91% of pre-pandemic passenger traffic at Manchester Airport served in January as MAG continue strong start to the new year
By Rich Wilcock
14th Feb 2023 | Aviation and Aerospace
Manchester Airport Group are close to pre-pandemic levels of passenger numbers as they revealed they served 91% of pre-pandemic travel in January. The highest they've been since the pandemic.
MAG owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands Airports and served 3.6 million passengers last month. This was up 140% on the same time last year as the U.K. was still under omicron testing requirements for travel to and from the U.K.
The whole group reported increased passenger numbers. London Stansted served 1.8 million passengers across the month - representing 94% of pre-pandemic traffic. Manchester Airport served 1.6 million passengers with Tenerife, Dublin, and Dubai the most popular destinations – equivalent to 90% of passengers served in the same month in 2019. East Midlands Airport's traffic for the month was 63% of pre-pandemic levels.
The news of the passenger number increase comes as MAG group announced that the final part of their ambitious 1.3bn transformation programme was about to begin which included upgrading the terminal 2 infrastructure and bringing it in line with the extension, which opened in 2021.
It is estimated that 16,400 new jobs will be generated by 2040 as a result of the economic activity unlocked by the expansion of the airport and the surrounding route network, which includes the hs2 station and route upgrade announced by HS2 Ltd. last week.
Chris Woodroofe, Managing Director at Manchester Airport, said:
"We are delighted to have made such a strong start to 2023, with January's statistics showing passenger numbers continuing to recover well and operational performance steadily improving.
"The announcement of the second phase of our transformation programme is a major milestone for our airport and a statement of our intent to deliver on our full potential as the UK's global gateway in the North.
"We are now fully focused on continuing to improve the passenger experience ahead of what promises to be another busy summer."
Share: