MAG growth driven by record passenger numbers
Manchester Airport Group is celebrating half-year results which have met and exceeded its growth targets thanks to record passenger numbers.
Revenue climbed 12.7% to £543m in the six months to September 30 and adjusted EBITDA also rose 8.6% to £236.6m.
Adjusted operating profit also rose from £150.3m for the same period in 2016 to £164.8m.
MAG said its success had been driven by record passenger numbers and successful new route development with Manchester and London Stansted in particular handling increasing number of passengers.
Including its other airports at East Midlands and Bournemouth its total passenger numbers in the period were 34.9 million, up 9.1% on last year.
Manchester took the largest portion of that figure with its numbers increasing to 16.6 million from 15.2 million.
This has been helped by the introduction of a number of new routes across the group.
These new long haul routes announced from Manchester to San Francisco, Boston, Muscat and Hong Kong. Long haul flights announced from London Stansted include daily services to New York, Boston and Toronto.
New short haul routes from MAG airports include Frankfurt, Budapest, and Geneva.
Construction work on the £1bn, 10-year Manchester Transformation Programme has also started.
In May, Galliford Try was awarded the apron and airfield contract. Laing O’Rourke was awarded the contract for the terminal extension in July.
A new £0.5bn capital programme has also begun at London Stansted to be completed over the next four years.
The new phased investment will match terminal capacity to runway capacity with the construction of a purpose built arrivals facility; transformation of the existing terminal into a dedicated departure only building; and an upgrade to airside infrastructure.
There is strong headroom in the group’s financing facilities with £207m drawn down on the £500m revolving credit facility at September 30.
The balance on the revolving credit facility was repaid in November with proceeds from Manchester Airport Group Funding PLC’s £300m 22-year bond issue.
