Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
The catchment area for Stansted is not "very different from Heathrow". It has some additional catchment that is incredibly difficult to get to LHR from but the overlap is enormous and LHR has critical mass and 6 daily A380 that are temporarily capacity capped for the summer. It's telling how much prestige people give to wide body legacy long haul, it's remarkable how well STN has done to get Emirates at first, get them back AND get a B77W they can fill First with, something that LGW doesn't see on some rotations where they have high volume A380 with no F. Worrying that the BoE just put interest rates up today but it seems the bulk of the A380s are coming back and so the displaced B777s will need somewhere to go, so STN and EDI may benefit.
Emirates at Stansted no doubt attracts "The only way is Essex" crowd who love anything Dubai.
I have no doubt a route to Orlando would also be a similar success from Stansted and possibly a seasonal Las Vegas, two options that were previously offered from Stansted by the former Thomas Cook.