London Stansted recorded a total of 1.82 million passengers this January, the highest monthly total they recorded since the start of the pandemic.
The number is equivalent to 94% of the total in January 2019, the last year of the month before the coronavirus pandemic struck, and up 173% from January 2022.
Gareth Powell, managing director of the airport, said in a press release: “I’m really pleased the team here at London Stansted delivered yet another the strong passenger performance in January, achieving 94% of passenger volumes for the same month [Jan 2019] pre-pandemic, and building on the positive growth we experience last year after travel restrictions we lifted.
“I’m equally delighted we continue to provide a smooth and efficient security operation for our passengers, which we aim to maintain as we welcome many more passengers this week as they head off on half-term breaks, and as we build up to the peak summer months.”
The 12 month period ending in January 2023 recorded a total of 24.4 million passengers at Stansted, rising by 217% over the previous twelve months.
This number was much closer to the pre-pandemic numbers of the airport of around 28 million (2019) before the drastic drop-off caused by the traveling restrictions set in 2020.
Other statistics from January 2023 shared in the press release revealed that 99% of passengers passed through security gates within 15 minutes, 766 new employees and 6,914 departing flights during the month.
The three most popular destinations were Dublin, Istanbul and Rome.
London Stansted is one of multiple international airports in the city, located closer to the Essex village of Stansted Mountfitchet.
It serves as the UK hub for Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline company.
Featured image credit: Oxfordian Kissuth under the license CC BY-SA 3.0
