Stansted Airport continues to be the fastest growing airport in the UK with passengers in the last year increasing by more than 15 per cent.

The airport saw 20.9million people fly in and out in the 12 months up to the end of March, compared to almost 18m in the year before.

Stansted also saw the number of passengers in March go up to 1.67m, a 24 per cent increase on the same month in 2014. It was also the 10th consecutive month the airport had double-digit growth.

Andrew Harrison, Stansted’s managing director, said: “The first three months of 2015 have been an extremely busy and exciting time for Stansted as the airport welcomed nearly one million more passengers during the period than in 2014.

“The total number of passengers using the airport in the last 12 months grew by over 16 per cent to leave us tantalisingly close to the 21million passengers a year milestone.

“In March, passenger numbers were up by more than 24 per cent over the same month last year. This excellent performance has seen Stansted experience double digit growth for 10 consecutive months, a fantastic achievement and testament to the strength of our airline partners who have added more routes, increased frequencies to key destinations and seen more people on each flight. Growth in domestic traffic has been particularly strong with passenger numbers up 40 per cent over last year due to new Scottish flights from Ryanair plus the arrival of Flybe to serve Newcastle and Isle of Man with a Newquay service joining later this year.

“To help keep pace with this rapid growth in passenger numbers – Stansted is the fastest growing major airport in the UK – we continue with our investment programme to enhance and improve airport services and facilities, and we are also recruiting significant numbers of additional key staff to ensure we can get our passengers as quickly, efficiently and safely through the airport as possible.”