Manchester Airport has hit a major milestone, reaching 25 million passengers for the first time in its 78-year history-year-on-year growth of 9.3%. The airport marked this great achievement by surprising two holidaymakers with free tickets to San Francisco. The lucky passenger, Chris Stenson of Crosby, Liverpool also won access to the airport’s Escape Lounge and security FastTrack passes.
Thomas Cook flights flying the new San Francisco route from Manchester will launch in May next year. The airline announced the new route for 2017 along with new routes to Los Angeles, Boston and Tobago from Manchester.
Manchester Airport earlier this year announced routes to Mauritius, Goa, Tobago, Muscat, Phuket, San Francisco and Cayo Coco for the rest of 2016and summer 2017.
While celebrating the major milestone, the third largest airport in the UK also released its list of the 10 most popular destinations over the last year. Amsterdam is the most popular while Dublin and Dubai take second and third position consecutively. The rest are Tenerife, Alicante, Palma, Malaga, Paris, Orlando and Faro in that order.
Collette Roche, Deputy Chief Executive of Manchester Airport, said: “We are really pleased to have hit this significant milestone and look forward to continuing to grow our passenger numbers.
“At a time when capacity in the south is constrained, we are adding more passengers and routes than ever before.”
The airport unveiled a 10-year, £1 billion investment plan last year which will include a state-of-the-art terminal building created through the expansion of Terminal Two.
Passenger growth has been attributed to the new long haul routes, increased frequency of flights as well as enhanced winter flight schedules and the rise of low cost airlines.
Manchester Airport predicts a steady growth moving forward, with a capacity of 55 million passengers on its two full-length runways.