Originally Posted by Musket
......for the Olympics. To spend the millions of pounds needed on the airport infrastructure for a one off event does not make any business sense
Indeed. But there are billions (literally) of Olympics money sloshing around looking for a good home. If BAA wanted to spend money on Stansted expansion anyway, it is a one-off opportunity to pretend they are expanding specially for the Olympics, and thereby get some of the funds to help build what they were going to build anyway.
Many Olympics city airports have done exactly this over the years.