Project: Sweden - Gothenburg

No. 4 - 5 Going to Gothenburg City.

 

London Stansted Airport

 

Summary

Airport type..........Public

Owner..................BAA

Operator..............Stansted Airport Limited

Serves..................London

Location.........Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex

Hub for......... ........* EasyJet

.......................................* Ryanair

.......................................* Thomas Cook Airlines

.......................................* Thomson Airways

 

Elevation AMSL 348 ft / 106 m

 

Coordinates..................51°53′06″N 000°14′06″E

 

Website www.stanstedairport.com

 

Runways

Direction Length Surface

m ft

04/22 3,048 10,000 Grooved asphalt

 

 

...............................Statistics (2008)

Aircraft Movements............193,282

Passengers.........................22,360,364

 

Sources: UK AIP at NATS

Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority

 

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London Stansted Airport (IATA: STN, ICAO: EGSS

- is a passenger airport located at Stansted Mountfitchet in the District of Uttlesford in Essex, 48 km (30 mi) north-east of central London. It is 2.5 NM (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) north northeast of Bishop's Stortford and about 6 mi (9.7 km) outside Harlow.

 

Stansted is a hub for a number of major European low-cost carriers. It is the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third-largest airport serving the London area after Heathrow and Gatwick; it is one of London's five international airports, along with Luton and London City. Stansted is owned and operated by BAA, in its portfolio of five other UK airports,including Heathrow, and is itself owned by an international consortium led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.

 

 

History

Second World War

Main article: RAF Stansted Mountfitchet

 

 

The airfield opened in 1943 and was used during the second world war RAF Stansted Mountfitchet was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force as a bomber airfield and as a major maintenance depot. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was known as simply Stansted in both written and spoken form.

 

The station was first allocated to the USAAF Eighth Air Force in August 1942 as a heavy bomber airfield. As well as an operational bomber base, Stansted was also a ATSC maintenance and supply depot concerned with major overhauls and modification of B-26s. After D-Day these activities were transferred to France, but the base was still used as a supply storage area for the support of aircraft on the continent.

 

Postwar use

 

After the withdrawal of the Americans on 12 August 1945, Stansted was taken over by the Air Ministry and used by No. 263 Maintenance Unit, RAF for storage purposes. In addition, between March 1946 and August 1947, Stansted was used for housing German prisoners of war. The Ministry of Civil Aviation finally took control of Stansted in 1949, but the US military returned in 1954 to extend the runway for a possible transfer to NATO. The transfer to NATO was never realised, however, and the airport returned to civil use in 1957, ending up under BAA control in 1966.

 

During the 60s, 70s and early 80s the Fire Service Training School (FSTS) was based on the Eastern side of the Airfield under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, now the Civil Aviation Authority. The School was responsible for the training of all Aviation Fire Crews for UK Airfields as well as for many overseas countries.

 

Commercial operations

 

Beginning in 1966, after Stansted was placed under BAA control, the airport was used by holiday charter operators wishing to escape the higher costs associated with operating from Heathrow and Gatwick. From the outset, however, BAA and the British government planned to develop Stansted into London's third airport, to relieve Heathrow and Gatwick of excess congestion in the future. The airport's first terminal building opened in 1969 and was expanded the next year to handle the growing number of passengers.

 

In 1984, the government approved a plan to develop Stansted in two phases, involving both airfield and terminal improvements that would increase the airport's capacity to 15 million passengers per year. Construction of the current terminal building began in 1988 and was completed in March 1991, and was designed by the internationally acclaimed Lord Foster. At the time it was the most modern airport complex in the world and cost £100 million.

 

Long-haul scheduled services commenced in the early 1990s when American Airlines operated a transatlantic service between Stansted and Chicago, however the route was unprofitable and was withdrawn in 1993. Continental Airlines also operated services in the late 1990s from Newark, but this service was stopped shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

 

Long-haul services to the USA returned in late 2005, when Eos Airlines and MAXjet Airways commenced all-business-class services from Stansted to New York-JFK Airport. In 2006, MAXjet expanded their service with flights to Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Los Angeles. American Airlines began daily flights to Stansted in October 2007 from New York-JFK and was originally expected to operate a second daily flight from April 2008. However, all three services to the USA have since been discontinued following the demise of MAXjet Airways in December 2007 and Eos Airlines in April 2008. Finally, in July 2008 American Airlines withdrew from the airport, spelling the end of Stansted transatlantic passenger operations.

 

Stansted also had scheduled and charter flights to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but these flights to Canada have now ceased.

 

Long-haul services to Asia commenced in March 2009 with Malaysian low-cost airline Air Asia X providing direct flights to Kuala Lumpur.

 

Since 1984 the airport's capacity had been limited to a maximum throughput of 25 million passengers per annum (25 mppa) in accordance with recommendations made by the 1984 public inquiry and confirmed by the Government of the day.

 

A major expansion programme to the existing terminal took place between 2007 and 2009, adding nearly 5,900 square metres of floorspace to give space for additional baggage carousels, a new immigration and passport control hall and a hypostyle arrivals hall with improved facilities.

 

In November 2006 Uttlesford district council rejected a BAA planning application to increase the permitted number of aircraft movements and to remove the limit on passenger numbers. BAA immediately appealed against the decision and a public inquiry was launched that lasted from May to October 2007. Planning Inspector Alan Boyland made his recommendations in January 2008. Those recommendations were largely followed by the Secretary of State for Transport (Geoff Hoon) and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Hazel Blears), who jointly allowed the applicant's Appeal in October 2008. A series of legal challenges by community campaign group Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) were rejected by the High Court during 2009.

 

In 2008 57 people were arrested after Plane Stupid, the environmental activist group, broke through the barriers and created a 'stockade' on within the airport grouds which resulted in 52 flights being cancelled.

Wikipedia

 

 

To see Large:

farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/4082910054_73f97de3ba_b.jpg

 

Taken on

September 5, 2007 at 05.48am BST

Done