New analysis shows substantial demand for long-haul flights in Stansted Airport catchment area

Stansted Airport's catchment area is responsible for more than half of all UK demand to some of the world's most popular destinations.

According to new data from Skyscanner, over 50% of all searches in the country for flights to locations including Beijing, Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo came from potential Stansted passengers.

The report was presented to the aviation industry by a team from the airport at the World Routes conference in Adelaide, Australia.

Entitled 'Gateway to Growth', it outlines destinations the airport is targeting for long-haul growth in the coming years.

Analysis of passenger data shows that a large number of global cities currently not served by Stansted are already in high demand, particularly from the business community and first-class travellers, including:

• Beijing
• Boston
• Delhi
• Hong Kong
• New York
• Mumbai
• Shanghai
• Singapore
• Tokyo
• Washington

Well over half (56%) of all UK searches for business and first-class flights to these locations originated from within the Stansted catchment area, according to Skyscanner data – 61.2% of all UK searches for business and first-class flight tickets to New York originated from the area, with Mumbai (59.6%) and Tokyo (58.5%) close behind.

The 2018 Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) survey shows that 1.6m people from the catchment currently travel to New York each year from other UK airports, while over 400,000 annual travellers from the area fly to Hong Kong and more than 370,000 fly to Singapore.

Stansted's commercial director, Aboudy Nasser, said: "People from across the region, and businesses in particular, regularly tell us they want London Stansted to offer a network of long-haul routes that will connect them to their key countries, customers and markets.

"London Stansted sits at the heart of one of the UK's fastest-growing and most successful economic regions, reflecting the competitiveness and ambition of the businesses trading here. We need to demonstrate this strength of demand to airlines who are not currently serving London Stansted.

"Over the next decade, runway capacity in the South East will be at a premium and London Stansted will be responsible for delivering up to 50 per cent of London's expected passenger growth and make a greater contribution to improving the UK's connectivity with the rest of the world.

"We have ambitious plans to serve 43 million annual passengers by 2030, and it's imperative we continue to develop our route network by unlocking our spare runway capacity and providing the best service and facilities so airlines and passengers can easily and conveniently access the world from London Stansted."