Stansted aims to secure direct services to at least 25 new long-haul destinations in the next five years.
The airport is targeting the Far East, India, North America and the Middle East.
Destinations have been identified that analysis shows are already in high demand by passengers across the Essex airport’s catchment area but are not currently served.
These include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Seoul, Columbo, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, Manila, Chicago, Loa Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Montreal, Vancouver, Kuwait and Johannesburg.
Stansted’s aviation team is heading to Guangzhou in China for the annual World Routes Conference this week to showcase its £600 million redevelopment project to airlines and discuss network and growth opportunities.
Chief executive Ken O’Toole said: “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 Stansted.
“For example, we know that over 400,000 people are currently travelling from the Stansted catchment area to Hong Kong each year.
“Another ambition we have is to build a direct connection between the knowledge centres of the technology clusters of Silicon Fen and Silicon Valley – similar to what the flight between the airport and Boston is doing for the two areas of bioscience expertise.
“If we can do this, these passengers will no longer have to make the time-consuming and expensive trips to other airports across the UK.
“In the past year our aviation development team has made fantastic progress that has enabled us to secure six of the top ten most in-demand routes including New York, Dubai, Boston, Washington, Toronto and Tel Aviv. We want to build on this success and add even more direct services to key destinations across China, India, North America and the Middle East.
“Over the next decade, runway capacity in the south-east will be at a premium and Stansted will be responsible for delivering up to 50% of London’s expected passenger growth and make a greater contribution to improving the UK’s connectivity with the rest of the world.
“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 Stansted.”
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