1.2 million passengers travelled through Manchester Airport in January 2014, which was 4.3% higher than the previous year. The moving annual total for Manchester Airport is now 20.7 million passengers.
The escalation in passenger figures marks the airport’s 20 consecutive month of year on year growth, with performance attributed to people seeking a well-earned break post-Christmas either in the sunshine or hitting the ski slopes.
Ken O’Toole, (left) Chief Commercial Officer for MAG, owners of Manchester Airport, said:
“January is usually a quieter month following the busy Christmas period however the increase in passenger numbers this January highlights that more people have opted to take a post-Christmas break.
“Popular routes during the month included favourites like Dubai, Alicante and Tenerife as people sought out some sun after poor weather in the UK, as well as the return of the Winter Olympics seeing the rise of ski traffic, with Geneva topping the most popular winter destination list. February is anticipated to be a busy month all round as couples jetted off on romantic weekend breaks to celebrate Valentine’s Day the weekend just gone, with Paris and Venice being popular choices, and from this week families take to the skies to get away for the first half term of the year.”
Upcoming in 2014 are a whole host of new routes, including two new long haul routes for 2014 – Charlotte in North Carolina, USA and Toronto, Canada. Ryanair will be launching four new routes to Barcelona, Bologna, Fuerteventura & Gran Canaria from Manchester, bringing their total routes from Manchester to 36 and more flights will be added to five of their existing routes – Dublin, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga and Tenerife. Easyjet will introduce a new route to Catania, Sicily this year, flying twice a week and are increasing flights on their Belfast, Geneva and Reykjavik routes.
Jet2.com is bringing a direct flight to Vienna from Manchester Airport as well as new routes to Bergerac, Jersey and Fuerteventura. Thomson have added Puerto Vallarta in Mexico starting this year to their routes and Thomas Cook have already introduced new routes to the Caribbean plus have just announced Cape Verde as a year-round service with weekly flights. Monarch Airlines will also host new routes to Agadir in Morocco, Hurghada in Egypt, Naples in Italy and Enfidha in Tunisia.
Ken O’Toole added:
“We’re looking forward to a busy summer with many new routes on offer as well as increased frequencies of existing popular routes to meet customer demand. We’re always looking to help our existing airlines grow, as well as welcome new airlines to Manchester Airport which the upcoming new routes on offer demonstrate.”
This year the airport will continue its successful ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign focussing on both the long haul and short haul offering, reminding passengers of the array of services available from the North’s largest airport. The next part of the Fly Manchester campaign will commence this month in the wider catchment area, starting in the Midlands and Staffordshire.
Manchester Airport is the global gateway for the North of the UK and the largest airport outside London with over 200 destinations served by 65 airlines. The airport’s long-haul catchment area places around 24 million people and 60% of all UK businesses within a two-hour drive time – it extends north through the Lake District into Scotland; east across Yorkshire and the North East; south to Birmingham and the Midlands; and west into Merseyside and Wales.
Manchester Airport Group, MAG, serves 42 million passengers and handles almost half a million tonnes of air freight every year through its ownership and operation of the airports of London Stansted, Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports.