London Stansted Airport
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London Stansted Airport |
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| IATA: STN – ICAO: EGSS | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | BAA | ||
| Operator | Stansted Airport Limited | ||
| Serves | London | ||
| Location | Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 348 ft / 106 m | ||
| Coordinates | 51°53′06″N 000°14′06″E / 51.885°N 0.235°ECoordinates: 51°53′06″N 000°14′06″E / 51.885°N 0.235°E | ||
| Website | |||
| 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[1] Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[2] |
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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[1] 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 is the third largest airport serving the London area after Heathrow and Gatwick; and it is one of London's five international airports along with Luton and London City. Stansted is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates six other UK airports,[3] including Heathrow and Gatwick, and is itself owned by an international consortium led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.[4]
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[edit] Overview
Stansted Airport has one main passenger terminal, a private aircraft terminal and a cargo station. There are three passenger satellites in which the departure gates are situated, two connected to the main terminal by an air-bridge and the other by the Stansted Airport Transit System people mover. A fourth satellite is now under construction and hopes to be finished by late 2009. The terminal facilities include several bureaux de change, luggage services, shops, restaurants and bars as well as internet access. Car hire and taxis can also be arranged from within the terminal building.
The terminal building was designed by Foster Associates and features a "floating" roof, supported by a space frame of inverted-pyramid roof trusses, creating the impression of a stylised swan in flight. The base of each truss structure is a "utility pillar", which provides indirect uplighting illumination and is the location for air-conditioning, water, telecommunications, and electrical outlets. The layout of the airport is designed to provide an unobstructed flow for passengers to arrive at the short-stay car park, move through the check-in hall, go through security and on to the departure gates all on the same level.
From 1997 to 2007 Stansted saw rapid expansion of passenger numbers on the back of the boom in low cost air travel, peaking at 24 million passengers in the 12 months to October 2007, but since then passenger numbers have been in decline. Passengers in the 12 months to May 2009 totalled 21 million. Passenger numbers should be expected to climb again as low cost airline Easyjet are adding more new routes from the airport itself to destinations which Stansted had prevouisly served by other airlines, or never served before, or that the destination is where charter flights go (but mainly in the summer season.)
[edit] History
[edit] World War II
During World War II Stansted Mountfitchet Airfield 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 bomber airfield. Its USAAF Station Code was 169. Later, in October, Stansted was selected to be an advanced air depot for the 9th Air Force Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers. Construction was carried out by the United States Army 817th, 825th and 850th Engineering Battalions, which completed the airfield by mid-1943.
[edit] 344th Bombardment Group
Stansted was officially opened on 7 August 1943 when the 30th Air Depot Group took up residence. The airfield was officially transferred to the Ninth Air Force on 16 October.
The 344th Bombardment Group arrived at Stansted on 8 February 1944, from Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia flying the twin-engine B-26 Marauder. Its operational squadrons and fuselage codes were 494th (K9), 495th (Y5), 496th (N3), and 497th (7I).
The 344th BG began operations in March 1944, attacking airfields, missile sites, marshaling yards, submarine shelters, coastal defenses and other targets in German-occupied France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Beginning in May, the 344th helped prepare for the Normandy invasion by striking vital bridges in France.
The 344th Bombardment Group was selected to lead the IX Bomber Command formations on D-Day, with the first aircraft taking off at 04:12 hours to attack coastal batteries in Cherbourg. During the remainder of June it supported the drive that resulted in the seizure of the Cotentin Peninsula.
The unit also defended positions to assist British forces in the area of Caen and received a Distinguished Unit Citation for a three-day action against the enemy in late July when the group struck troop concentrations, supply dumps, a bridge and a railroad viaduct to assist advancing ground forces at St Lo.
On 30 September the 344th moved to their Advanced Landing Ground at Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France). While at Stansted the group flew over 100 missions and lost 26 aircraft in combat.
[edit] 2d Tactical Air Depot
As well as being an operational bomber base, Stansted airfield was a 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.
[edit] 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 POWs. 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.
[edit] 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 Sir Norman Foster.
[edit] Long-haul flights
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[5]. Continental Airlines also operated services in the late 1990s from Newark, but this service was stopped shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Israeli airline El Al ended its scheduled flights between Stansted and Tel Aviv in May 2009, flights now departing from Luton. There are now only charter flights operated by Israir Airlines.
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 using an Airbus A340-300. The airline now has a second A340-300 which on July 1st 2009 the flights were converted from 5 times weekly to daily.
Pakistan International Airlines re-introduced its services from Stansted to Islamabad, Lahore and Dubai from 29 March 2009, but the routes never lasted long, and have since ended after a month of service.
[edit] Proposed expansion
Until 2008 the airport's capacity was limited to a maximum throughput of 25 million passengers per annum (25mppa) in accordance with recommendations made by the public inquiry in 1984 and confirmed by the Government of the day. 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 legal challenge by community campaign group Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) was rejected by the High Court on 13 March 2009. SSE announced that it would consider a further appeal.
On 11 March 2008 BAA submitted a planning application for the construction of a second runway and terminal, in line with a recommendation in the 2003 Air Transport White Paper (ATWP). This will be the subject of another public inquiry. If approved, a second runway would allow Stansted to handle more passengers than Heathrow does today.[6]
The ATWP anticipated that a second runway would be operational by 2011. BAA's 2008 planning application envisaged operation commencing in 2015. In 2009 BAA revised the anticipated opening date to 2017. The public inquiry into BAA's second runway application was scheduled to start on 15 April 2009, but the start has been delayed by Hazel Blears to allow time for BAA and the Government to consider the implications of the March 2009 Competition Commission's ruling that BAA must sell Stansted within two years.
The proposed expansion came into conflict with the listed building rules when it emerged that 18 listed buildings would need to be demolished.[7]
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.
The pressure group Stop Stansted Expansion, formed in 2002 as a working group of the North West Essex and East Herts Preservation Association, has some 7,000 members including over 100 local authorities and other organisations. It actively campaigns against what its members see as the unsustainable expansion of the airport.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aegean Airlines | Athens |
| AirAsia X | Kuala Lumpur |
| Air Arabia Maroc | Casablanca, Tangier |
| Air Berlin | Düsseldorf, Hanover, Münster/Osnabrück, Nuremberg, Paderborn/Lippstadt |
| Air Moldova | Chişinău |
| Atlantic Airways | Aberdeen, Vágar |
| Albanian Airlines | Tirana [begins 17 July] |
| Aurigny Air Services | Guernsey, Jersey |
| Blue Air | Bucharest-Băneasa |
| Cyprus Airways | Larnaca, Paphos |
| Cyprus Turkish Airlines | Adana, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Gaziantep, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir |
| EasyJet | Alicante, Amsterdam, Asturias, Barcelona, Belfast-International, Bilbao, Catania [begins 3 November], Copenhagen, Corfu [begins 4 November], Edinburgh, Faro, Fuerteventura [begins 4 November], Funchal, Geneva, Glasgow-International, Heraklion [begins 2 November], Ibiza, Lanzarote [begins 1 November], Ljubljana, Lyon, Málaga, Malta [begins 1 November], Minorca [begins 1 November], Munich, Naples, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Orly [begins 1 November], Prague, Santorini [begins 2 November], Stockholm-Arlanda [begins 1 November], Tallinn, Tangier [begins 3 November] |
| Germanwings | Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart |
| Norwegian Air Shuttle | Trondheim |
| Pegasus Airlines | Bodrum, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen |
| Ryanair | Aarhus, Alghero, Alicante, Almería, Altenburg, Ancona, Angoulême, Bari, Basel/Mulhouse, Belfast-City, Bergerac, Berlin-Schönefeld, Biarritz, Billund, Bologna, Bratislava, Bremen, Brescia, Brindisi, Brno, Bydgoszcz, Carcassonne, Cork, Derry, Dinard, Dublin, Eindhoven, Faro, Friedrichshafen, Gdańsk, Genoa, Girona, Glasgow-Prestwick, Gothenburg-City, Granada, Graz, Grenoble, Hahn, Haugesund, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Katowice, Kaunas, Kerry, Klagenfurt, Knock, Kraków, La Rochelle, Lamezia Terme, Limoges, Linz, Łódź, Lübeck, Madrid, Málaga, Marseille, Memmingen, Milan-Bergamo, Montpellier, Murcia, Newquay, Oslo-Torp, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Parma, Pau, Perpignan, Perugia, Pescara, Pisa, Poitiers, Porto, Poznań, Pula, Reus, Riga, Rimini, Rodez, Rome-Ciampino, Rzeszów, Salzburg, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Stockholm-Västerås, Szczecin, Tampere, Tenerife-South, Toulon [seasonal], Tours, Trieste, Turin, Valencia, Valladolid, Venice-Treviso, Weeze, Wrocław, Zadar, Zaragoza, Zweibrücken |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk |
| Star1 Airlines | Vilnius |
[edit] Charter
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| BH Air | Burgas [seasonal] |
| BMI | Rhodes [seasonal], Santorini [seasonal] |
| Eurocypria | Heraklion [seasonal], Paphos [seasonal] |
| Israir | Tel Aviv |
| Jet2.com | Geneva [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Lourdes |
| Lauda Air | Vienna [seasonal] |
| Monarch Airlines | Corfu [seasonal], Geneva [seasonal], Minorca [seasonal], Tenerife-South [seasonal] |
| Onur Air | Bodrum [seasonal], Dalaman [seasonal] |
| Thomas Cook Airlines | Antalya, Bodrum [seasonal], Dalaman [seasonal], Faro [seasonal], Fuerteventura, Ibiza [seasonal], Lanzarote, Larnaca [seasonal], Minorca [seasonal], Monastir, Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Reus [seasonal], Tenerife-South, Zakynthos [seasonal] |
| Sun d'Or International Airlines | Eilat [seasonal] |
| Thomson Airways | Antalya [seasonal], Arrecife, Barbados [seasonal], Bodrum [seasonal], Corfu [seasonal], Dalaman [seasonal], Faro [seasonal], Fuerteventura, Grenoble [seasonal], Heraklion [seasonal], Ibiza [seasonal], Kefalonia [seasonal], La Romana [seasonal], Larnaca [seasonal], Málaga, Miami [seasonal], Minorca [seasonal], Palma de Mallorca [seasonal], Paphos, Reus [seasonal], Rhodes [seasonal], Salzburg [seasonal], Sharm el-Sheikh [seasonal], Tenerife-South, Zakynthos [seasonal] |
| Titan Airways | Chambéry [seasonal], Fagernes [seasonal], Lourdes |
[edit] Cargo
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Asiana Cargo | Amsterdam, Seoul-Incheon |
| BAC Express Airlines | Exeter |
| British Airways World Cargo operated by Global Supply Systems | Atlanta, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare, Delhi, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston-Intercontinental, Mumbai, Munich, |
| Coyne Airways operated by Global Supply Systems | Cologne/Bonn, Tbilisi |
| FedEx Express | Birmingham, Dublin, Indianapolis, Memphis, Newark, Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| FedEx Express operated by Air Contractors | Dublin, Glasgow-International, Manchester, Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| FedEx Express operated by West Air Sweden | Amsterdam |
| Jet2.com | Edinburgh, Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Martinair Cargo | Amsterdam, San Juan |
| Royal Jordanian Airlines | Amman, New York-JFK |
| Titan Airways | Belfast-International, Edinburgh, Exeter |
| UPS Airlines | Cologne/Bonn, Newark |
[edit] Incidents and accidents
Stansted has been designated by the UK Government as its preferred airport for any hijacked planes requesting to land in the UK. This is because its design allows a hijacked airliner to be isolated well away from any terminal buildings or runways, allowing the airport to continue to operate while negotiations are carried out, or even while an assault or rescue mission is undertaken. Staff at the airport receive special training for dealing with hijacks.[8] For this reason Stansted has been involved in more hijack incidents than might be expected for an airport of its size.
- On 31 March 1998 a chartered Hawker Siddeley HS 748 (owned by Emerald Airways), carrying the Leeds United football team, suffered an engine explosion on take off resulting in an emergency landing and evacuation. All onboard survived, with only a few suffering minor injuries.[9]
- On 22 December 1999, Korean Air Cargo flight 8509, a Boeing 747, crashed shortly after take off from the airfield due to pilot error. The only people onboard at the time were the aircrew and all four were killed. The aircraft crashed in Hatfield Forest near the village of Great Hallingbury.
- On 6 February 2000 an Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 with 156 people on board was hijacked and flown to Stansted Airport. After a four-day stand-off the hostages on board were safely freed and the incident ended peacefully. It later emerged that the motive behind the hijack was to gain asylum in the UK, sparking debate about immigration into the country. A large number of passengers on board the plane also applied for asylum.[10] In July 2004, it was reported that a number of hijackers had won their bid for asylum in the UK, their convictions for hijacking having been quashed for misdirection of the jury in 2003.[11]
- On 27 February 2002 a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating Ryanair Flight 296 from Dublin to Stansted performed an emergency landing when ground staff observed smoke from one of the engines. Subsequent investigations found that the likely cause of the incident was smoking oil from a broken bearing as there was no sign of fire damage. Although the aircraft was fully evacuated within 90 seconds, the air crew struggled to open the emergency doors, and The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch recommended changes to training procedures for air-crew to allow better handling of similar situations in future.[12]
[edit] Ground transportation
[edit] Trains
Stansted Airport railway station is below the terminal building, with rail services to Cambridge, Leicester and the Midlands every 60 minutes operated by CrossCountry. The Stansted Express train runs to and from Liverpool Street station in London every 15 minutes and the journey time is 45 minutes to one hour. A Monday - Saturday hourly service operates to Harlow and Stratford, London calling at most stations.
[edit] Coaches
Scheduled express bus or coach services run to and from Stratford (45 minutes), Victoria Coach Station (75 minutes), Liverpool Street Station (55 minutes) and Golders Green (70 minutes) (all in London), costing about half the train fare but taking longer. The bus station is next to the terminal building. National Express runs scheduled but infrequent direct coach services to the airport from Oxford as service JL737, taking about three hours, and hourly services to and from Cambridge. EasyBus and Terravision provide journeys between the airport and Central London. Excel operates a coach service to Capel St Mary and Ipswich every 2 hours, 24 hours a day. This service operates as Airdirect. Also a new route has been introuced linking Stansted Airport to Grays via Brentwood , Ongar , and Basildon called route X3 operating 24 hours a day , every 2 hours.
[edit] Roads
Stansted is connected to northeast London and Cambridge by the M11 motorway and to Colchester and Harwich by the A120 dual-carriageway. The long term car park is situated about 1 mile (2 km) from the terminal and passengers need to allow at least twenty minutes to park and use a courtesy bus shuttle service prior to check-in. There are short term car parks next to the terminal building.
[edit] In popular culture
[edit] Television
The show Mile High was partly filmed at Stansted Airport for both series. Even though the airport was named "London Airport", the airport clearly resembles Stansted. The airport helps to set the scene to provide the series' main fictional Base for the fictional airline 'Fresh!'. Clips shown of the airport include outside the terminal building, inside, and the gates; which are islands.
Other productions recently filmed at Stansted Airport include Last Chance Harvey, Flight 93 and London Dreams.
Adverts including a Nintendo DS advert (starring Patrick Stewart and Julie Walters) and a lastminute.com advert were also filmed at Stansted Airport.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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Wikinews has related news: UK's BAA forced to sell three airports |
- ^ a b London Stansted - EGSS
- ^ UK Airport Statistics: 2008 - annual
- ^ UK airports owned and operated by BAA
- ^ BAA: "Who owns us?"
- ^ "American Airlines to quit Stansted: Long haul carrier scraps Chicago service". The Independent. 1 April 1993. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/american-airlines-to-quit-stansted-long-haul-carrier-scraps-chicago-service-1452654.html.
- ^ "£2.5bn Stansted Generation 2 planning bid submitted". Transport Briefing. 12 March 2008. http://www.transportbriefing.co.uk/story.php?id=4781.
- ^ "BAA pays its own staff to lobby in favour of Stansted expansion". The Times. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article2485438.ece.
- ^ Stansted's Hijack History, BBC News, 7 February 2000
- ^ Football: Leeds play on after flight ends in flames by Guy Hodgson from The Independent, 1 April 1998
- ^ "Special report: Hijack at Stansted". BBC News. 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/636375.stm. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
- ^ "Afghans win right to stay in UK". BBC News. 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/3889107.stm. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
- ^ "Boeing 737-8AS, EI-CSA" (PDF). Air Accidents Investigation Branch. http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_029538.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
- Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now. After the Battle ISBN 0900913800
- Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0892010924.
- USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to present
- The Bishop's Stortford Herald newspaper, 26 April 2007.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: London Stansted Airport |
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