London Stansted Airport to Start Runway Revamp

Originally published on Airways

London Stansted International Airport’s (STN) runway will be fully resurfaced over a five-month period. Work on STN’s runway 04/22, which measures 3,049 meters (10,033 feet), will start on the weekend of January 13.

Engineering firm Lagan will do the work on the 3 km runway, and construction will occur during the nighttime to minimize the impact on the airport operations and the residents around the airport. 

The airport will use over 50,000 tons of asphalt on the five-month project, and new energy-efficient LED lights will replace the 1,300 runway lights. The new asphalt will be laid on the runway area, which is equivalent to 25 football fields. In February 2013, Manchester Airport Group acquired the airport. 

Stansted’s runway was last resurfaced in 2006 when 15 million passengers passed through the airport. The work on the runway will occur five nights a week, from Saturday through Wednesday. The runway will be closed for the first 11 weeks from midnight until 6 am. During the second phase, which will be the next ten weeks, the runway will stay open but at a reduced length. This will allow flights to continue operating safely. 

In 2019, the airport handled 28 million passengers, making it the third busiest airport in London behind London Heathrow (LHR) and London Gatwick (LGW). Additionally, the airport was the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom. Ryanair (FR) and Titan Airways (ZT) currently use Stansted as a hub, while carriers such as TUI Airways (BY) and Jet2.com (LS) use Stansted as a focus city.

Photo: London Stansted Airport Media Centre

Comments by Stansted Officials 

Neli Thompson, the director of Stansted Airport’s planning and development, commented, “Handling up to 50 aircraft movements an hour, the runway is obviously a key asset for the airport so it’s critical it is maintained to the highest standard. A project of this scale is very complex and clearly presents us with a number of operational challenges as during just six working hours each night, we will need to remove and replace around 100m of runway surface before safely re-opening it before the first flight is scheduled to take off in the morning.”

He further added, “The whole project has been meticulously planned, and we aim to complete the work as quickly and safely as possible to limit the disruption on the operation of the airport and minimise any impacts for our local community.”