October has seen 2,404,521 passengers fly through Manchester Airport, 3.1% up on the same month in 2016.
It follows the Northern hub’s busiest summer on record, which brings the rolling annual total to 27.7m passengers, equating to 10.5% growth year on year.
Last month saw passengers jet off for the last of the Mediterranean sun and enjoy half term escapes.
The top five destinations in October were: Amsterdam, Dubai, Dublin, Tenerife and Palma
October also saw the launch of Air Arabia Maroc to Agadir and Flybe to Southend. It also marked the one-year anniversary of Singapore Airlines’ route to Houston. In the last 12 months the route has seen one marriage proposal, more than 5,500 bottles of champagne consumed and more than 10,000 litres of ice cream served. It makes Manchester the only UK airport outside of London with a direct route to the Texan city.
Andrew Cowan, CEO of Manchester Airport, said:
“It is pleasing to see Manchester Airport continue to fulfil its role of the UK’s global gateway in the North.
“Last month’s increased passenger figures highlight how people want to fly from their local airport.
“Now the summer peak is over we are continuing to invest in the airport and passengers will start to see our £1bn transformation take shape and develop over the coming winter months.”
October was also the month in which Monarch ceased trading. Monarch accounted for 5.4% of the airport’s flights in September, averaging of 250 flights per week. Following the collapse, the airport handled numerous repatriation flights for passengers who were returned to the UK, having travelled overseas on Monarch services before it entered administration. This meant that while Manchester Airport’s passenger numbers were more than 3% up on October 2016, the rate of growth was slower than in previous months.
Cargo tonnage also increased last month with 11,356 tones carried, a 4% increase year on year. It sees a total of 123,993 tonnes carried in the last 12 months.
October was a positive month for MAG’s three other airports too. London Stansted Airport served more passengers in October than ever before, with numbers increasing by 7.3% on the year before to 2.3m passengers.
East Midlands Airport recorded its busiest October in ten years with numbers growing by 3.5% to nearly 480,000. Bournemouth Airport’s traffic stayed flat at 69,000 passengers.
