Stansted Airport has scooped the Air Cargo Award of Excellence, having received top marks for its performance, value and facilities.

The Air Cargo World Excellence Awards are based on the results of a survey taken by aviation industry professionals and they were clearly impressed by what they saw at the south-eastern airport.

Stansted is one of the largest air freight hubs in the UK and more than 200,000 tonnes of goods are transported worldwide from here.

Last year, British Airways World Cargo introduced three new Boeing 747-8 freighters to the airport, which are 30 per cent quieter and 12 per cent more carbon-friendly than the 747-400 planes they replaced.

"Stansted has a worldwide reputation as an extremely efficient cargo hub and offers excellent operational capacity, airfield and infrastructure reliability, and easy access to the road network," commented a delighted Mark Souter, Stansted's head of airline relations.

The airport has recently changed hands, with the Manchester Airports Group purchasing the facility for £1.5 billion.