An extra 2.7m passengers have used Manchester Airport over the last year.
This represents an 11.4% growth for the UK’s third busiest airport.
In March alone, 1.9 million passengers flew through the airport’s three terminals – a 10.1% year-on-year increase, despite Easter not falling until April. This means the airport has now seen three years of consecutive growth.
The airport’s strong performance has been enough to place it as the second fastest growing large airport in Europe in the most recent analysis from Airport Councils Europe. Among airports serving more than 25 million passengers per year, only Moscow Sheremetyevo is growing faster.
Manchester’s growth has been delivered across the board, with an additional 1.1m extra passengers being flown to Spain alone. After Spain, the next biggest short haul growth has been to France (+261,000), Germany (+228,000) and Italy (+198,000).
And the gateway’s pivotal role in connecting the north – and wider UK– to the world’s most important markets was demonstrated by strong growth in long haul traffic.
Manchester more than doubled the number of passengers flown to the United States with new routes added to Los Angeles, Boston and Houston during the year. The 12 month period was rounded-off with the launch of the first ever direct service from anywhere outside of London to San Francisco, with Virgin Atlantic. Thomas Cook Airlines will also start flying the route in May.
In the long haul market, strong growth was also seen to Pakistan (+112,000) and China (+77,000), with the latter being boosted by the launch of a direct route to Beijing, with Hainan Airlines.
Ken O’Toole, Manchester Airport CEO, said: “March rounded off a strong year of growth at Manchester, meaning we are now one of the fastest growing airports not just in the UK, but in Europe as a whole.”
Top 5 growth destinations by passengers numbers from Manchester in last 12 months
1) Alicante +201,000 passengers (+31%)
2) Malaga +149,000 passengers (+26%)
3) Barcelona +145,000 passengers (+48%)
4) Amsterdam +132,000 passengers (+15%)
5) Tenerife +128,000 passengers (+17%)
