Manchester Airport, bordering onto the Borough of Stockport, have reported that 620,000 passengers travelled through Manchester Airport over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, as forecast towards the end of 2012 by Andrew Harrison, Chief Operating Officer of Manchester Airport’s parent company, M.A.G. The forecast can be read in full here.
In total the airport handled l.26m passengers throughout December with the total over the main festive period showing an increase of 4.5% or 27,000 on the same period last year (593,000).
The busiest day of the ‘Getaway’ period – which ran from Friday 21st December to Friday 4th January, 2013 – was Friday 21st, when more than 50,000 passengers travelled through the airport (c. 30,000 departing) coinciding with the end of the school term for Christmas.
The most popular destinations included Palma, Tenerife, Florida, Dubai and Alicante, with cheap package holidays tempting travellers to seek out sunshine. Long Haul routes such as New York, Washington, Chicago and Abu Dhabi also feature strongly; whilst City Breaks nearer to home are also popular, with Antwerp, Dublin, Warsaw, Munich, Gothenburg, Dubrovnik and Reykjavik among the favourites.
Scheduled international routes saw the biggest rise, increasing 7.23 per cent to 877,000.
Andrew Harrison, said:
“We’ve experienced good growth in passenger numbers throughout 2012 with airlines adding a variety of new services and increased options on existing routes such as easyJet’s launch to Moscow and further expansion from the likes of Ryanair and Monarch Airlines. Rounding the year off with a busy festive period underlines the strength and range of what is on offer to people who prefer to fly direct from the North of England – and provides an optimistic outlook into 2013.
“We will be looking to build on those numbers even further during 2013 as we launch our ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign to attract even more people back through our doors”.
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