Stansted gets new hotel

London's Stansted Airport - which has several connections to Irish airports - is to get a new 500-room hotel.

UK Airport operator BAA has been given planning permission for a Radisson SAS hotel at Stansted airport in Essex.

Last week the Government outlined proposals that could lead to as many as three new runways being built at Stansted.

Construction of the hotel is expected to start this autumn and it should be completed early in 2004. The hotel is being built on a five-acre site next to the terminal building.

Stansted is now the fourth largest airport in the UK in terms of passenger figures. It handled 14.17 million passengers in the 12 months to the end of April 2002.