MAG serves 91% of pre-pandemic traffic in January, as first full year of restriction-free travel begins
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) delivered a strong start to 2023, with passenger volumes at more than 90% of those seen pre-pandemic.
MAG, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, served 3.6 million passengers in January.
The figure was up by more than 140% on January 2022, when the Group served just 37% of pre-pandemic traffic, owing to Omicron testing requirements that remained in place for passengers travelling to and from the UK.
London Stansted served 1.8 million passengers across the month - representing 94% of pre-pandemic traffic. Manchester Airport served 1.6 million passengers – equivalent to 90% of passengers served in the same month in 2019. East Midlands Airport’s traffic for the month was 63% of pre-pandemic levels.
Across MAG, January’s passenger figures were 91% of those seen in the same month in 2019.
In January, Manchester Airport also announced the final phase of its £1.3bn transformation programme. The £440m investment will update the existing Terminal 2 infrastructure, to bring it in line with the state-of-the-art extension, which opened to passengers in July 2021.
The investment is set to unlock billions in economic activity and create more than 500 jobs in the construction phase alone. A further 16,400 extra jobs will also be generated by 2040 as a result of the economic activity stimulated by the expansion of the airport and its route network. York Aviation research also shows that the Airport’s current contribution to the Northern economy of £3.5bn could increase by nearly 80%, to £6.3bn by 2040.
The announcement was welcomed by a broad range of supporters, including the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, and the Aviation Minister, Baroness Vere of Norbiton.
As part of its initiatives to make its airports as accessible as possible for all passengers, MAG was also proud to announce the creation of its partnership with SignLive, which provides Deaf customers with interpretation in British Sign Language (BSL) when using and contacting it’s airports.
Passengers:
Manchester | London Stansted | East Midlands | MAG | |
| Rolling 12-month total to January ’23 | 24,259,249 | 24,475,157 | 3,267,290 | 52,001,696 |
| 12-month total % change year-on-year | +261.2% | +217.6% | +270.2% | +239.7% |
| Rolling 12- month total January ’22 | 6,716,574 | 7,697,567 | 882,718 | 15,297,084 |
| January ’23 total | 1,635,067 | 1,821,029 | 136,621 | 3,592,717 |
| January ’23 % change year-on-year | +119.3% | +173.9% | +135.5% | +144.7% |
| January ’23 % change on January 2019 | -8.2% | -5.8% | -36.7% | -8.6% |
Cargo:
Manchester | London Stansted | East Midlands | |
| January 2023 total tonnes | 3,901 | 17,485 | 27,820 |
| January 2023 % change year on year | -11.8% | -15.7% | -19.7% |