Manchester Airport records 23.5 million passengers in last 12 months

Manchester Airport, the UK’s third largest airport, has topped the 23.5 million passenger mark during the last financial year (2015/16).

Record passenger numbers have been announced by Manchester Airport with more people choosing the North’s international Gateway over the last 12 months. In addition, traffic numbers for March 2016 were 11 percent up year on year, with 1.74m people travelling through the airport.

Manchester Airport March passenger traffic up 11 percent year on year

Manchester Airport’s top five international routes during March 2016:

Aircraft movements in and out of Manchester were also up last month by 883, with 13,736 planes taking off and landing on the airport’s two full length runways.

With over 22 million people in its catchment area, the airport continues to add to its long haul portfolio and in the last year has added a range of new routes. These include:

• Miami
• Hong Kong
• Beijing – starts June 2016
• Los Angeles – starts May 2016
• Boston – starts May 2016
• Aruba – starts May 2016
• Phuket – starts November 2016
• Tobago – starts November 2016
• Mauritius – starts November 2016
• San Francisco – starts summer 2017

Commenting on the recent figures, 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.”

Elsewhere across operator MAG’s airports in March, growth was seen at Stansted Airport where planes were fuller than last year. Numbers at the airport were up 13.2 percent equating to 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 percent 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 percent growth over the previous year and 35.8 percent growth month on month compared to March 2015.