Manchester Airport enters Europe's top 20 as double-digit growth continues
A quarter of a million more passengers used Manchester Airport in January 2017 than in January 2016, as the Northern gateway continued to experience record breaking growth through the winter season.
The 17.7% growth in January, coupled with exceptional growth in December and November 2016, means that the airport has served 25.9 million passengers in the last 12 months, enough to break into the European top 20, displacing Stockholm.
The airport is now just behind Oslo and Palma in the European rankings. The move means that the UK joins Spain as one of two European countries with three airports in the European top 20.
The growth has been driven by new routes and increased capacity to a very wide range of destinations, including the new route to Beijing with Hainan Airlines, one additional Emirates Airbus A380 per day flying to Dubai with Emirates, replacing a smaller Boeing 777 operation, coupled with increased capacity being filled on short haul routes to Spain (37.5% passengers year on year), France (+28.5%), Italy (+30.1%) and Poland (+63.6%).
Last week, Manchester Airport was identified by both Transport for the North and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership as a strategic infrastructure asset that will play a key role in rebalancing the UK economy.
The airport continues to have ample capacity to grow further on its two full length runways and is offering capacity for new links to an increasingly large catchment area, across the North, to Scotland and the Midlands. Inbound passengers are also increasingly selecting Manchester as an entry point to the UK as an alternative to London.
Manchester’s growth has also translated into higher cargo volumes, with 12.4% more cargo being carried at Manchester than in last January.
Charlie Cornish, MAG CEO said: “For Manchester to enter the top 20 airports of Europe is a significant milestone and puts us amongst the leading gateways on the continent, in terms of total passenger numbers, the mix of destinations available and the aircraft operating on those routes.”