Lufthansa hails ‘fantastic’ growth
LUFTHANSA has described the near 20% growth last year in its Manchester passenger numbers as ‘fantastic’.
The German airline said the growth to a record number of 644,855 came on the back of a strong rebound in business travel as the economy recovered from the recession.
The 19.3% increase in 2010 was the strongest growth in this country – the UK market was up 12.6%, while the growth at Birmingham, Lufthansa’s other major regional airport was 13.4% ahead.
The airline operates 87 flights a week from Manchester to Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf and most recently Stuttgart. Some 60% of passengers flying to Germany fly onwards with Lufthansa, with Asia, the Middle East and North America strong onward destinations.
Marianne Sammann, general manager of Lufthansa UK & Ireland said: “We are delighted with the fantastic strong growth at Manchester in 2010.
“When you think there was the Ash Cloud, a pilot strike and the bad weather, our growth would have been better still.”
She said the hike in passenger numbers justified Lufthansa’s continued investment in Manchester with the new Stuttgart flight and increased flight numbers to Munich and Hamburg.
“We are confident that we’ll see continued growth this year – the January figures look pretty promising. “
One key area of growth last year was passengers travelling from Manchester to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia – up 53.8% on 2009 – and the result of increased traffic from the Muslim community.
She said business travel in engineering, automotive, chemicals and media had all increased during 2010.
