Manchester Airport Group (MAG) welcomed a total of 58,567,108 passengers at its three UK airports – Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands – in 2017.

This represents an increase of +7.3% and approximately 4m more passengers, compared to 2016.

Success was attributed to strong long haul routes serving Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Houston, combined with continued demand for summer holidays to Spain, Greece and the Canary Islands.

Manchester Airport grew +8.5% year-on-year to serve a ‘record’ 27.8m passengers in 2017, compared to the previous year. Passenger traffic was up +1.5% to 1.8m in December last year, compared to 2016, despite the demise of Monarch (the airport’s seventh biggest airline), which entered administration last October.

‘BUSIEST EVER YEAR’

London Stansted Airport also recorded its ‘busiest ever year’ as it welcomed 25.9m visitors in 2017, representing an increase of +6.5% – 1.57m more passengers, compared to 2016.

The number of passengers passing through London Stansted during the month of December 2017, however, was slightly down on the same month in 2016 because of flight cancellations due to adverse weather conditions across Europe. Nevetheless, it was still the second busiest December on record, receiving over 1.8m passengers, confirms MAG.

Stansted expects a busier year in 2018, when Emirates launches a direct service to Dubai in June this year, offering onward access to a wide range of destinations across the world, including Shanghai, Sydney and Hong Kong.

Commenting on the results, Stansted Airport’s CEO Ken O’Toole, said: “The last year has been a very busy and exciting time at London Stansted with passenger numbers and the range of destinations directly available from the airport both reaching all-time highs.”

FUTURE PLANS

He attributes Stansted’s solid growth to the increasing choice offered by airline partners, such as Ryannair, Jet2.com and Emirates.

“In 2018, our aim is to continue growing our passenger numbers and provide even more choice, so we were absolutely delighted to announce just before Christmas that Emirates will begin operating a new service to Dubai from Stansted in June.”

“This excellent addition to our route network comes on top of the very exciting news that Primera Air will also launch direct flights to New York, Boston and Toronto from April and May this year.”

East Midlands Airport also recorded a +4.9% growth in passenger traffic.

The airport has ambitious expansion plans to double its passenger numbers to 10m in the next 10-15 years, as well as develop more routes to major European hubs to complement its popular holiday routes.

MAG also launched its very own digital start-up MAG-O last month, to improve the end-to-end airport experience for the 58.6m-plus passengers travelling through its airports.

The upcoming January print issue of TRBusiness features an exclusive interview with MAG-O’s MD, Nolan Hough, on the importance of IT investment and the need to build strong retail partnerships to create ‘amazing seamless customer experiences’.