronage has grown by more than 300% over the past 5 years
  

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CAA's 2006 Passenger Survey

This Survey was conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority at 11 Airports in the UK. Here are some of the findings for Stansted.

Business Passengers: 18%
Leisure Passengers: 82%
UK Passengers: 63%
Foreign Passengers: 37%
Terminating Passengers: 90%
Interlining Passengers: 10%
Average passenger age: 40.6
Average business passenger salary: £59,425
Average leisure passenger household income: £46,929

According to the Survey about 55% of passengers at Stansted travelled alone and another 30% in pairs.  The rest formed part of larger groups (Chart 12) 

12. Passenger Group Size (CAA 2006 Passenger Survey)

13. Passenger Surface Access (CAA 2003 Passenger Survey)

Chart 13, drawn from the CAA's 2006 Passenger Survey, shows that 47% of passengers travelled to or from the Airport by private car.  About a 40% used public transport and the remainder either taxis (8.8%) or hire cars (3.1%).

For more information about Stansted, and the other Airports covered by the survey visit the CAA's website

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Aeronautical Data

Click here to access the web based information services run by the UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS). Here you can find an Aerodrome Chart for Stansted Airport and the latest navigation charts including Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Arrival Routes (STARs). 

Note: Some of the pages are in Acrobat .pdf format and you will require an Acrobat Reader to see them.  (You can obtain a Reader free of charge by clicking the Adobe Icon to the right)

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