About Stansted airport and BAA

Stansted Airport currently serves nearly 24 million passengers a year and is the UK’s third largest airport in terms of passenger numbers. Nearly 4 million passengers are travelling on business¹ and the airport is the second busiest point of entry to the UK after Heathrow for non-UK residents arriving by air¹. In 2006/07 the airport served a total of 174 destinations across the UK, Europe and across the world.

The airport contributes over £400 million to the regional economy; is the biggest single site employer in the East of England; and the second most popular airport for UK business passengers flying to international destinations after Heathrow¹. Stansted is also the largest UK airport to hold the coveted ISO14001 certification – an international standard for environmental management and a status we are proud to have held since 2005.

¹CAA passenger survey report 2005 (published October 2006)

During 2006/07 we submitted our planning application to grow the airport on its existing runway, a project we call Generation 1. Following extensive public consultation we announced the proposed location and extended airport boundary for the development of a second runway, a project we call Generation 2. As we go to print we are part way through a Public Inquiry on our Generation 1 application which, if successful, will allow us to increase passenger numbers from the current limit of 25 million to 35 million a year by around 2015. We intend to submit our planning application for the second runway this year.

We are confident we can deliver our expansion plans, based as they will be on demonstrating the economic and social benefits of air travel, while identifying and mitigating the environmental impacts.

Full details of our expansion plans can be found on our dedicated website:

www.stanstedairport.com/future

During the year we invested over £50 million in infrastructure developments which will support our future growth and enhance facilities for passengers.

Projects included a £2.5 million re-configuration of our short stay car parks which now offer fast-track and valet parking facilities; a £2 million extension to our security search area that will allow us to process more passengers an hour and reduce queuing times; and £30 million to re-surface the runway which required the co-ordination of construction work whilst keeping the runway open to aircraft.

In 2006, Stansted had the highest percentage of non-transferring air passengers using public transport than any other airport in the UK at 40.2%. This equates to about 8.6 million people and we are committed to increasing those figures as we move ahead with plans for future growth.

Part of that commitment has been the £2.5 million investment in a new Passenger Terminal Interchange (PTI); a new bus and coach station facility, with its own dedicated passenger facilities similar to those in the airport terminal building.

There are currently over 55 scheduled bus and coach departures from the PTI daily to over 50 destinations across the UK, operated by nine different companies.

Throughout the year we have kept in regular contact with our neighbours, community organisations, business leaders, local authorities, elected representatives and others, to explain about airport operations and our plans for growth. We continue to place a high priority on consulting as many people as possible about what we are doing, listening to what they say, and responding positively wherever we can. When this is not possible, we always explain why.

We hope that you find the content of this corporate responsibility report interesting and informative and we would welcome your feedback.