Manchester Airport continues record-breaking run
Image courtesy MAG
The most popular destinations during the month were traditional long weekend favourites Dublin and Amsterdam followed by Middle Eastern hub Dubai, which is popular as a destination in its own right but also as a connecting airport for far-flung countries in Asia and beyond. The top five also includes holiday hotspots Tenerife and Alicante – indicating the return of the summer season.
Driven by a busy early Easter, that made it the busiest March the airport has ever seen, it was the second consecutive month that every single passenger waited for less then 15 minutes to get to security.
Manchester Airport also launched its new baggage system, hitting another milestone on its £1.3 billion Transformation Programme, which enhances the airport's service even as passenger numbers grow. The new system includes over two miles of conveyer belts and can process thousands of bags every hour.
From 2025 Terminal 2 will serve around 70% of the airport’s passengers. To make sure it can continue to offer a seamless service a new, state of the art baggage system has been installed. The one-of-a-kind and has been built by specialists Vanderlande specifically for the airport.
The multimillion pound machine features more than two miles of conveyor belts and can process 3,000 bags per hour – it has already processed over 100,000 bags since it went live at the end of March. The maximum distance a bag could travel from check in to being taken onto an aircraft is 582 metres – equivalent to almost six football pitches. On average a bag will take around 10 minutes to get through the system before being picked up by ground handling agents and put onto an aircraft.
The airport returned to pre-pandemic passenger levels last year and since October it has consistently set monthly records for passenger numbers. April is already looking to be a record-breaking month with around 320k passengers travelling over the Easter bank holiday weekend, up 8% on the equivalent weekend in 2023.
Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe (above), said: “We are proud to serve the people of the North. On the surface that means offering an unrivalled range of more than 200 destinations, great service so that passengers never wait more than a few minutes to get to security and world class facilities in our terminals.
“But beneath the surface there is a huge amount of work that goes into making that happen. We’re in the middle of a £1.3bn programme that is completely transforming the airport. A key component of that is this new baggage system that will help make sure things continue to run smoothly behind the scenes.
“So while passengers will see the difference as they pass through Terminal 2 – which has already won the prestigious Prix Versailles award for its architecture and design – equally important changes have been made in the parts of the airport that most people will never see meaning that as demand for travel continues to increase, the service we offer our passengers continues to improve.”
In January the airport marked a year since work started on the final phase of its £1.3bn transformation programme. The airport’s brand-new Terminal 2 is already open but work continues and will see it double in size, meaning the modern facility will serve over 70% of the airport’s passengers when it is fully open in 2025.
Last month also saw significant changes to the airfield that will allow the airport to increase its capacity for aircraft and ultimately offer even more destinations to passengers.
