London Stansted Airport Terminal Extension – Public Consultation

An overview of our proposals

We propose to extend the existing terminal, across its full width, towards the airfield. This will be built in the airport’s current footprint and due to the location, there will be no visual impacts to the public whilst the work is ongoing.

Our proposals include:

• Extended departure lounge, providing more space for passengers to relax before their flights, with a wide variety of new shops, bars and restaurants

• Expanded immigration hall with additional e-gates and desks

• Extended baggage hall with additional baggage reclaim belts

• New ‘skylinks’ will connect the satellites to the terminal building, providing passengers with more reliability and flexibility when accessing their gates. There will also be travellators to aid passengers on their journey to the satellites.

• We will also make enhancements to our original check-in hall, improving the layout to create a better experience for passengers by creating a more open space with the latest technology

• The security hall will be expanded to provide additional lanes fitted with next-generation security equipment enabling passengers to leave their liquids and large electricals in their hand luggage.

• The terminal design will follow the design elements of the Norman Foster building.

This will provide a more spacious and relaxing terminal environment and improve the airport experience throughout the entire passenger journey.

The need for the scheme

• London Stansted Airport has been one of the fastest-recovering major UK airports.

• We expect to pass pre-pandemic passenger levels during the coming year, with growth expected to continue.

• The current terminal infrastructure is already at capacity at peak hours. Without investment and expansion, facilities will not be able to meet forecast traffic growth.

• In 2021, we were granted permission to grow to 43 million passengers and the terminal expansion will provide the infrastructure to grow towards this number whilst providing a great experience.

Benefits of the scheme

• The terminal extension will provide the space required to provide a great airport experience for our growing passenger numbers and make significant improvements to each stage of the passenger journey, from check-in through to immigration.

• It will help us provide an even wider choice of destinations and help to attract new airlines.

• It will also unlock the potential for us to deliver a greater economic contribution to the region; with an additional 5,000 jobs and a doubling of our GVA, to £2bn per annum, forecast in the route to 43m passengers.  

• During the construction phase, we will work with our supply chain on targets for local employment and spend within the local region.

Does this scheme replace the previous Arrivals building scheme?

Following the pandemic, we conducted an extensive analysis of our terminal development options and consider the extension to be the best scheme to provide the required capacity, where needed, in a shorter timeframe than the previous options being considered.