All MAG airports grow in January as long haul routes take off

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MAG, the operator of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, saw all its airports grow in January as it posted 6.8% year on year growth, driven by new long haul links at Manchester and a resurgence in leisure traffic to Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean across the group.

All three of MAG’s airports grew significantly year on year, with London Stansted growing 7.3% to welcome 1.93m passengers, Manchester up 7.0% to 1.78m passengers and East Midlands Airport growing 1.2% to welcome 216,000 passengers in January.

Manchester Airport’s traffic figures were boosted by new routes to Mumbai and Addis Ababa along with strong growth on its direct flight to Beijing.

Manchester’s long haul network has seen significant growth across the board, with scheduled long haul routes to North America growing 9.8% year on year, long haul flights to the rest of the world up 9.8% and non-European charter traffic up 1.8%, driven by growth on routes to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Jamaica. Additionally, 8.6% more passengers flew for winter sun in Turkey than they did in January last year, while Hurghada in Egypt, Barbados and Oman also posted strong year on year growth.

The record breaking January at London Stansted Airport was also driven by increased passenger demand to Turkey (+11.3%), while Austria and Iceland also performed well, with stand-out routes including Izmir, Istanbul and Edinburgh.

East Midlands Airport also grew, by 1.2%, to serve 216,000 passengers in January. Ski routes have proven especially popular this January with Chambery and Bergamo growing strongly – while sun seekers flocked to Faro in Portugal (+7.6%)

MAG expects growth to continue throughout the year, as new terminal capacity is due to open on time at Manchester in the spring and airlines seek to take advantage of the group’s significant spare runway capacity at its three airports.

Tim Hawkins, Chief Strategy Officer, MAG, said: “January’s figures represent a good start to the year for MAG. In particular, our expanding long haul operation at Manchester, is proving increasingly valuable to businesses and leisure travellers across the North.

“Airports with significant global links are national assets and MAG operates the two largest airports in the country with significant spare runway capacity. That is why we are investing in the passenger terminals at these airports to enable us to handle more flights and more passengers in the years to come.

“Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands all play important roles in connecting passengers and goods to global markets and Government should commit be looking to improvinge transport links to them, to allow more passengers to benefit from the routes they now offer.”