Holiday travel and new destinations behind record-breaking October for Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport has continued its record-breaking streak with 2.8 million passengers travelling through the airport in October.

The busy month has been driven largely by holiday travel, particularly during the school half-term break. 11,000 passengers also took advantage of two new routes to Las Vegas and Shanghai which started over the summer. Dubai was the busiest destination for passengers, with two airports in Turkey and four in Spain also making the top 10.

During October 99% of passengers waited less than 15 minutes to get to security – and 94% waited less than 10 minutes.

Manchester Airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said:

“We’re really proud to serve the people of the North – connecting them to the destinations they want to travel to.

“That’s why it’s always good to see new routes doing so well. Shanghai and Las Vegas are two destinations we were very excited to add to our network, which was already the biggest of any UK airport outside London. We always expected them to be popular and that has certainly proved to be the case.

“It’s also great to see that pretty much all our passengers got to security in less than 15 minutes, despite it having been a really busy period over half term. Not having to wait to get to security makes a big difference as it means people can relax and start their holidays at the airport.”

October was the 13th consecutive month that Manchester Airport has broken its passenger record and comes after the airport joined the so-called ‘30 Million Club’ by recording 30.1 million passengers in a 12 month period.

Record passengers numbers for the airport come ahead of Manchester Airport’s transformation programme’s completion in 2025. When it is finished more than 70% of its passengers will use the brand-new Terminal 2. The first half of the new Terminal opened in 2021 and the second is on track to open next year. In September the airport announced a range of new shops and food and drink outlets – including a dedicated Chanel beauty outlet, a Lego Store, Pandora, a JD Wetherspoon pub and the Great Northern Market Hall – that will operate in the second phase of Terminal 2.

As part of the project Terminal 1 will close and the number of airlines operating from Terminal 3 will be reduced to make the new terminal the heartbeat of the airport. A number of airlines have already moved from Terminals 1 and 3 and more will move over the coming months.