Best ever numbers for ‘Northern gateway’ airport

MANCHESTER Airport is celebrating after flying more passengers than ever in its 78-year history with 23.5 million people opting to use the North’s international gateway.

Traffic numbers for March 2016 were 11% up year on year, with 1.74 million eople jetting off on holiday and on business. The top five popular international routes last month were Dubai, Dublin, Amsterdam, Tenerife and Alicante.

Aircraft movements in and out of Manchester were also up last month by 883, with 13,736 planes taking off and landing on the airport’s two full length runways.

There are over 22 million people in the airport’s catchment area, which spans as far north as Scotland, as south as the West Midlands, east across Yorkshire and west to Merseyside and North Wales.

The continued increase is testament to the fact people within the catchment area want to fly from the North, avoiding unnecessary connections at more congested airports in the South.

A wealth of new routes, plus increased frequency and capacity on existing routes is feeding the growth at Manchester Airport, it says.

The airport continues to add to its long haul portfolio and in the last year has added a range of new routes, which outside of London can only be found at Manchester. These include Miami, Hong Kong, Beijing (starts June 2016), Los Angeles (starts May 2016),· Boston  (starts May 2016),· Aruba (starts May 2016), Phuket  (starts November 2016),· Tobago (starts November 2016), Mauritius (starts November 2016) and San Francisco (starts summer 2017).

Airport managing director Ken O’Toole said: “The continued strong growth at Manchester Airport is incredibly positive and benefits not only the airport and our passengers, but the entire region.

“As new routes come to fruition and passenger numbers increase, in turn jobs are created and inbound tourism spend is injected into the region.

“Manchester Airport currently generates £1.7bn in value for the North West, supports 21,500 jobs on site and a further 45,000 indirectly and we are confident of driving more growth in the years to come.

“As we move into the summer season, we look forward to a host of new long haul routes starting, which will give our passengers more choice than ever before.
 
“This financial year, we will see services to Beijing, with Hainan Airlines plus Los Angeles and Boston, with Thomas Cook, begin. Plus next financial year San Francisco and Boston, with Virgin Atlantic, will launch.

“Such services are sure to prove popular with leisure travellers, as well as delivering a boost to businesses wanting access to these key markets and, as the year progresses, we look forward to securing yet more vital routes for passengers across the North.”

Growth was seen across all of MAG’s airports in March. At London Stansted Airport, planes were fuller than last year, with numbers up 13.2%, with 1,892,166 passengers flown. This increase has been driven by Ryanair’s growth and higher load factors. It now takes the airports annual rolling total to 23,183,620 passengers.

East Midlands Airport posted a 9.1% increase in passengers last month, which saw 281,480 passengers flown in March. Ski destinations proved popular last month, as well as passengers wanting to jet off to warmer climes with the Canary Islands and Cyprus proving popular.

Bournemouth Airport’s 37,210 passengers in March took its rolling 12 month total to 733,162 which represents 11.4% growth over the previous year and 35.8% growth month on month compared to March 2015.