Manchester Airports Group sees revenues drop 81%

Passenger numbers for the six month period fell to 4.2 million – a reduction of 88.5% compared to the 36.4 million passengers in the equivalent period of 2019.

As a direct result the group has made a significant loss during the period.

Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) decreased from £268.1 million to -£87.5 million.

Revenue dropped from £540.6 million to £102.4 million.

The group said in a statement its response to the pandemic "has been measured, strong and focused on long-term recovery".

All non-essential expenditure was frozen, all colleagues took a 10% pay cut from April 2020 and the size of the management team has been streamlined resulting in 25% fewer leaders and back-office roles.

The statement continued: "Shareholders have been supportive through this period, providing £300 million of new equity, which together with £340 million raised through the sale of Magil’s (Manchester Airport Group Investments Limited) non-core property portfolio contributed to a cash position of £624.6 million at 30 September 2020.

"In addition, banks and listed bondholders strongly endorsed Magil’s financial and strategic response by agreeing to waive financial covenant tests at September 2020 and March 2021 and an amendment to September 2021."

Magil said it had led industry efforts to influence government policy so that the aviation industry can fly more people in the short term and recover strongly in the medium-to-long term.

It added it had helped the government to introduce international travel corridors and then refine their application to consider islands separately from the mainland.

The statement continued: "MAG has called consistently for a testing regime that would allow arrivals from higher risk destinations to quarantine for a shorter period of time.

"In late November, the government confirmed that from 15 December it would introduce a test to release system. The new system includes many of the features of a unified proposal to the government that MAG brought the airport industry together behind earlier in the year.

"Importantly, the government has also set out its ambition to keep refining the system and introducing faster and cheaper tests when it is safe to do so.

"MAG has launched testing centres at all of our airports to allow customers to book any tests that they need when arriving in the UK and for those looking to travel to other countries with pre-departure testing requirements."