Business passengers becoming a rare breed at Stansted
Recently published figures from the CAA show that business passengers are increasingly deserting Stansted – which is working at under half its capacity. The CAA’s 2011 Passenger Survey Report published earlier this month shows that Stansted catered for just 2.8 million business passengers last year, the lowest number for ten years whilst Gatwick handled 5.6 million – an increase of 1.1 million on the previous year – and Heathrow handled 22.0 million business passengers, up 2.2 million on the previous year. Fewer than one in every six passengers at Stansted is now travelling for business purposes, the lowest proportion for any of the UK’s top 6 airports – (the main London 4 plus Manchester and Birmingham). Stansted is now so dominated by Ryanair, which accounts for over 70% of its passengers that though flights go daily to holiday destinations, there are no flights to key business cities in Europe, far less further afield.
29 October 2012 ( STOP STANSTED EXPANSION )
Recently published figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show that business passengers are increasingly deserting StanstedAirport.
The CAA’s 2011 Passenger Survey Report published earlier this month shows that Stansted catered for just 2.8 million business passengers last year, the lowest number for ten years whilst Gatwick handled 5.6 million – an increase of 1.1 million on the previous year – and Heathrow handled 22.0 million business passengers, up 2.2 million on the previous year.
Fewer than one in every six passengers at Stansted is now travelling for business purposes, the lowest proportion for any of the UK’s top six airports. [see notes below]
Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) economics adviser Brian Ross commented. “I suppose we should not be too surprised by these figures since Stansted is now so dominated by Ryanair, which accounts for over 70 per cent of its passengers. You can fly every day from Stansted to Tenerife and Torremolinos but you cannot get a flight to any of the key business cities inEurope, far less further afield.”
SSE hopes that these latest CAA figures – and also the fact that Stansted is operating at less than half its capacity – will serve as a reminder to Boris Johnson, Steve Norris and other ill informed politicians and commentators that the business community is not exactly crying out for a four runway mega-hub airport at Stansted.
Page 99 of http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/81/2011CAAPaxSurveyReport.pdf
NOTE TO EDITORS
· The share of business travel at the UK’s top six airports in 2011 was:
Heathrow 31.3%
Birmingham 20.0%
Manchester 18.3%
Luton 16.6%
Gatwick 16.3%
Stansted 15.7%.
· The CAA 2011 Passenger Survey Report (where our reference is to the Table 2.1 data) can be found at http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=81&pagetype=90&pageid=7640
The report is at http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/81/2011CAAPaxSurveyReport.pdf
· Stansted Airport handled 17.4 million passengers and 132,000 air traffic movements in the 12 months to 30 September 2012. It has planning approval for 35 million passengers and 264,000 air traffic movements per annum.