Stansted Airport

Stansted Airport (currently owned by Manchester Airport Group) is the fourth largest airport in the UK, with some 28 million passenger movements per annum for 2019 (pre-pandemic), serving over 180 destinations and with a catchment area of 10 million people within a one-hour car journey time.

The Airport is the fourth busiest ahead of London Luton Airport, but just over 250,000 passenger movements behind Manchester Airport, and is a key catalyst for economic growth and productivity in the East of England. It is one of the largest single-site employers in the region, with over 10,200 people working for 200 on-airport companies.

As well as passengers, Stansted has a dedicated cargo area, handling 23,136 tons of cargo in December 2021, which was 18% up on the previous year compared to Manchester Airport, which handles under 5,000 tons; however, it is dwarfed by East Midlands which is the country’s busiest pure cargo airport, handling 46,000 tons per annum.

Stansted also hosts a number of private aviation operators, with FBO facilities and a range of maintenance hangars to service all types of aircraft.

Future expansion plans at the Airport include increased cargo capacity and also a logistics/business park planned on the north side with the planning application expected to go in mid-2022 for some 50+ acres of employment land.

The Airport is well located, being at Junction 8 of the M11 with Junction 27 of the M25 circa 14 miles south and Cambridge circa 27 miles north and is close to the A120 which runs east to Braintree and Colchester thereafter and west to the A10. This makes the Airport very accessible by road. In addition, it also houses a large bus terminal and railway line, with the Stansted Express providing circa 76 trains per day to London Liverpool Street station as fast as 47 minutes from the terminal to London Liverpool Street.