As new routes to China prove popular, Manchester Airport has joined in 21st century tradition and celebrated China’s Singles Day.
China’s Singles Day, held every year on 11th November, is the world’s biggest online shopping day. Bigger than Black Friday.
Originally claimed as a celebration for China’s young singletons, Alibaba (a Chinese e-commerce company) then turned China’s single’s day into a shopping bonanza in 2009.
In 2015, in under 10 minutes of Singles Day launching, Alibaba had more than £1 billion of orders, and within and hour and a half it hit the £4 billion mark. By the end of Singles’ Day the total sales were £9.4 billion, up from £7.4 billion in 2014.
The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number “1” resembles an individual that is alone.
Passengers through the UK’s third biggest airport are being treated to £20 off when they spend £300 at World Duty Free.
Manchester Airport launched direct flights to Beijing in June this year, and so far more than 40,000 passengers have used the service.
With 25m annual passengers Manchester is the only non-London UK airport to have a direct service to Mainland China. It also operates a direct route to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific.
Manchester Airport is only a handful of Western brands to take part in the activity, with the majority just doing so online, by bringing it to the UK to its Chinese passengers is quite unique.