Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has delivered its sixth year of growth (12 months to 31 March 2017), improving once again both passenger numbers and EBITDA (+8.0% to £343.2m/$441.5m), driven by both aviation and non-aviation revenues, ‘despite a sustained period of political uncertainty’ says MAG.

 

“Performance across both our aviation and commercial revenue streams has been robust this year,” says MAG CEO, Charlie Cornish.

 

“Aviation income increased 5.1% year-on-year to £407.0m ($523.7m), while retail income confounded a challenging climate to increase by 14.3% to £164.4m ($211.5m), driven by the full year impact of the significant investment in the terminal transformation at London Stansted, as well as the continued focus on operational improvement, and the popularity of our MAG airport lounge brands.”

 

As Cornish mentions, retail income grew by 14.3% to £164.4m ahead of the growth in passenger numbers. “Improved commercial terms and continued focus on operational improvement have also supported growth in retail yield during the year,” adds MAG.

 

NEARLY 60M PASSENGERS SERVED

MAG airports – including Manchester, London Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth – served 55.9m passengers last year, up 4.0m (7.7%) year on year.

 

Click to enlarge graphs.

London Stansted posted growth of +4.7% YoY to 24.3m passengers, while Manchester’s total pax grew +11.5% to 26.2m.

 

Manchester Airport has now broken into the list of top 20 largest airports in Europe by passenger numbers, driven by both EU & non EU; long haul & short haul traffic, low cost & full service.

 

This year also saw the start of MAG’s 10-year investment programme in Manchester Airport, which will see the company invest over £1bn on improving its facilities for the millions of passengers who visit every year.

 

NEW STN ARRIVALS FACILITY

Meanwhile, MAG has spent nearly £150m to date on Stansted’s airside and landside terminal facilities and the airport now sees nearly 7m more passengers through its doors every year than it did in 2013.

 

 

MAG has also recently announced additional investment of £130m in a 34,000sq m arrivals facility which will form the centrepiece of a next phase of enhancements – including new retail space – at London Stansted.

 

“Despite a challenging year for duty free, our retail revenues have remained strong and our pre-booked parking products have continued to prove very popular,” adds MAG.

 

MAG-USA is now operating three “Escape Lounge” concepts across the USA – one on the West Coast (Oakland), one in the Mid West (Minneapolis-St Paul) and one on the East Coast (Bradley), with another on the way at Reno-Tahoe for winter 2017.

 

“We have driven customers to these lounges via successful affiliate and airline deals and we look forward to working with other US airports on lounges, parking and retail projects,” adds MAG.