Bumper August for region’s two main airports
Both the North West’s major airports in Manchester and Liverpool have enjoyed bumper August passenger figures.
Manchester Airport has seen its busiest ever August with more than 3.1 million passengers using the UK’s third largest gateway last month.
It sees the airport’s annual rolling total reach 27.4m people, a year-on-year increase of 12%. The airport also recorded its busiest ever day on record on Friday, August 25, as more than 112,000 passengers passed through the three terminals.
During the summer school holidays, families from across the North were jetting off on their summer holidays. Mainland Spain and its islands were hugely popular this year with five of the top 10 destinations being Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife and Ibiza. Dubai and Orlando were popular destinations with those looking to go further afield.
The airport also unveiled the first part of its £1bn transformation programme as the summer holiday season came to an end.
Some passengers passing through Terminal Two will now use a new temporary gate lounge that will allow the west half of Terminal Two to be completely demolished and rebuilt whilst the airfield remains in full operation. The new terminal building is expected to be operational by 2019.
Andrew Cowan, Manchester Airport chief executive, said: “The summer is always the busiest time of year for us and this year we’ve seen another strong month of growth. As well as the usual sunshine routes, we’ve also seen growth to the USA, Middle East and Far East.
“August was also a hugely significant month for our £1bn transformation programme. The opening of the new gating lounge is the first major milestone for the project and passengers will now start to see the demolition of the west side of Terminal Two during the coming weeks and months.
“It’s a hugely exciting time for the airport and as we come into autumn we continue to work with our airline partners to plot how we will continue to grow in 2018.”
Cargo also increased last month with 12,027 tonnes carried, an increase of 22%, which sees the annual tonnage rise to 122,702.
Passenger numbers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport during August grew to 517,000 – 3% higher than in the same month in 2016.
It is the highest throughput of passengers since August 2011.
More than 70,000 more passengers have used the Airport so far this year, with the busy August helping to boost total passenger numbers for the year to date to almost 3.4 million.
The growth comes on the back of a number of new routes added throughout 2017. Blue Air has added new scheduled services to Alicante, Milan, Larnaca and Rome, whilst other new routes include Ryanair’s services to Prague, Bari and Girona, Wizz Air’s new route to Lublin and TUI’s new service to Ibiza.
More new routes are to operate from Liverpool later in the year too, with flights due to commence to Venice and Milan Malpensa operated by easyJet and Ryanair respectively. In addition, Superbreak will also launch a dedicated charter service to Iceland, whilst Transun and Santa’s Lapland are offering increased Lapland charters later this year.
Air service development director Paul Winfield said: “We are delighted to see continued growth at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and continue to work with existing and new operators to explore further opportunities from here.
“The passenger experience remains one of our key focus areas as passengers across the North West can enjoy the faster, easier, friendlier environment at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.”
