Chief executive Ken O’Toole said “significant investment” was needed to drive the incremental improvement that would deliver more passengers.

O’Toole said better connectivity would make new journeys viable, attract more airlines and allow Stansted to offer a wide range of destinations.

Speaking at the Stansted Area Transport Forum, O’Toole urged residents, travellers and stakeholders to make their voices heard during the government’s ongoing aviation strategy consultation.

“While there is much to cheer in terms of surface access into Stansted, a perennial area of focus for us since we [Manchester Airports Group] acquired the airport in 2013 has been decreasing journey times between London and the airport – a move which will have significant benefits for passengers, our workforce and commuters,” said O’Toole.

Citing the Airport Operators Association, O’Toole said just a 5% improvement in average journey times to and from UK airport was enough to deliver a 2.7% increase in passenger numbers.

This in turn, he said, would generate an additional £2 billion for the UK economy and support more than 30,000 new jobs.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is it only has to be incremental improvements to airport access that can make a significant difference,” said O’Toole.

“Our view that journey times need to come down has been endorsed by both the Airports Commission and West Anglia Task Force but unfortunately, these requests have fallen on deaf ears within central government and Network Rail, despite the number of passengers and commuters using Stansted Express growing 143% since 2013.

“Of course, journey time improvements require infrastructure investment. While we are prepared to proportionately contribute to the costs involved in seeing journey times lowered, any significant improvement will require considerable investment.”