Summer has certainly taken off at Manchester Airport where 1.9 million passengers travelled through the Airport in May 2013, almost 11% up on May 2012 figures.
The increase in numbers took Manchester over the 20 million passenger mark, during a 12 month period, for the first time since May 2009.
Manchester Airport also experienced the fastest growth rate of the UK’s top ten largest airports with passenger numbers rising by 10.6% in May and it also marked the airport’s 13th consecutive month of year on year growth. The good performance was attributed to the continuing strength of long haul destinations, such as Dubai, Washington DC, Chicago, Singapore, and the newly announced Moscow. This was also alongside a continued focus on the low cost market to promote Manchester as the low cost airport of choice for the North West.
Confirming the enduring popularity of Florida with British holidaymakers, Virgin Atlantic will carry up to 10,000 passengers every week from Manchester Airport next summer, a 25% increase from this year.
Ken O’Toole, (pictured below) Chief Commercial Officer for MAG, owners of Manchester Airport, said:
“Reaching our target of 20 million passengers ahead of schedule
was testament to an increasing network of destinations and the hard
work we’ve undertaken to highlight this message across the North of
England. That has included our recent ‘Fly Manchester’ campaigns to
publicise the range of options here from carriers like United Airlines,
American Airlines, Ryanair, Monarch, easyJet, Jet2.com, Germanwings
and Norwegian to destinations across the globe.
“We continue to see airlines bringing more routes online for
passengers using Manchester with new destinations such as Aegean’s
service to the Greek capital, Athens, and Flybe adding their 19th
destination from Manchester to Waterford in Ireland. The start of June
saw Egyptair launch a new five times a week service to Cairo, proving
that airlines are continuing to recognise the opportunity
that Manchester provides in serving the North of England market and we
want to continue to support further growth from our airlines.”
At the end of May, Thomson Airways brought their new 787 Dreamliner aircraft to Manchester for the first time and it will enter service from July 8. The innovative Boeing 787 plane sets new aviation standards and will fly from Manchester Airport to Cancun in Mexico and Sanford in Florida.