Sister MAG airports Manchester and Stansted drew almost two million passengers each as a “bumper” February half term led to a surge in holidaymakers.
Manchester airport reported a record throughput of 1.9 million passengers, 14% up year-on-year and above pre-pandemic levels, while more than 1.92 million used Stansted, beating a previous record set by the Essex airport in February 2020 by almost 50,000.
Manchester said that more than half of last month’s volume travelled during the half term period while Stansted saw more than 360,000 passengers depart over the school holiday period.
Dublin with 86,000 passengers and Dubai with 85,000 were the top destinations from the northwest hub followed by Amsterdam (83,797), Tenerife (78,552) and Qatar (61,045).
The most popular destinations from Stansted included the Canary Islands, southern Spain, Turkey, and Dubai, while the top ski choices were Geneva, Chambery, Grenoble, Turin, Innsbruck and Zurich. Short breaks to Dublin, Edinburgh, Istanbul and Barcelona were also in demand.
High levels of overseas visitors looking for affordable access to the UK, and London in particular, was also reported.
“Even without the extra leap year day, passenger numbers would have exceeded all previous records,” Stansted said.
“With the Easter holidays fast approaching, the airport is now gearing up for what is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.”
Manchester airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said: “We’re here to serve the people of the north and it’s clear that they are really excited to travel this year. We keep breaking our monthly passenger records which is great to see – but what’s especially pleasing is that we’re providing a really good service to everyone who travels with us, with no-one waiting more than 15 minutes to get to security.
“We’ve put a lot of work into making sure people’s airport experience is as seamless as possible including recruiting lots of extra security staff and making sure we remind people to plan for their journeys by remembering the things like not inadvertently bringing items that will slow their progress through security, like liquids in containers greater than 100mls.
“We’ve recently seen our inaugural flight to Amman with Royal Jordanian Airlines take off and have just announced flights to Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc.
“Our first flights to Las Vegas take off in June and we have a few more announcements up our sleeves.
“All this comes as work continues on our epic transformation programme. Terminal 2 isn’t even finished yet and it’s already been named one of the most beautiful in the world. We’re confident passengers will get a great experience whether they’re travelling at Easter or later in the year.”
Stansted chief operating officer Jonathan Fowler said: “It’s been a really strong start to the year, and we’re certainly not seeing any let-up in the demand to fly as we now look ahead to the upcoming Easter break.
“The wet and cold weather here in the UK during February clearly encouraged many people to head off in search of some winter sun, but we also welcomed tens of thousands of visitors heading into London or sampling the delights of the East of England.
“We’re now gearing up for the Easter holiday which is always a busy time of year for the travel industry.”