Holiday makers using Manchester Airport soared to a staggering 2.3million over the past year – leaving bosses calling it the airport’s ‘best summer’ in five years.
With market growth at just over 5% in August 2013, the international airport is currently enjoying its 15th consecutive month of year on year growth.
Figures show that, internationally, scheduled traffic was 14% higher this year than in August 2012 and Manchester is experiencing its share of this boom.
Ken O’Toole, Chief Commercial Officer for MAG, owners of Manchester Airport, said: “We’ve had our best summer in over five years and we are delighted to see passenger numbers continuing to rise at Manchester. We have put our focus on attracting a multitude of new routes as well as increasing services on the ever popular destinations.
“We have reaped the rewards from our successful ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign since its launch in February and we are now into our fourth phase which has seen us move into Staffordshire and West Midlands to remind our larger catchment area of our ever growing services.”
The top five foreign destinations this year were Palma, Amsterdam, Dubai, Alicante, and Dalaman, and this year’s moving total of passengers at Manchester Airport is currently at almost 20.5million.
With new routes added this year to Moscow and Stavanger by easyJet and Norwegian, the airport is hopeful for its winter season.
Manchester Airport will be the only operator outside London to fly to St Lucia this winter following a new long-haul flight from Thomas Cook Airlines.
Thomas Cook have also added new flights to Antigua and Barbados this November, while Emirates plan to run an extra Airbus A380 on two of its daily services to Dubai for ten days from Manchester Airport.
MAG, who own Manchester Airport, are the second largest airport operator in the UK. Other than Manchester, the company serves 42million passengers every year from London Stansted, East Midlands, and Bournemouth airports.
Picture courtesy of newbierunner, with thanks.
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