More than 4 million passengers use MAG airports as half-term getaway drives successful February

-          Total for February was up 14% year-on-year

-          Manchester and London Stansted had their busiest Februarys on record – serving 1.9m passengers each

-          100% of passengers at MAG’s airports passed through security in less than 15 minutes

-          MAG recently announced new research which shows that making SAF from bin bag waste would be five times better for the environment than burning it for electricity

A successful February half-term getaway saw Manchester Airports Group (MAG) serve 4m passengers across its airports last month.

The total for the Group, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, was up 14% year-on-year, and was equal to 103% of February 2019 figures.

February once again saw Manchester and London Stansted reveal record months, with their passenger totals equalling 106% and 103% of 2019 levels respectively. Both airports served 1.9m  passengers across the month, up 14.2% and 12.2% year-on-year, respectively.  Even without the extra leap day year, passenger numbers for both airports would have still exceeded all previous records.

East Midlands saw its monthly traffic increase by 33% year-on-year, with 183,000 passengers travelling through the airport, which was equal to 85% of 2019 levels.

Delivering on its commitment to providing excellent passenger experience, 100% passengers at all three of MAG airports passed through security in less than 15 minutes.

MAG published its latest traffic figures after industry coalition, Sustainable Aviation (SA) published its new Manifesto ahead of a general election this year. The Manifesto calls on the UK Government to accelerate aviation’s transition to net zero so that the country can reap significant environmental and economic benefits.

Last week, MAG published new research from ICF which shows that the reduction in carbon emissions from using bin bag waste to make SAF would be at least five times greater than that achieved by incinerating the same waste to generate electricity. 

The research found that SAF made from waste emits 89% less carbon than burning conventional jet fuel. This means that using waste to make SAF results in a much bigger reduction in carbon emissions than incinerating it to make electricity - because nearly 50% of all UK electricity already comes from renewable sources. 

The emissions saving of generating energy from waste is expected to get smaller and smaller – eventually reaching zero - as the UK works towards all its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2035. 

The research found that, if all the rubbish the UK currently incinerates was used to make SAF instead, the carbon saving would be equivalent to the emissions of at least 46 million people flying from London Stansted Airport to Madrid every year.

Passengers:

Cargo: