MAG airports passenger numbers rise with start of summer holidays

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) saw a passenger numbers rise 4.2% year on year in July to 7 million with the start of the peak summer holiday period.

The group’s Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports recorded a rolling 12-month total of 66.8 million passengers, a 1.9% increase on the prior year. 

Stansted (pictured) recorded the busiest month in its history with 3.1 million passengers, up 6.3% on the same month in 2025.

Daily passenger numbers also topped 100,000 passengers for 18 days of July. The rolling 12-month total for the airport was 30.5 million passengers, an increase of 1.8%. 

Manchester Airport also achieved a record July, handling serving 3.4 million passengers, a 2.5% increase. The northern gateway’s rolling 12-month total stood at 32.3 million passengers, a 2.2% increase on last year.

East Midlands Airport served more than 525,000 passengers in July, a 3.1% increase. The airport’s rolling 12-month total stood at 4m passengers, a marginal 0.4% rise.  

All passengers at Stansted passed through security in 15 minutes or less in July. The figure was 99% at East Midlands and 91% at Manchester Airport.

Stansted managing director Gareth Powell said: "July was a real landmark month for London Stansted with more than 3.1 million passengers choosing to travel through the airport for the first time in our history.

"We’re also seeing some changing travel habits, with many people now taking a number of shorter breaks over the summer rather than one longer holiday.

"At the same time, long-haul connectivity from Stansted has been boosted with Emirates recently returning to double-daily flights between London Stansted and Dubai, allowing more people to connect onwards to 140 global destinations.”

The figures followed Heathrow reporting 7.85 million passengers in July, a fall of 1.5% year on year.