STANSTED Airport celebrated its busiest ever December to round off a record breaking year.

A total of 1.85million passengers passed through Stansted during December, up by 146,000 or 8.5 percent on last year and beating the record previously set in 2006.

In 2016, more than 24.3million people took flights from the airport during the calendar year, making it Stansted's busiest ever.

Andrew Cowan, Stansted Airport CEO, said: “To keep pace with demand, and in a year in which we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Stansted’s iconic terminal building, I’m also pleased we’ve been able to unveil exciting plans for a new £130 million arrivals building to cater for the growing numbers of passengers and further improve the passenger experience at Stansted.”