Strong passenger and commercial numbers underpinned the +17.2% EBITDA increase to £283.6m ($442.9m) at the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) for the 12 months ended 31 March, with total traffic up +10.7% to 48.5m.

 

 

As a result, MAG has announced a final dividend of £62m ($96.8m) to be paid this month, taking total payments in respect of the full year ended 31 March 2015, to £93m ($145m).

 

 

The airports company said the performance had ‘exceeded expectations’ across its four UK airports of Manchester, London Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth.

 

 

Management listed the highlights as significant improvements to security and retail facilities and the opening of a new lounge at London Stansted; completion of a £12m ($18.7m) terminal redevelopment at East Midlands; opening of the Metrolink extension and the expansion of the security area in Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport; continued development of the Group’s car park estate; and also improvements to the Group’s IT capabilities.

 

 

MAG also pointed to its long-term commercial agreements with airlines having generated a significant increase in passengers (+10.7% to 48.5m), driven by record numbers at Manchester Airport (+7.2% to 22.3m) and unrivalled growth at London Stansted Airport (+16.1% to 20.9m). It also makes the point that put together, Stansted and Manchester’s growth exceeded that of both Heathrow and Gatwick airports combined.

 

 

 

 

 

It has also expanded its route network further to both short-haul and long-haul destinations, with new flights to Hong Kong, Orlando, Cancun, Las Vegas, Miami and Iraq.

 

 

In addition it has unveiled the ‘Manchester Airport Transformation Programme’ which is a £1bn ($1.5bn), 10-year plan that MAG says will deliver ‘a significant upgrade’ of the facilities at the airport, ensuring that it continues to thrive as a national asset and play an even greater role as the ‘UK Global Gateway from the North’.

 

 

Airport management said it is also involved in ongoing diversification of the property investment portfolio with the announcement of additional Airport City projects, including two new logistics developments totalling 448,000sq ft and a 75,000sq ft office scheme. Planning consent has also been granted for a new 350-room hotel at London Stansted.

 

 

Commenting, Charlie Cornish, MAG CEO said: “MAG has delivered a fifth consecutive year of strong growth, investment and development that has enabled us to exceed expectations across many of our key measures, including the delivery of industry leading-passenger numbers and trading performance.

 

 

“The success of MAG’s commercial and operational strategy is reflected in the fact that we have welcomed nearly 5m more passengers into our four airports and been able to offer them an increasingly diverse range of facilities, unparalleled choice of airlines and range of destinations that has taken them all over the world.

 

 

 

 

“I am especially pleased with the performance of our two largest airports, Manchester and London Stansted, which are both currently enjoying robust growth and have bright futures ahead of them.

 

 

“In addition to improving the infrastructure across all of our airports, we have continued to focus an increasing proportion of our investment on projects that significantly enhance our customers’ experience of using our facilities.

 

 

“We also announced the creation of MAG U.S, headed by Rosie Andolino. As the North American aviation industry continues to evolve, we are confident that our experience will position us well to capitalise on this.”

 

 

Manchester Airport is the UK’s third largest airport and has seen scheduled international passenger traffic grow for the fourth year in succession (+7.2%), further reinforcing its credentials as the ‘UK Global Gateway from the North’. The growth in passengers has driven increases in aviation, retail and car parking revenues, with total revenues of £369.9m (+10.5%).

 

 

In June, MAG announced the 10-year ‘Manchester Airport Transformation Programme’ that will significantly alter the airport, ensuring that it continues to thrive as a national asset and play a strong role in meeting the UK’s capacity needs as the ‘UK Global Gateway from the North’.

 

 

 

 

Manchester Airport reported a 3.05% rise in passenger numbers in June to 2,316,492, plus a new all-time record moving annual total of 22.4m – a rise of 5.92% year on year.

 

 

Long-haul services to North American destinations, including Miami, Las Vegas, New York, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cancun and Orlando, all performed strongly in June. As did flights in the opposite direction to destinations including Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong.

 

 

Flights to European sunshine holiday destinations experienced the traditional summer uplift; all boosted by recently commenced new services like Bologna, Split and Kefalonia, as part of airlines’ summer flying campaigns.

 

 

MAG’s airports today offer direct flights to more than 270 destinations (more than any other UK airports group) and the group says it continues to focus on further route development to Europe, North America, the Middle East, North Africa and the Far East.

 

 

An exclusive interview with MAG’s CEO Charlie Cornish appeared on TRBusiness.com in May and an extended version was the cover story on the June edition of the TRBusiness print edition [Click here for the May web story: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/europe/manchester-airport-group-makes-us-move/76256].