London Stansted: traffic growth is resurgent thanks to lower airport charges; Ryanair dominates

In 2013, Stansted and its biggest customer Ryanair signed a 10 year agreement over lower airport charges and increased traffic targets that led to a resumption of growth at the airport. This followed a multi-year traffic slump caused by strong airport charge increases. The effect of the new agreement has been dramatic. After losing more than 6 million annual passengers from 2007 to 2012 (a fall of 26%), the airport had recovered 5 million annual passengers by the end of Nov-2015 (an increase of 29%), bringing the total close to 23 million.

As Ryanair's biggest base, London Stansted airport claims the title of Europe's largest airport for low cost airline seats in the current northern winter schedule (based on data from OAG for the week of 4-Jan-2016), although it slips to third behind the more seasonal Barcelona and Gatwick in the northern summer schedule.

Nevertheless, the dominance of Ryanair makes for an unequal relationship and the airport is keen to attract a legacy airline. As the UK continues to delay a decision over new airport capacity, no wonder Stansted's owner Manchester Airport Group is keen for its planning cap of 35 million passengers to be lifted in order to facilitate more airline competition at the airport.