Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

For the fourth successive month more than two million air travellers passed through the airport.

It means that 21.8 million passengers used the airport over the last 12 months, up 6.1 per cent on the previous year.

A host of new destinations launched over the summer helped drive the growth:-

o Flyglobespan started operations to Edinburgh and Glasgow

o Turkish Airlines began flights to Antalya and Istanbul

o Ryanair also began services to destinations in Spain, Poland and France.

Stansted now offers flights to more than 150 destinations in 34 countries, operated by 46 airlines.

BAA Stansted business development and planning director, Chris Butler, said: "We can also look ahead to a very exciting future.

"Later this month Eos will be launching a premier long-haul business service to New York, while in November Maxjet will start low cost business services to John F Kennedy Airport.

"Ryanair is also launching eight new destinations this month as it continues to expand its route network at Stansted."

Stansted executives also revealed recently, exclusively to Business Weekly, that it was negotiating with Chinese and Indian airlines to bring direct long-haul flights onboard from the East of England to the world’s two fastest-growing emerging economies.