Britain's Third Biggest Airport

Stansted Airport is the third largest airport in the London area and subsequently

, the third busiest airport in the UK. Last year 19,957,077 passengers boarded flights and Stansted on some 167,817 planes.

Granted, these figures are far below the gigantic Heathrow airport, which saw 66,036,957 passengers in 2007 on 466,393 planes. However Heathrow is often cited as the busiest international airport and regularly handles around 10 million more people than the closest rival, Paris's Charles De Gaulle.

It's also a fair ways under nearby Gatwick, the second busiest airport in the country. The busiest single runway airport in the world, Gatwick had 32,392,520 annual passengers in 2009. Still, Stansted is an incredibly important travel hub for the UK.

Not only is it the third biggest hub for air freight in the country - Heathrow is followed by East Midlands, which sees far less passengers but 72,311 more tonnes of freight - with some 182, 210 metric tonnes flown through Stansted each year, it is also an order of magnitude above the rest of the country's airports. The only airport outside of London that even comes close is Manchester, the only other airport which serves more than 10,000,000 passengers a year.

Like Heathrow, Stansted's origins lie in the beginnings of aviation in the UK and across Europe - the military. It was first opened in 1943 as a base for the RAF and the USAF, known officially as Stansted Mountfitchet but invariably referred to by its shorter name. Following the withdrawal of the USAF and the end of major air operations in the European theatre in 1945, Stansted took a brief break from operating as an airfield and was used for housing German prisoners of war.

Obviously this didn't last forever; from 1949 Stansted was used as a base for several UK charter airlines under the authority of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and was ultimately placed under BAA control in 1966, marking the start of full commercial operations. Throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s the airport's fire training school would be responsible for training all of the Aviation Fire crews at British airfields both at home and overseas.

BAA and the government had a plan for Stansted however. From 1966 they began developing Stansted into London (and the UK's) third airport, relieving Heathrow and Gatwick of the eventual pressure of excess congestion. In 1969, Stansted's first terminal building opened and was expanded before the end of the year. In the late 80's an expansion and renovation scheme began in 1988 and completed in 1991 would cost 100 million and make Stansted (briefly) the most modern airport complex in the world.

Today, Stansted is no longer the most modern airport in the world but it remains one of the most vital transport hubs for the UK. It offers easier road access than either Heathrow or Gatwick; it's one of the few airports in the UK or even Europe to offer long haul flights to the US and Asia; and perhaps most importantly, it still acts as a vital method of relieving the pressure on Gatwick and Heathrow.

by: Peter Daniel

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