Airport Profile

At a Glance

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About the Airport

Introduction

Manchester Airport is now the UK's fourth largest airport. It currently handles about 22 million passengers a year and offers direct flights to over 180 destinations worldwide by more than 90 airlines.

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Ownership

Manchester Airport is part of the Manchester Airports Group Plc (MAG), which is the second largest airport operator in the UK.. In addition to Manchester Airport the Group also owns Nottingham East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports.

MAG is wholly owned by the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester with the City of Manchester owning 55% and the other authorities 5% each. Copies of the Group's Annual Reports and Accounts are available on the Airport's website.

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Airport History

The Airport, which first opened in 1938, has a very interesting which is outlined in some detail on the Airport's website and in the attached historical narrative** reproduced from a report of the Competition Commission which outlines the early history of the Airport until the mid 1980s when the present Company was set up. During the Second World War the airport was the home of the Parachute Training School and on the Cheshire County Council's Tatton Park site there is a short history of the school written by R.A.Scholefield in February 2005 and also a leaflet** with pictures.

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Aeronautical Data

Below is a link to the web based information services run by the UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS). Here you can find an Aerodrome Chart for Gatwick Airport and the latest navigation charts including Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Arrival Routes (STARs) - these are often important in discussions about noise abatement and track-keeping.. 

Users are required to Register before they can access the data but this is a simple process which takes only a few seconds. Once you're registered go to:

 http://www.ais.org.uk/aes/pubs/aip/html/egcc.htm

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More Detailed Information?

For more detailed information about Manchester Airport, and MAG, visit the Airport's website which contains a wealth of information about the airport: -

	About the Manchester Airports Group			The History of the Airport
	Ongoing developments			Sponsoring the Arts
	Working at the Airport			Education
	Airport Fees and Charges			Working in our Community
	Working in our Community			Environment
		Community Trust Fund			Sound Insulation Grant Scheme
		Consultative Committee			Vortex Repair Scheme
		Community Champions			Aircraft Noise Complaints

There is also information about Childflight which is the Airport's adopted charity.

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Looking Ahead

White Paper - “Future of Air Transport”

The Government's White Paper on aviation policy which was published on 16th December 2003. It represents a comprehensive statement of the Government's aviation policy looking ahead thirty years. The White Paper and associated documents can be seen on the Department's website along with the press release issued by the Department and another release dealing specifically with airports in the North of England

The White Paper sees a very positive role for Manchester Airport and endorses its future growth as a major gateway outside the South-East. Passenger throughput would be more than doubled to 50 mppa. The Government believes this growth can be accommodated on the present runways but additional terminal capacity would need to be provided. However, the White Paper is firm in its conclusion that there will need to be measures to minimise the number of people affected by noise and a strategy for enhancing access to the airport . Thus growth at the Airport “would be subject to stringent limits on the area affected by aircraft noise, with the objective of incentivising airlines to introduce the quietest suitable aircraft as quickly as is reasonably practicable. The limits should look at least ten years ahead, and will need to be reviewed at intervals between now and 2030 to take account of emerging developments in aircraft noise performance. It is also essential that airport growth does not jeopardise legal air quality standards, notably in respect of NO2. This will require thorough monitoring and evaluation.”

As mentioned in the Committee's 2003/5 Biennial Report all of this is likely to keep the Airport, and the Committee, very busy over the years ahead.

Airport Master Plans

The White Paper recommends airport operators to maintain a Master Plan detailing the development proposals relating to the Airport. These plans do not have development plan status but are to be produced at a level of detail sufficient to inform the content of the Local Development Framework produced by the planning authorities. To assist airports in producing these plans the Government in July 2004 issued Guidance** which outlines the Government's view on what it would like to see in master plans and offers good practice advice on their production . The Government has asked airports to produce fully worked-up master plans by December 2005 although outline master plan statements were expected by the end of 2004.

Manchester Airport had already done much of the spadework for the new Master Plan with the publication early in 2003 of the draft of a new Development Strategy to 2015** and the work carried for the new Ground Transport Strategy** and the Environmental Plan** will also help in the master planning process.

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CAA 2007 Airports Statistics

Notes
1. "Air transport movements" are landings or take-offs of aircraft engaged on the transport of passengers, cargo or mail on commercial terms.
3 .  A "terminal passenger" is a passenger joining or leaving an aircraft at the airport. A passenger who changes from one aircraft to another, carrying the same flight number (change of gauge) is treated as a terminal passenger, as is an interlining passenger.
4 .  A "transit passenger" is a passenger who arrives at and departs from the airport on the same aircraft which is transiting the airport. Each transit passenger is counted once only and not both on arrival and on departure.
5 .  Click the thumbnails to see larger charts
4.   The 2008 figures will become available in April or May 2009.

Headline

In 2007 Manchester Airport handled 21,892 million terminal passengers representing 9.4% of traffic at UK airports.  This represents an increase of 17.6% over 2002 when the Airport handled 18,618 million terminal passengers representing 10.5% of traffic at UK airports.

Aircraft Movements

In 2007 there were 222,703 aircraft movements.  Chart 1 shows that the great majority of these (206,607 movements - 93%) were air transport movements (atms).  Of the remainder the largest classes were private, business and positioning flights which together made up about 6.6% of flights.

Chart 1

From Chart 3 it will be seen that among air transport movements (atms) in 2007 the number of scheduled flights (81%) by far exceeded charter movements.  Chart 4 shows that the great majority (65%) of atms - both scheduled and charter - were flown by UK carriers.

Chart 3

Chart 4

Chart 5

Chart 6

Chart 5 shows for each month of 2007 the number of diverted flights and Chart 6 the airports to which they were diverted.  The number of diversions (68) was very small - only 0.06% of landings.  Most of the diverted flights (66%) went to Birmingham, Leeds Bradford ad Liverpool.

During 2007 Manchester handled 165,366 tonnes of freight (88% of it on scheduled flights) and 765 tonnes of mail - all but 9 tonnes of it carried on scheduled flights.

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Passengers

In 2007 Manchester was used by 22,210,663 passengers.  Of this number some 63% were passengers on scheduled flights - see Chart 7. The great majority (21,891,723 - 98.5%) were classifed as terminal passengers.  Only 318,040 passengers were transit passengers

Chart 8 shows the number of terminal pasengers at Manchester year by year since 1987. Over that period the annual number of passengers increased by 154%. It can be seen that in 2007 there was a 1% decrease in the number of passengers compared with 2006.

Chart 7

Chart 8

Chart 9

Chart 10

Chart 9 shows that in 2007 14.8% of passengers travelled to or from UK destinations. About 56.6% flew to or from EU countries while the remainder (28.6%) travelled to or from other international destinations. From Chart 10 it can be seen that 69% of passengers flew with UK airlines with another 17% using other EU carriers. UK airlines carried much the same number of charter passengers as scheduled.

The Airport's Traffic Statistics are published on their website.

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CAA Passenger Survey 2006

This Survey was conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority at 11 Airports in the UK. Here are some of the findings for Manchester:

Business Passengers: 20%
Leisure Passengers: 80%
UK Passengers: 84%
Foreign Passengers: 16%
Terminating Passenger: 97.3%
Interlining Passengers: 2.7%
Average passenger age: 43.5
Average business passenger salary: £63,336
Average leisure passenger household income: £43,945

For more information about Manchester, and the other Airports covered by the survey visit the CAA's website

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**To see the files in Acrobat .pdf format you will need an Acrobat Reader - this can be obtained free of charge by clicking the "Get Acrobat Reader" icon to the left