Stansted celebrated a major landmark when it welcomed its 20 millionth passenger in a year.

The new passengers-per-year landmark for the airport occurred on Thursday, June 10.

The unsuspecting passenger was Jane Summers from Tunbridge Wells, who was checking-in for a Ryanair flight to Pescara in Italy with her boyfriend, Marco Lombado, to visit his parents.

She was surprised by Stansted managing director Terry Morgan, who made the announcement and presented her with a bottle of Champagne.

She also received two return flights, including accommodation, to Palma in Majorca with Air Berlin to congratulate her on being Stansted's 20 millionth traveller in a 12-month period.

Jane said: This was an excellent surprise. We weren't aware anything like this was going to happen, we didn't know anything about Stansted reaching 20m passengers."

Marco said: "We were shocked when we found out, we thought it was just sales people approaching us to try and offer us credit cards."

Commenting on the record-breaking achievement, Terry Morgan said: "I'd like to thank all our loyal passengers for choosing Stansted and taking us to this historic milestone."

Published Thursday June 17, 2004

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