STANSTED Airport operator BAA Stansted has announced a £26.9m operating profit for the last six months an increase of 45 per cent on last year.

Turnover from April to the end of September was £76.6m, with growth in the retail and property sectors and increased income from aircraft charges. Firm cost control helped suport the turnover growth and productivity increased by 11 per cent.

Passengers served during the period was up by nearly 18 per cent to eight million with domestic travellers up by 59 per cent. International traffic was up 13 per cent and non-European Union traffic up 37 per cent.

The total number of takeoffs and landings was 84,800 an increase of 9.2 per cent.

The sucess of new generation airlines Ryanair, Go and Buzz, which are all based at Stansted, have all contributed to the strength of both the summer and winter flight programme.

Stansted finance director Andy Mears said: "While the last six months have been successful for Stansted they are obviously overshadowed by September's terrorist attacks in the USA.

"At Stansted our new generarion airlines have maintained confidence and demand and have continued top report growth post September 11, albeit at a slower rate.

"However, as with Heathrow and Gatwick, fellow airports in the BAA group, we must continue to closely review and manage expenditure plans."