Manchester Airport saw passenger numbers grow by 4% in March, compared with the same month last year, as nearly two million people passed through the UK’s third busiest airport.
March saw 1,988,233 passengers use the airport’s three terminals. That means 27,882,845 passengers have flown in and out of the airport during the last financial year – a 6.4% increase on full year 2016/17.
Primera Airlines has announced that it will launch flights to Malaga for Winter 2018 while TUI has announced that it will base an additional aircraft at Manchester Airport for Summer 2019, providing an extra 110,000 seats.
On the airport site, construction on the transformation programme continues at pace.
March saw the installation of the sixth tower crane on the site that is helping to build the multi-storey car park.
While the cladding and glazing on the pier and terminal link is going up fast, passengers will be using these areas in one year’s time.
Andrew Cowan, Manchester Airport chief executive, said: “It’s been another busy month for Manchester Airport with the start of the Easter getaway.
“We’re looking forward to our busiest ever summer with plenty of exciting route launches like Seattle with Thomas Cook Airlines and Cagliari, Palermo and Ponte Delgado with Ryanair.”
March saw more than 15,000 take offs and landings.
Cargo saw 9,443 tonnes carried, which takes the annual tonnage to 122,733 tonnes.
Overall the UK’s biggest airport group (MAG) grew by 4.3% in March, with 4.2m passengers across all three of its airports.
It puts MAG on an annual rolling total of 58.9m passengers traveling through Manchester, East Midlands and London Stansted Airports.