UK. Manchester Airport has registered its busiest June in history, with 2.98 million passengers, up by +6.7% year-on-year and surpassing the numbers recorded in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
In the latest rolling 12-month period, passenger volume at the airport exceeded 2019 levels for the first time.
Over the last 12 months, the airport handled 29.4 million passengers, topping the 29 million recorded in the same period in 2019.
Among the most popular destinations last month were Palma (116,828 passengers), Antalya (88,042), Amsterdam (85,603), Alicante (84,609) and Dubai (83,007).
The month has seen a rise in the popularity of summer holiday destinations, with Mallorca as the most-visited followed by Antalya.
The strong performance was recorded as the airport achieved high levels of passenger satisfaction.
An airport service quality survey by Airports Council International revealed 86.3% of people travelling through the airport between January and June rated their experience as “good, very good or excellent”.
The survey, conducted at 400 participating airports in 109 countries, involved 2,000 people who have travelled across all three Manchester Airport terminals.
The figure compares to 84.3% for the period between July 2023 and March 2024.
Citing new data, Manchester Airport also noted shorter passenger queue times in June, with 97% of passengers queueing for less than 15 minutes to get through security, and 90% waiting for less than ten minutes. The improvement was seen despite the power cut on 23 June that affected security systems and caused delays and cancellations.
Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said: “Here at Manchester Airport, we’re proud to connect the North to the destinations people want to go to via our network of more than 200 destinations, which is far more than that of any airport outside London.
“But we’re also really proud of the service we offer – and this new data backs that up with the vast majority of our passengers rating their experience as good, very good, or excellent.
“We’ve worked hard over the last few years to make sure every aspect of passengers’ experience is improved; whether that’s through our £1.3 billion transformation programme that has already delivered our brand new Terminal 2, cutting security times, adding new restaurants, bars and shops, or through the implementation of our 100-person resilience team who help us solve problems quickly.
“All this put together means that passengers really can start their holidays at the airport. If you’re travelling with just hand baggage and you remember to follow all the usual security rules around liquids, you’re likely to wait less than 15 minutes to get to security and be sitting down with a drink or something to eat in our departure lounges within about half an hour of arriving at the airport.
“With record passenger numbers showing no signs of dropping we’re getting ready for a bumper summer and I’m really looking forward seeing lots of happy travellers getting set to go on their holidays.” ✈
