If this all goes to plan it will actually be a resumption of service by TACV at London Stansted. TACV operated a short lived scheduled service from Praia to London Stansted in 2007, operated on a weekly basis with a B757.

TACV only have two aircraft in their fleet and their route network is rather stretched. But it'll be nice for London Stansted to regain a link to Cape Verde.

It actually operated on a leased Travelservice 737-800. The pax load when I flew outbound on a famm trip with the old TACV was 10 - of which 7 of us were on the fam trip. A grand total of 3 paying passengers.

Although to be fair the Cape Verde islands have become more of a popular tourist destination since 2007, which is 17 years ago.

Fair comment - although none currently go to Praia. Having been to both Praia and Sal I can see why! Sal is by far the more tourism oriented island. Praia is very much the "working" island of the archipelago.

There's an enormous sign in security that says "If in doubt, take it out", as we all know, so that large electronic equipment can be clearly seen on the scanners .
There was also an increasingly angry old guy yelling at everyone at the new security machines to stop taking large electronics out as they were slowing down the new process. The AI also couldn't figure out my laptop was a laptop cos it ended up beneath two books in my enforced rush to chuck everything in one tray as demanded by shouty man.

Of course I got a secondary. The right hand really needs to meet the left hand.....

Royal Jordanian
 

Royal Jordanian have now completed 3 flights into Stansted and so far passenger numbers are good. You'll see them below. The A319 that has been used so far holds 120 passengers, so some figures a only just over half full. Hopefully figures stay consistent going forward. Great to see another airline at Stansted and starting well. Hopefully the aviation team can get some for airlines on the ground this year. Unfortunately we will see Sky Alps to Gatwick (Seems they must be letting all airlines land and park for free) and Widroe appears to be stopping all flying to London from the 8th April which is a shame.

03rd March
Arrival 93 Departure 99
05th March
Arrival 107 Departure 63
07th March
Arrival 90 Departure 71

It's a shame to lose Widroe at London Stansted but with Norwegian recently being given approval to buy the airline I guess that it was rather inevitable.

As one airline leaves London Stansted another arrives as in the case of Royal Jordanian and Widroe. Its a shame but that's why the amount of airlines serving the airport always remain around the same figure.

On another note...Are Lufthansa returning to the airport at some point. There was a post a while back regarding seasonal service from Munich in addition to the Octoberfest flight's.

Has Stansted missed out on Turkmenistan Airlines this summer season, see they are starting at LGW?

Are you getting confused with Uzbekistan Airlines?

Uzbekistan Airlines has recently announced a weekly flight from Tashkent to London Gatwick for the summer. This is in addition to its existing two weekly flights from Tashkent to London Heathrow. The London Gatwick flight will be using the same flight numbers as the additional weekly flight that operated into London Heathrow last summer.

As far as I'm aware, Turkmenistan Airlines are remaining at London Heathrow and have fairly recently announced a second weekly flight from Ashgabat.

I've personally seen no mention of Turkmenistan Airlines relocating from London Heathrow to London Gatwick.

If Turkmenistan Airlines has to eventually leave London Heathrow at some point, then hopefully, the airline will make a return to London Stansted.

Turkmen move from LHR to LGW on 3 April

Thanks for the clarification as I've not personally read or seen anything regarding Turkmenistan Airlines moving from London Heathrow to London Gatwick.

Before I made this post I obviously had to do a quick search online and you are indeed correct.
Aeroroutes.com have listed it since I last checked the site and it is even posted on the London Gatwick Wikipedia page.

Turkmenistan Airlines are commencing flights between Ashgabat and London Gatwick on the 03 April 2024. It's a shame though that the airline didn't make a return to London Stansted.

Diversifying airlines at STN
 

Is there, or will there ever be a solution to STN's long term problem of losing airlines to other airports? I remember this being a key issue during when BAA owned the airport, particularly during 2007-2012, where STN had been losing multiple airlines and services to LTN, LGW and even LHR (e.g. Aegean). I do appreciate the challenging economic recession at the time, which obviously had a major affect on air travel in the UK as a whole for a few years, in addition to the fact that BAA were almost boycotting investment into STN in favour of focusing on LHR. When it finally came to BAA's decision to sell STN, I remember the media and commentators maintaining that a change of ownership at STN would be beneficial for the airport in terms of airline and route diversification, and the new owners at the time (MAG) had made it a key priority to expand beyond FR's long running dominance at the airport. Fast forward to 2024, I think it is fair to say and observe that MAG have been nowhere near as successful in attracting a more diverse airline offering to STN in the same way that GIP have been successful at LGW. Granted, some progress has been made (e.g. Jet2's base; Emirates to Dubai; Royal Jordanian), but again, cannot compare to the success that LGW has enjoyed. I do accept and appreciate that the two airports serve different catchment areas, however, MAG had spent (and continue to spend) a lot to purchase and then revamp STN, and yet still the issue of airlines leaving persists. It is a shame, because I really had high hopes for STN when BAA left and the new owners arrived, but in some ways, I feel that the airport was a more pleasant place to fly from when BAA owned it; prior to the revamp, the departure lounge felt more spacious with more seating and natural lighting; the check in hall felt more spacious and would be better suited to deal with the increased volumes of passengers passing through the airport today than the current layout does).

Answer - Ryanair.

Don’t forget that the shoreline check-in has allegedly been given the go ahead. This should improve the land-side experience. The problem with the terminal is that MAG don’t seem to be that good at creating a quality experience when it comes to their airports. Gatwick has been greatly improved in the last few years. The last revamp of the STN terminal by MAG definitely made the experience worse. But they should also be commended on their gains such as Emirates and Jet2 which are success stories for the airport. Though I’d have liked to have seen a US carrier or two by now.

numpty

He's right. When your anchor carrier, responsible for by far and away the majority of your footfall, pays "relatively little" in terms of airport fees, then MAG can't just splash the cash with no ROI. But STN remains overwhelmingly Ryanair and the business will have to spend accordingly. I was through last weekend and it was absolutley fine, amazing what a cross subsidy from a group can do when you need a new terminal. But BAA was a state enterprise when the Norman Foster STN was being planned, MAG isn't quite the same.
Or maybe I am wrong and MAN revenue will be spent at a group level at STN?

I completely agree with you. I think MAG made a big mistake when they decided to demolish islands J&K and relocate security there, the previous area was working fine and could have been extended without it being moved entirely. Had they done that, this would have freed up additional space in the check in area, which is what today's layout now lacks, and the whole thing just feels much more cramped now with the landslide-airside boundary having been shifted. However, I am optimistic that the new shoreline layout should hopefully improve things. I also agree with you regarding the terminal today. Although BAA had more-or-less given up on the airport towards the end of their ownership of STN, the departure lounge layout back then was a lot better and from a passenger standpoint felt more spacious. If I remember correctly, once passengers cleared security, they more-or-less went straight into the departure lounge rather than today's longer walk through Duty Free? MAG definitely have made the experience a lot worse, and it will be interesting to see what they're planning on doing next once the terminal extension designs have been finalised. Like GIP had with LGW, MAG had a good chance to turn STN around and improve it, and they have failed to do so, especially with the last £80 million transformation project. They have, admittedly done well in attracting Jet2 and Emirates to the airport, but so many others have been and gone since MAG took over in 2013 (e.g. SAS, Air India, Logan Air), so the issue RE. diversifying and retaining airlines beyond FR and EZY etc is still very much an issue, which MAG seem to have not been able to overcome. Like you, I am also disappointed that STN has still not been able to attract and retain any of the US carriers (e.g. JetBlue), despite all of the investments into "improvements". The other thing is MAG have more-or-less ignored passenger areas (boarding gates). While they were quick to remodel the terminal, they have put very little investment into refurbishing the satellites, with the exception of satellite 1. SAT 2 for example is now well past needing an upgrade, having not been refurbished for many years.

TUI Summer 2025
 

Some adjustments made for Summer 2025 TUI programme. Still 2 based aircraft but changes as follows:

Dalaman - Monday AM rotation dropped, new Tuesday PM added replacing Rhodes rotation. Freebird/TBA carrier for Tuesday evening removed.
Rhodes - Back to 2 weekly flights after increasing to 3 for Summer 24. Tuesday PM rotation replaced by Dalaman.
Corfu - Time change for Monday PM service now departs 14:40.

That leaves Monday AM slot before re-timed Corfu rotation for a probable new destination. My guess would be Tunisia.

Either that or Naples being a Monday. Tunisia would be a good unserved addition for Stansted.

Back in 2019 Tui announced both Tunisia & Skiathos as new summer destinations for 2020. Unfortunately covid put a stop to that one. Would be good to see some real expansion from Tui at Stansted and a third aircraft based in the summer months. Unfortunately it does feel like Tui’s eggs are in one basket south of the Thames.

I've never really paid attention to any routes that weren't the one I was interested in; Stansted to Glasgow, which seems to be slowly dying. In fact renewing my easyJet plus seems risky as it's unclear how many flights there might be for me to use it on!

Is this part of any wider trend? Is it a Glasgow domestic thing? A Stansted domestic thing? A domestic thing? An easyJet thing? Or just a Stansted to Glasgow by easyJet thing? :)