MAG: Passenger numbers down by a fifth since Day 2 testing return
Will PaynePassenger numbers decreased by 10-20% after the UK government reintroduced Day 2 PCR tests, according to data from Manchester Airports Group’s (MAG) half-year results.
The group’s passenger numbers for the first six months of the year were 82% down on 2019 as a result of summer travel restrictions, but traffic increased to 58% of pre-pandemic levels in November after restrictions eased.
MAG, which operates Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, welcomed 2.7 million passengers in October, which was the first month since February 2020 in which Manchester and Stansted each served over one million passengers.
The figures come after the organisation called on the UK government to carry out an "urgent review" of its new travel restrictions.
MAG welcomed the health secretary’s acknowledgement that there was less need to have any form of travel restrictions in place once Omicron becomes the dominant variant, and urged the government to complete its review of these measures as soon as possible.
Chief executive of the group, Charlie Cornish, said MAG "will always do our part to protect public health, but we also need these temporary measures to be removed when they are no longer worthwhile".
"These restrictions may have slowed the arrival of Omicron but it is now transmitting in the community, and the government needs urgently to review whether the rapidly reducing benefit of testing justifies the damage it is causing to consumer confidence.
"MAG, and the wider UK travel industry, can be confident of a strong revival when travel restrictions are lifted.
"All we are asking for is to be able to plan for our recovery, and to be given the same chance that every other sector was given through the domestic roadmap earlier this year."
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