Despite a drop in air transport movements at BAA's seven UK airports, Stansted is still bucking the trend.

Over 17m air travellers used the airport in the 12 months ending May 2003; the rise in the number of passengers equates to an 18.5 per cent increase over the previous year.

The airport served over 1.6m passengers during May 2003 alone, an increase of 16.6 per cent against the same month last year.

May 28 was the airport's busiest day ever, with the airport reaching the 17m passenger mark for the year, and 62,212 travellers passing through the terminal.

The total beats the previous best of 59,917 set on August 23, 2002.

Air transport movements during the month rose by 14.1 per cent over last May to 15,411, with the annual total now over 163,000.

Cargo tonnage also rose by 2.9 per cent in May, with 15,801 tonnes handled by the airport.

Stansted's airlines also had a good month, with easyJet seeing passenger growth of 96 per cent.

In May 2002, the Stansted-based airline carried 898,080 passengers, compared with around 1.7m in the same month this year.

Irish airline Ryanair has released its customer service figures for May 2003.

As part of its customer charter the Stansted-based low-budget carrier publishes its statistics every month.

According to its figures, more than 91 per cent of all Ryanair's 14,701 flights during May 2003 arrived on time, compared with 76.27 per cent for the same month last year.

Published Friday, June 13, 2003

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