London Stanstead becomes fastest growing airport in Britain

Passenger growth at London Stanstead Airport has matched the combined growth of its two bigger rivals, Heathrow and Gatwick, the airport's owner M.A.G. reported Wednesday.

The spectacular growth has enabled Stanstead to become the fastest growing airport in Britain in terms of passenger volumes, according to officials.

M.A.G, Britain's third biggest airport group, also operates Manchester, Bournemouth and East Midlands airports.

The group reported a 17.2 percent rise in profits to 442 million U.S. dollars for the year ending March 31, 2015.

CEO Charlie Cornish said M.A.G has delivered a fifth consecutive year of strong growth, investment and development that has enabled the group to exceed expectations, including the industry's leading increase in passenger numbers.

He said the biggest leap in passenger numbers came at London Stanstead, bought by M.A.G two years ago. There, passenger numbers increased in the past year by 16.1 percent to 20.9 million.

The four airports in the group carried 48.5 million passengers in the year ending March 31, 2015, an increase of 10.7 percent over the 43.8 million people carried the previous year.

Company chairman Sir Adrian Montague said the group's 40,000 employees and 21,000 others in the supply chain, contribute 4 billion British pounds to the British economy each year. Endit