16th month of passenger growth for Manchester
MANCHESTER Airport continued its strong summer performance into then autumn as passenger numbers rose 5.2% to top 2.2 million in September.
The rise in September – which out-performed the aveage UK increase of 3.8% – was Manchester’s 16th consecutive month of year-on-year growth.
Airport bosses believe the growth is down to new routes and its ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign to reach out to passengers beyond Greater Manchester and Cheshire, in the West Midlands, Lancashire, Merseyside and Yorkshire.
Recent new routes include a Air Canada rouge introducing a non-stop service between Toronto and Manchester five times a week from June 2014. From Spring 2014 US Airways will begin direct flights between Manchester and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Budget/holiday routes include Monarch launching summer 2014 routes to Naples, Agadir, Hurghada in Egypt and Enfidha in Tunisia.
Jet2.com will serve three new city destinations for summer 2014 including Vienna, which will be the only direct service from the north of the UK to the Austrian capital.
Ken O’Toole, chief commercial officer at MAG, owner of Manchester Airport, said: “We have put our focus on attracting a multitude of new routes as well as increasing services on the ever popular destinations so we’re delighted with the recent new route announcements, particularly Vienna as this is a destination we’ve wanted to serve for a long time.
“Our long haul offering is improving all the time and that is again proof that we know the market exists here in the north for these flights. The additional service by Air Canada rouge will not only take passengers to Toronto, but provide access to Air Canada’s wider network with onward connections to destinations across North American and Canada, which is significant because we already have large numbers travelling back and forth. This shows that we can host more services to major cities.”
