Seven new routes already announced for Manchester Airport in 2026

Seven new services due to launch in 2026 will further widen the network of destinations served by Manchester Airport as it promises a groundbreaking year.

2026 will see the hub’s decade-long, £1.3 billion Terminal 2 transformation completed in a matter of weeks, and a project to redesign and improve Terminal 3 also rapidly progressing. The airport also reported record passenger numbers in every month of 2025 and expects its growth to continue into 2026, with more flights, more destinations and more choice than ever before for passengers.

The UK’s global gateway in the North already offers a route network unparalleled outside London, with more than 200 destinations served by 50 airlines – but that network is set to widen again this year, with seven new services already confirmed from the likes of easyJet, Jet2.com and Ryanair – four of which are brand-new for the airport. These are:

• Montpelier – easyJet will begin flying Monday 30 March to the city on France’s South coast.
• Preveza – easyJet will also join Jet2.com and TUI in flying to this town on the Greek mainland that faces that popular island of Lefkada.
• La Palma – Jet2.com will begin flying to this less-visited Canary Island on 3rd April.
• Palermo – Jet2.com will launch Manchester Airport’s first direct service to Sicily’s largest city on 1st May.
• Samos – Jet2.com will start flights to this Greek island on 5th May, offering the first link to the emerging alternative to Mykonos and Santorini.
• Castellón – Ryanair will add a brand new route from Manchester to the gateway Spain’s Costa del Azahar.
• Bodrum – SunExpress begins flights to Bodrum on Monday 4 May, joining easyJet and Jet2.com in offering a direct service to this popular spot on Turkey’s Aegean coast.

Manchester Airport’s long-haul route network saw some significant additions over the past 12 months, with new routes in India, Pakistan and Thailand added.

New pins on the map closer to home included easyJet’s new services to city break favourites, Strasbourg and Ljubljana as well as a service to the Moroccan capital Rabat with Ryanair, and Jet2.com flying to the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Looking ahead to other destinations that could see direct flight from Manchester Airport in the coming years, Chris Woodroofe, the hub’s Managing Director, commented:

“We’re proud to connect the North with more destinations than any of our competitors, and to also offer more frequent flights to well-established holiday favourites, giving passengers flexibility and choice when booking their next trip. Our route network is unrivalled, with more than 200 destinations across the planet – but we’re not content to stop there.

“We have a list here of what we refer to as our biggest unserved destinations – that’s the destinations that we don’t have direct flights to but have the greatest demand, demonstrated by people from the region travelling to them either on connecting flights or from other airports.

“Those destinations are always our priority. At the start of last year, the biggest names on that list were Bangkok, Delhi, Mumbai and Islamabad – and we’ve now launched flights to all of those. This year we’ll carry on through the list.

“I’m definitely looking to get to 40 million passengers per year over the next five years and there are several specific routes, like Riyadh and Tokyo that I’d like to add to our departure board over that period too. Equally, North America, South America and Africa are all places where we could expand our footprint.”