Two major UK airports to be much easier to travel to

TWO of the UK’s major airports are rolling out new travel rules and it is great news for passengers.

Both London Stansted and London Southend will allow much easier travel to and from the airport.

The new rules will mean holidaymakers can tap in and out, using contactless tickets.

This means passengers travelling from London will no longer have to pay for a physical ticket, and can instead use their bank card or Apple Pay.

The new tap-in and tap-out rules are being introduced from December 14, for the first time.

This will affect millions of passenger travelling to Stansted Airport by train, which saw around nine million use the station last year.

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For Southend, it will affect around 118,000 passengers who travel there by train.

It also means passengers can avoid the strict £100 fines if they tap in at the start of their journey and forget to tap out before.

This is welcome news for thousands of travellers, with as many as 16,000 a year caught out.

Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s Managing Director, said: “The introduction of contactless travel on the Stansted Express is great news for passengers and will make rail travel between Stansted and London even more simple and convenient.

“More seamless rail travel between the airport and London Liverpool Street will significantly improve our passengers’ experience and make choosing the train even more attractive.”

This was backed by Alex Williams, Chief Customer and Strategy Officer at Transport for London (TfL), who said: “We are delighted to be extending pay-as-you-go with contactless to a further 50 stations from 14 December, including Stansted Airport, making it easier for those arriving at the airport to travel to London and experience all the city has to offer.”

It is also a boost ahead of London Stansted’s major expansion plans.

Currently welcoming nearly 30million passengers a year, this could increase to 51million by the 2040s.

While there are no plans for a new runway, the airport is set to welcome more flights launched by airlines.

The rollout of the new contactless travel rules is part of a major £18.7million investment plan.

The upgraded contactless rules is also being rolled out at another 50 train station around the UK, including in cities such as Leeds, Derby and Nottingham.

Both London Heathrow and London Gatwick already allow passengers to use contactless payment to travel to and from the airport.

Along with London City and London Luton, this means that all of the ‘London’ airports will be contactless.

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Another new change coming to UK airports is contactless passport travel.

Border Force successfully trialed new technology at Manchester Airport which replaces passport checks with facial recognition.