Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has recorded £1 billion in revenue for the first time in its history as passenger traffic levels edge closer to pre-pandemic levels.
In the period between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, the airport group, which owns and operates Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, served 54 million passengers, which is equivalent to 91% of levels in 2019-2020.
The group recorded an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of £412m, up from £126m last financial year.
Recovery was particularly strong, the group said, in the low cost, short-haul sector, with Ryanair, Jet2.com, easyJet and Tui adding a significant number of direct connections across the organisation.
Long-haul connectivity also recovered strongly, including transatlantic routes from Manchester to New York and Orlando with Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus, alongside Hainan Airlines’ service to Beijing, as well as the addition of new services to Kuwait and Bahrain.
Earlier this week, MAG announced it was submitting a planning application at Stansted for an extension to the existing terminal building which will provide terminal capacity for the airport’s growth.
MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish, who will step down from his role later this year, said: "This year’s results highlight the scale of the recovery that MAG and the aviation industry have seen over the last 12 months.
"With our airports’ route networks returning to full strength, we have been able to offer passengers the wide range of global destinations they enjoy."
Stansted continues to outperform other UK airports in its passenger recovery, serving 25.5m passengers – equivalent to 95% of pre-pandemic traffic.
Manchester, meanwhile, served 25.2m passengers across the year, equivalent to 89% traffic in 2019/20, and East Midlands served 3.3m passengers, equal to 73% of pre-pandemic traffic.
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