Manchester Airport continues to fly high
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 25th August, 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 CEO, 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.
MAG’s other airports also performed well last month. London Stansted Airport had its busiest ever summer, welcoming 2.7 million passengers to the airport during August, up 10% over the same month in 2016. East Midlands Airport grew by 2.5% to serve 611,000 passengers in July and Bournemouth Airport grew 2.7% to 86,000, with both airports seeing particularly strong performance on Spanish holiday routes.