Manchester Airport experiences busiest July on record
Image courtesy MAG
It is the 10th consecutive record-breaking month and comes as passengers jet away to over 200 destinations served by the UK’s global gateway in the North at the start of the school holidays.
It means in the last 12 months 29.6million passengers have flown into or out of Manchester Airport – putting it on the verge of joining the elite ‘30 Million Club’ alongside major international hubs like LaGuardia in New York, Melbourne Airport in Australia, Hamad International Airport in Doha and Sabia Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul.
Orlando was the most popular American destination with passengers heading out for its various theme parks and almost 15,000 passengers benefitted from the airport’s new connections to Las Vegas with Virgin Atlantic and Shanghai with Juneyao Air – both destinations not served by any other English airports outside London.
July’s passengers were able to feel like they started their holidays at the airport with new data showing that 97% waited for less than 15 minutes to get to security and 70% of passengers waited for less than five minutes.
The data comes just days after Manchester Airport was given a ‘good’ rating by the Civil Aviation Authority for the services it provides to passengers with reduced mobility.
The most popular destination in July was Palma in Mallorca with 124,000 passengers heading out to the Spanish tourist favourite. Other popular destinations included Dubai, Amsterdam and Alicante as well as both Dalaman and Antalya in Turkey.
Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe (above) said: “We’re proud to connect the people of the North to their favourite holiday destinations and last month was the busiest July we’ve ever seen, which is incredibly exciting.
“I’m particularly proud that alongside the record-breaking performance we’ve continued to give passengers a good service. 97% of our passengers waited for less than 15 minutes to get to security – but seven out of 10 passengers actually waited for less than five minutes.
“That means in practice a lot of people were able to walk straight up to security without breaking stride. If they prepared properly by making sure they don’t have liquids above 100mls, packing other liquids in a clear bag and separating out their electronics then they could be in the departure lounge within a few minutes of arriving here.
“Our continued growth and popularity reflects the hard work we’re putting into our service levels and continuing to improve the airport experience for our passengers.
“Soon we’ll join the 30 Million Club, putting us alongside some of the world’s biggest airports - and thanks to our £1.3bn investment in our transformation programme we’re serving our passengers in a setting befitting that status.
“Next year the programme will be complete and I can’t wait to welcome more and more passengers to see the changes.”
The top 10 destinations for July were:
- Palma de Mallorca – 123,864
- Dubai – 98,715
- Amsterdam – 97,914
- Antalya – 95,087
- Alicante – 91,720
- Dalaman – 90,625
- Dublin – 88,694
- Tenerife – 93,039
- Malaga – 65,906
- Faro – 58,585
Manchester Airport’s £1.3 billion Transformation Programme is well into its final stage and is due for completion next year. The first phase of the programme finished in 2021 with the completion of the brand-new extension to Terminal 2, which has now served over 30million passengers.
Work is now almost complete on the project to redevelop the existing part of the terminal to match the new part. When that is done the capacity of the terminal will double and it will serve 70% of the airport’s passengers. The second phase will contain 27 new retail and food and drink outlets, details of which will be announced soon.
