July passenger numbers up 6% at Manchester

MANCHESTER Airport remains on course for its best-ever year for passenger numbers after a 6% hike in July.

More than 2.4 million people departed from the airport on holiday or on business during the month.

The 6% increase on the same month in 2013 takes the rolling annual total up to 21.36m, putting Manchester, the third busiest airport in the country after Heathrow and Gatwick, on target to achieve its busiest-ever summer since 2007 and surpass its peak of 22 million within the next year.

Ken O’Toole, chief commercial officer at MAG, the parent company of Manchester, Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports, said: “We are on a path of sustained growth in passenger numbers and are encouraged by what’s in the pipeline. New operators and new routes contribute to this, as does increased consumer confidence in the UK’s economic recovery.

“Customer experience remains an area of focus at Manchester and we continue to look at ways of improving the operation at Manchester, for the benefit of all of our users. We know there are still opportunities out there and we expect that as public transport access to the airport improves further with the additional rail and Metrolink options, that more business and leisure travellers will see Manchester as the most natural fit for their travel needs.

“We continue to raise awareness of what’s on offer here across the North of England with successful marketing campaigns such as ‘Fly Manchester’.”

During July, easyJet announced it would introduce a new flight to Madeira from Manchester Airport. The new route to Funchal on Madeira will launch in February 2015. Funchal is easyJet’s 35th destination from Manchester Airport where the airline now employs over 320 staff and bases eight permanent aircraft at the site.

Corsican Places also celebrated the start of its new Manchester holiday service to Figari in Southern Corsica on July 13. The new route, with airline Flybe, adds to the tour operator’s charter programme which also includes a Manchester flight service into Calvi in the north of the island with the same airline.

It wasn’t all good news though as Saudia Arabian airline Flynas axed its Jeddah to Manchester service after just three months.