Manchester Airport in northwest England served 25 million passengers in a year for the first time since opening in 1938, equating to year-on-year growth of 9.3%.
The 25 millionth passenger received a wealth of prizes including a pair of return tickets to San Francisco from Thomas Cook Airlines, FastTrack passes, and access to the airport’s Escape Lounge.
The recent growth can be attributed to a range of factors including the addition of new long haul routes and increasing capacity, and frequency, on short haul destinations.
Collette Roche, deputy CEO of Manchester Airport, said, “We are really pleased to have hit this significant milestone and look forward to continuing to grow our passenger numbers.
“At a time when capacity in the south is constrained, we are adding more passengers and routes than ever before. In the last year alone we have launched flights to Houston, Beijing, Boston, to name a few, all of which can only be found at Manchester outside of London. This underpins the role we play in the north as the global entry point of the Northern Powerhouse and as economic provider and job creator.
“We have more than 22 million people living within two hours of Manchester Airport and our continued addition of new routes and increased frequencies is seeing both business and leisure customers choose Manchester, rather than other airports.”