MORE than 2.6 million people from the North West travelled through Manchester Airport in August 2015, making it the busiest month ever in the airport’s 77 year history, it announced today
The airport cited more routes, the improving economy and dodgy British weather conditions as reasons why, on average, 86,713 people flew via Manchester every day during the month.
The figures dwarfed passenger numbers flying out from Liverpool John Lennon Airport which tallied a far more modest 471,000 (up 7.24 percent year on year) over the busiest holiday month.
The most popular parts of the UK from which people flying from Manchester Airport live are (in order) Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Staffordshire. They bought 10,777 pairs of sunglasses, 101,189 bottles of fragrance and 17,528 bottles of vodka.
If you can't bear the thought of rubbing shoulders with people from your hometown in your fortnight in the sun you should swerve Tenerife (favourite destination of Merseysiders and second only to Alicante with the Mancs) and Amsterdam. See the useful infograph of most popular destinations by county, below.
Boosted by the transfer window signings of the North West’s Premiership football clubs, along with visiting pop stars for music festivals taking place in the North and the Midlands, the number of private jets flying in and out of Ringway also increased significantly, up 36pc on August last year.
The airport also set a new all-time high rolling annual total of 22,750,477, placing it well on-course, it said, to "break the 23 million barrier by the end of the year".
Ken O’Toole, Manchester Airport’s boss, said: “As this, our strongest summer in history, which spans over three-quarters of a century demonstrates, Manchester Airport is vital cog in rebalancing the economy and ensuring the Northern Powerhouse gathers speed and momentum.”
