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Manchester Airport achieved the busiest December in its 76-year history as passenger numbers increased 7.45% year on year.
More than 1.4 million people used the airport last month – beating the previous highest December of 1.38 million passengers in December 2007.
Marking the ninth consecutive month of growth, the moving annual total reached 21.97 million, up 6.15% on 2013.
Manchester Airport’s highest ever rolling 12-month passenger total was 22.2 million which was reached in July 2006.
Manchester Airports Group chief commercial officer, Ken O’Toole, said: “Looking back, 2014 has been an outstanding year for Manchester in terms of growth and gives us the momentum to attract even more new services and increased capacity on existing routes in 2015.
“The ongoing success is testament to our Fly Manchester campaign, targeting people in our catchment who use airports other than ours.
“The large increase in passengers, with a mix of new long haul and short haul services, demonstrates the power of Manchester airport and the critical role it plays in UK aviation.
“We now fly to over 200 destinations around the globe and continue to attract new airlines and routes.”
December also saw the start of a Cathay Pacific service to Hong Kong four times a week.
New services planned for this year include:
• easyJet flights to Funchal, Pisa, Porto and Marseille, Split and Kefalonia
• Ryanair flights to Bologna, Lisbon, Eindhoven, Zadar and Stuttgart
• Thomas Cook to flights to Miami twice-weekly from May 3
• Jet2.com new summer routes to Antalya, Kefalonia, Malta and Tunisia
• Turkish Airlines increasing capacity to Istanbul with three daily flights from June