Airport passengers hit 20 million

Stansted Airport celebrated another landmark in its rapid development yesterday after handling 20 million passengers in a year for the first time.

The Essex site the fourth-biggest airport in Britain reached the milestone after numbers rose by almost 7% on a year earlier in May.

The boom in low-cost air travel has helped Stansted to the annual 20 million mark, which was reached with a flight early yesterday. In contrast, Stansted handled 7.4 million passengers during the 1998/99 financial year.