Stansted-4
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
Air Algerie
Now on sale at 4x weekly (Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun) using 738s from 30th March
Royal Jordanian
Increasing to 5x weekly from May for most of summer, then gradually increasing to daily by October using their brand new A320neos (I assume the stepped increase is to align with the expected delivery timescale of these new aircraft)
FlyOne
Have put some additional dates on sale over peak summer, but in the main stays at 3x weekly. HiSky have dropped from 6 to 5x weekly for RMO but have changed to generally more sociable afternoon timings.
Pegasus
The ESB service has changed from an overnight rotation using a SAW aircraft to a midday turnaround, meaning there's a gap created between the SAW 20:15 arrival and 07:10 departure 3x a week. Either these times will need to change, or the aircraft will park overnight (unlikely), or perhaps a new service will fill in the gap.
Now on sale at 4x weekly (Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun) using 738s from 30th March
Royal Jordanian
Increasing to 5x weekly from May for most of summer, then gradually increasing to daily by October using their brand new A320neos (I assume the stepped increase is to align with the expected delivery timescale of these new aircraft)
FlyOne
Have put some additional dates on sale over peak summer, but in the main stays at 3x weekly. HiSky have dropped from 6 to 5x weekly for RMO but have changed to generally more sociable afternoon timings.
Pegasus
The ESB service has changed from an overnight rotation using a SAW aircraft to a midday turnaround, meaning there's a gap created between the SAW 20:15 arrival and 07:10 departure 3x a week. Either these times will need to change, or the aircraft will park overnight (unlikely), or perhaps a new service will fill in the gap.
Last edited by FRatSTN; 20th January 2025 at 06:20.
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 780
Likes: 78
From: Outer London
Pegasus
The ESB service has changed from an overnight rotation using a SAW aircraft to a midday turnaround, meaning there's a gap created between the SAW 20:15 arrival and 07:10 departure 3x a week. Either these times will need to change, or the aircraft will park overnight (unlikely), or perhaps a new service will fill in the gap.
The ESB service has changed from an overnight rotation using a SAW aircraft to a midday turnaround, meaning there's a gap created between the SAW 20:15 arrival and 07:10 departure 3x a week. Either these times will need to change, or the aircraft will park overnight (unlikely), or perhaps a new service will fill in the gap.
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
Goods news for rail connections towards the north in that CrossCountry are returning to their pre-Covid hourly service towards Cambridge from the May 2025 rail timetable. These will also include the new Cambridge South station when it opens at the end of this year.
Alongside the Norwich trains, which were only introduced at the end of 2019, this will now give 2 trains an hour towards Cambridge for most of the day.
Alongside the Norwich trains, which were only introduced at the end of 2019, this will now give 2 trains an hour towards Cambridge for most of the day.
Joined: Dec 2007
Aviation Qualifications: SLF
Posts: 42
Likes: 3
From: Norwich
Goods news for rail connections towards the north in that CrossCountry are returning to their pre-Covid hourly service towards Cambridge from the May 2025 rail timetable. These will also include the new Cambridge South station when it opens at the end of this year.
Alongside the Norwich trains, which were only introduced at the end of 2019, this will now give 2 trains an hour towards Cambridge for most of the day.
Alongside the Norwich trains, which were only introduced at the end of 2019, this will now give 2 trains an hour towards Cambridge for most of the day.
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,993
Likes: 175
From: Not so many places currently
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
The main consideration for this is local traffic. There really is no other environmental challenge against this proposal since the airport already has the permission to go to 274k annual aircraft movements anyway.
There needs to be sound case for public transportation and STN is in a pretty good position for this anyway with already close to half of passengers using public transport. The Stansted Express has already seen a big uplift in seat availability with the new 12-carriage trains, so that is already futureproofed for additional passenger numbers, and bus/coach services have a lot of potential to expand further. They inevitably would have to upgrade Bassingbourn roundabout to a full split level junction to allow continuous flow from the A120/M11 and make Thremhall Ave a dual-carriageway, both of which have long been safeguarded to implement when needed.
LGW for instance I think have a harder hill to climb actually with public transport use as part of their expansion plans. The problem there is they're very dependent on the train as road infrastructure to central London is fairly poor since the M23 ends just inside the M25 circle, with very congested urban routes from there and limited ability to change that. So that puts even greater pressure on the trains and there isn't the capacity currently to increase that provision either.
The biggest constraint on additional trains to STN is the single-track tunnel that goes underneath the runway and the current platform availability at the station itself. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the airport were to look at helping in some way to fund boring a tunnel for a second track and station upgrades to increase provision in the future. This, according to Greater Anglia, along with some anticipated line-speed improvements from signalling upgrades en-route would reduce Stansted Express journey times to about 40 minutes, as well as put additional trains through to the airport. This is before you consider multi-billion pound projects like Crossrail 2 or upgrading the West Anglia line to 4-tracking. If that were to ever happen, the Stansted Express full journey could be done in 30 minutes.
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 1,409
Likes: 330
From: Southampton
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,921
Likes: 7
From: STANSTED & MANCHESTER
New Route,
Royal Air Maroc, Casablanca to London Stansted.
Flights Start 24 June 2025.
AT808 CMN - 03:00 - 06:20 STN (Tue,Fri and Sun)
AT809 STN - 07:45 - 10:45 CMN (Tue,Fri and Sun).
*Thanks to Sean M (Facebook Post).
Royal Air Maroc, Casablanca to London Stansted.
Flights Start 24 June 2025.
AT808 CMN - 03:00 - 06:20 STN (Tue,Fri and Sun)
AT809 STN - 07:45 - 10:45 CMN (Tue,Fri and Sun).
*Thanks to Sean M (Facebook Post).
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 1,409
Likes: 330
From: Southampton
So in saying that it's excellent news that Royal Air Maroc 🇲🇦 is to resume flights to STN once again, having previously served Marrakech many years ago.
I must admit I wasn't expecting Royal Air Maroc 🇲🇦 to resume STN and especially not for them to serve all of Londons' three main airports.
STN now has four major international airlines with Air Algérie 🇩🇿, Emirates 🇦🇪 , Royal Air Maroc 🇲🇦 and Royal Jordanian Airways 🇯🇴.
With Qatar Airways 🇶🇦 having such a large presence at LHR and also flying from LGW, it's always surprised me that they too haven't started passenger operations to STN.
With the success of Emirates 🇦🇪 at STN, 🇶🇦 Qatar Airways flying from Londons, three major airports just as Emirates 🇦🇪 do makes logical sense in my opinion. A once daily DOH-STN Qatar Airways 🇶🇦 Boeing 788 or even an Airbus A321XLR would be nice 👍
But I wonder who's next to announce STN 🤔 Hopefully, it will be another international flag carrier 👍
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
Qatar passenger ops I think will be a matter of when rather than if. Emirates had already achieved what they could do with slots maxed out on A380's at LHR and LGW, so STN was the next logical step. From my understanding, I don't have the full marketing insight of course, but the more popular connections from DXB using the Emirates STN route are places like Thailand, Bali, the Maldives and Mauritius, though Hong Kong and India are quite popular ones too. There is a good leisure and premium demand from north-eastern parts of London that has strengthened over the years, and of course the wider East of England region that the Emirates STN route draws in it's own right, rather than simply an overspill to LHR and LGW.
Qatar on the other hand have managed to get their hands on quite a few additional slot pairs at LHR, and given their strategic importance within the One World alliance, not to mention now matching Emirates on frequency at LHR, that understandably has been their priority. My thinking is either an additional LGW or a new STN service will come once they retire their remaining A380 fleet. The 777-9's that will eventually replace them will no doubt have a high First/Business config on LHR but will have fewer economy seats than the A380s or some of the other aircraft they may replace. That I think will drive the decision making on a potential LGW increase/STN service to replace that capacity, especially around the hub banks in DOH. I think a third daily, evening service at LGW will come again before they look at STN, but it again depends on slots and hub connectivity through DOH.
Qatar on the other hand have managed to get their hands on quite a few additional slot pairs at LHR, and given their strategic importance within the One World alliance, not to mention now matching Emirates on frequency at LHR, that understandably has been their priority. My thinking is either an additional LGW or a new STN service will come once they retire their remaining A380 fleet. The 777-9's that will eventually replace them will no doubt have a high First/Business config on LHR but will have fewer economy seats than the A380s or some of the other aircraft they may replace. That I think will drive the decision making on a potential LGW increase/STN service to replace that capacity, especially around the hub banks in DOH. I think a third daily, evening service at LGW will come again before they look at STN, but it again depends on slots and hub connectivity through DOH.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,062
Likes: 19
From: 35,000ft
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,256
Likes: 293
From: London
In fairness, is Ryanair not a major international airline? Europe's biggest carrier? You're mixing up major players with the dated notion of "flag carriers". I agree that Qatar may well be looking at STN but they're tight on airframes at the moment.
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 1,409
Likes: 330
From: Southampton
I ommited BACF for that particular reason and even more so regarding the short amount of flights offered by Lufthansa to Munich during Octoberfest.
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 780
Likes: 78
From: Outer London
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,808
Likes: 125
From: Essex
Lets just agree, whilst it may be baby steps, things are looking a bit better for airline diversity in STN.
In 2019 EZY had around 10% share of STN passenger traffic, whereas now they're 3-4% at most. The previous 6-7% they held has principally been distributed to some Jet2 growth and to "others", with Ryanair maintaining a broadly similar share. So in effect there's a slightly better mix in the traffic that sits alongside the core Ryanair operation.
O'Leary said in his recent press event (where he spent most of it slating Rachel Reeves) that given STN's expansion plans, he could see them growing to around 30mppa (from around 21mppa currently) subject to a low-cost commercial agreement and APD. If we assume that's at the point where the current 43mppa cap is reached, that would still give them no more than a 70% share which is slightly lower than it is now. I imagine MAG will be keen to still allow Ryanair some significant growth as part of their expansion plans, but not to take an even bigger piece of the pie.
In 2019 EZY had around 10% share of STN passenger traffic, whereas now they're 3-4% at most. The previous 6-7% they held has principally been distributed to some Jet2 growth and to "others", with Ryanair maintaining a broadly similar share. So in effect there's a slightly better mix in the traffic that sits alongside the core Ryanair operation.
O'Leary said in his recent press event (where he spent most of it slating Rachel Reeves) that given STN's expansion plans, he could see them growing to around 30mppa (from around 21mppa currently) subject to a low-cost commercial agreement and APD. If we assume that's at the point where the current 43mppa cap is reached, that would still give them no more than a 70% share which is slightly lower than it is now. I imagine MAG will be keen to still allow Ryanair some significant growth as part of their expansion plans, but not to take an even bigger piece of the pie.