Record breaking October at Manchester Airport

Left: A design rendering of Manchester Airport’s £1bn (US$1.5bn) transformation program

A record-breaking total of 2,087,149 people traveled through Manchester Airport in October 2015, making it the busiest October in the airport’s 77-year history.

The year-on-year total was up 4% on the same month last year, which moved the rolling annual total of passengers for the airport to a new all-time high of 22,955,790. The airport now expects to surpass 23 million passengers before the end of the year.

October 2015 saw international passengers at the airport increase by 7% compared to the same period last year. The growth has been largely attributed to European travelers for Champions League soccer matches, due to Manchester United missing out on qualification for the 2015/16 tournament the year before. Other contributing factors for the increase in passenger numbers included new services flying to and from Vienna in Austria, Miami in Florida, Hong Kong in China and Barcelona in Spain.

Ken O’Toole, managing director, Manchester Airport, said, “October has been another very positive month with strong growth nudging us toward the 23 million passenger mark.

“We are seeing more and more passengers ‘Fly Manchester’, which is evident after our most successful year on record. With our two full-length runways and a £1bn (US$1.5bn) transformation program announced, Manchester Airport has, and will continue to have, the available capacity and demand to meet the needs of our catchment area that extends as far north as Scotland and south to the Midlands.”