Manchester Airport reveals its most popular long haul routes for 2017

Mancunians prefer to jet off to Cancun, Hong Kong and Las Vegas, while Merseysiders head to Boston, Toronto and Vancouver, new research from Manchester Airport reveals.

It also shows that Islamabad, Beijing and Singapore are first on Yorkshire residents’ travel plans, while, overall, the most popular long haul destinations out of the airport were Dubai, Orlando and New York.

The stats came out of research from the airport’s last financial year.

With 22m people in the airport’s catchment area, which spans north to Scotland, south to the Midlands, west to Merseyside and Wales, and east to Yorkshire, it illustrates how the global gateway connects millions of people to a wealth of economic hubs and tourist destinations.

Orlando marks the most popular destination by far across the entire catchment area with more than 500,000 passengers each year, but each county has an interesting set of routes its inhabitants jet off to each year.

As well as offering passengers’ holidays, a lot of the routes are actually key for business and trade opportunities.

For example, Houston is a top destination in Scotland due to the oil and gas links, whereas San Francisco offers a vital connection to the vibrant tech cities of Leeds and Manchester.

Manchester Airport’s long-haul routes are also bringing hundreds of thousands of international tourists to the North and beyond each year, providing a boost to hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions.

Julian Carr, aviation director for Manchester Airport, said: “It is interesting to see the mix of destinations and how they differ from county to county across our vast catchment area.

“It is clear Manchester Airport is providing vital access to people across the North and beyond to key sites of economic opportunity, holidays and the chance to visit loved ones abroad.”

He added: “Whether people want to fly from Liverpool to Las Vegas, Cheshire to Cancun, Newcastle to New York or Llandudno to LA, we will continue to strive to offer and secure all our 27.8m passengers a broad range of destinations.”

As well as adding numerous destinations in recent years, 2018 will be the airport’s busiest ever year and will see the launch of direct flights to Seattle, with Thomas Cook Airlines, again making Manchester the only non-London airport in the UK with this route.

It will also see the biggest ever investment in the airport as the £1bn transformation continues at pace.