Manchester and Stansted airports expect to see a Brexit-related slowdown in growth over the next couple of years, according to their owner.
Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG, the owner of Manchester and Stansted airports, said that the devaluation of the pound and the expected slump in GDP growth would affect operations.
“Airlines tend to grow in step with GDP,” he told The Times. “Sterling versus dollar will have an impact on passenger numbers because the money you have will not go as far and that will translate into an impact on demand.”
He said a British withdrawal from the European Union would not in itself affect the group, but the impact on the exchange rate and the slowing economy would.
“We will see a blip for between 12 and 24 months,” he said. “We’ll continue to grow but behind where we had expected to be.”
Regarding Stansted specifically, Cornish said: “We will be at capacity some time between 2025 and 2030, so in the next two to three years we will need to start having the appropriate dialogue with the government over the need for a second runway [at Stansted].”