MAG have reported a passenger milestone of 23.5 million passengers flown in the last financial year at Manchester Airport. This has resulted in a 5.4% increase year on year. In March 2016 alone, 1.7 million passengers flew out of the airport. The MAG Group recorded 51.9 million passengers from their four airports, which has resulted in a 7.1% increase in the past year. London Stansted saw a 13.2% growth, East Midlands Airport with 9% & Bournemouth recorded a phenomenal 36% grown in Passengers in March alone.
It has been said that the most popular destinations out of MAG’s portfolio of airports were Dubai, Dublin, Amsterdam, Alicante & Tenerife. Aircraft movements in and out of Manchester alone were up by 883 last month, with 13,736 planes taking off and landing on the airport’s 2 runways. Ken O’Toole, the Managing Director at Manchester Airport said: “The continued strong growth at Manchester Airport is incredibly positive and benefits not only the airport and our passengers, but the entire region. As new routes come to fruition and passenger numbers increase, in turn jobs are created and inbound tourism spend is injected into the region. Manchester Airport currently generates £1.7bn in value for the North West, supports 21,500 jobs on site and a further 45,000 indirectly and we are confident of driving more growth in the years to come. As we move into the summer season, we look forward to a host of new long haul routes starting, which will give our passengers more choice than ever before. This financial year, we will see services to Beijing, with Hainan Airlines plus Los Angeles and Boston, with Thomas Cook, begin. Plus next financial year San Francisco and Boston, with Virgin Atlantic, will launch. Such services are sure to prove popular with leisure travellers, as well as delivering a boost to businesses wanting access to these key markets and, as the year progresses, we look forward to securing yet more vital routes for passengers across the North.”
Manchester Airport are seeking to grow further as there have been new routes introduced onto the airport’s portfolio of routes. In 2016, routes to Beijing, Los Angeles, Boston, Aruba, Phuket, Tobago & Mauritius will be launched with San Fransisco to be launched in 2017 accordingly.
Growth was seen across all of MAG’s airports in March. At London Stansted Airport, planes were fuller than last year, with numbers up 13.2%, with 1,892,166 passengers flown. This increase has been driven by Ryanair’s growth and higher load factors. It now takes the airports annual rolling total to 23,183,620 passengers.
East Midlands Airport posted a 9.1% increase in passengers last month, which saw 281,480 passengers flown in March. Ski destinations proved popular last month, as well as passengers wanting to jet off to warmer climes with the Canary Islands and Cyprus proving popular.
Finally Bournemouth Airport’s 37,210 passengers in March took its rolling 12 month total to 733,162 which represents 11.4% growth over the previous year and 35.8% growth month on month compared to March 2015.