MANCHESTER Airport Group (MAG) have recorded a bumper first half of the financial year, with revenues up from £390m last year to £421m this year between April and September 2014.
“A £31m interim dividend will be paid to shareholders, with the City Council expected to net in the region of £11m while the other nine Greater Manchester councils receive £1m each.
The group - which is majority owned by Greater Manchester's ten local authorities* and owns Manchester, Stanstead, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports - recorded an 8.7% rise in passenger numbers to 28m across all four airports.
Manchester Airport alone recorded a 7.1% rise to 13.3m passengers (Stanstead 11.3m, East Midlands 3.1m and Bournemouth 0.5m), and numbers at Manchester are expected to hit a pre-recession peak of 22 million this financial year.
Rising passenger numbers saw EBITDA rise to £183m and operating profit jump by 8.7% to £117.6m for the six months.
A £31m interim dividend will be paid to shareholders, with the City Council expected to net in the region of £11m while the other nine councils receive £1m each.
*Manchester City Council hold a 35.5% stake in MAG, while the nine other Greater Manchester Councils hold 29%.
Manchester Airport
MANCHESTER AIRPORT IN NUMBERS (April to September 2014):
- 13.3m passengers, up by 880,00k (7.1%) on last year.
- 21.8m expected passengers for the year.
- 55m potential capacity per annum.
- 5.2m hold bags and 48,457 tonnes of cargo processed.
- 10.5m security trays screened (2.8m less than passengers?)
- 22m people live within a two hour drive of the airport.
- 50 countries served by the airport.
- 97,683 passenger flights.
- Top 5 international routes - Palma, Dalaman, Dubai, Tenerife and Dublin.
- 6215m of runway (two runways).
- 125 aircraft parking stands.
- 19,000 staff on site.
- 52,115 pints of beer served.
- 11,164 main meals served.
- 20,000 bottles of vodka sold.
- 1 pair of RayBans sold every 30mins.
Manchester Airport terminal 2
Neil Thompson, Chief Financial Officer of MAG, said:
“M.A.G has delivered a strong financial performance in the first six months of the year, meeting or exceeding its financial targets and continuing the growth rate delivered over the past few years.
“A busy summer period saw more passengers than ever before using our four airports and taking advantage of the largest number of destinations that we have ever been able to offer. Our focus on long term commercial agreements has made this possible and we continue to focus on further diversifying our route offering, particularly with regards long haul.
“I am especially pleased with the performance of Manchester which is reaching its record annual passenger level and Stansted which is now showing industry leading levels of passenger growth."
