Manchester is proving more popular than ever before as more than 23.5 million passengers have flown from the UK’s 3rd largest airport in the last financial year (2015/16), a 5.4% increase over 12 months.
In March 2016, 1.74m people jetted off on holiday and on business where the top five popular destinations were to Dubai, Dublin, Amsterdam, Tenerife and Alicante.
13,736 planes took off from and landed at Manchester Airport last month, up by 883.
New routes, plus increased frequency and capacity on existing routes are credited with attracting record breaking passenger numbers. The airport has added a range of new routes to the Far East, the USA, and the Caribbean which, outside of London, can only be found at Manchester including .
Ken O’Toole, Managing Director at Manchester Airport, 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.
Finally 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.