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Stansted today marks the 25th anniversary of the Queen officially opening the £400 million terminal at London’s third major airport on March 15, 1991.
More than 350 million passengers have passed through the Lord Foster designed building on over 3.2 million flights Since the first departure to Glasgow four days later.
The terminal has been expanded twice in the last 25 years, including a £50 million extension to the arrivals area in 2008, and a £80 million transformation along with an £11 million upgrade to the Satellite One departures area following the takeover of the Essex airport by Manchester Airports Group in 2013.
Stansted now serves more than 170 destinations and 23 million passengers a year compared to less than 50 routes and 1.1 million passengers in 1991.
Outgoing managing director, Andrew Harrison, said: “Stansted is now firmly established as a leading European airport, a true international gateway and home to some of the world’s most successful airlines, such as Ryanair and easyJet.
“Building on these excellent foundations, we have recently completed an £80 million investment project to reinvigorate and update the terminal, and following MAG’s acquisition we have added over five million passengers in three years to once again make Stansted one of the UK’s fastest growing airports.
“It’s great to look back and acknowledge past achievements and the progress we have made but with passenger numbers growing rapidly and Stansted already the busiest single terminal airport in the UK, we are now focusing on what developments and investments we need in the future to keep pace with demand, a future that promises to be just as exciting and as fast moving as the past 25 years.”
Ryanair marked the anniversary by releasing 25,000 seats on 15 routes from Stansted for £9.99 including Cologne, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oslo until Thursday.
Chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs said: “As the largest airline at London Stansted, Ryanair is pleased to help mark the 25th birthday of its terminal building.
Ryanair has carried over 212 million customers to and from London Stansted airport and as the home of our largest base, we are continuing to grow traffic, routes and jobs.
“We’ve recently added new routes to Hamburg, Jerez, Sofia, Timisoara and Toulouse, offering 130 routes in total, which will help deliver 20 million customers through London Stansted this year, supporting 15,000 ‘on-site’ jobs.”
EasyJet commercial manager, Neil Slaven, said: “EasyJet has been flying to and from the airport for 17 years and it remains a key part of our London strategy, enabling people from across the region to fly from their local airport to a range of domestic and international destinations throughout Europe.”