MAG airports continue to grow

• April passenger volumes at MAG airports grew 6.7% year on year

• London Stansted posts highest post-recession annual total of 23.2 million

• Mediterranean sun spots show particular growth, with Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia benefiting from flights to Sharm el-Sheikh being suspended

Passenger

	Manchester	London Stansted	East Midlands	Bournemouth	MAG
Rolling 12 month total	23,730,610	23,234,830	4,500,207	736,581	52,202,228
April 2016 total	1,920,084	1,961,928	380,356	56,365	4,318,733
April 2016: % change year on year	11.40%	2.70%	5.10%	6.50%	6.70%

Cargo

	Manchester	London Stansted	East Midlands
April 2016 tonnes	9,202	20,826	21,798
% change year on year	8.90%	12.60%	4.40%

MAG airports at Manchester, London Stansted, East Midlands and Bournemouth all grew last month.

The figures for April 2016 show that tour operators and airlines continued to successfully market alternatives to Sharm el Sheikh, to where flights are still suspended. As the weather warmed up in the Mediterranean, tour operators and airlines were able to successfully lay on additional capacity to resorts in mainland Spain, Greece, Italy, Croatia and Portugal, which all posted big year-on-year increases in passengers in April.

Meanwhile, the medium and long haul "winter sun" resort destinations that benefitted from displaced Sharm traffic in the winter continued to do well, with increased capacity to Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Mexico and the USA all being filled with higher load factors than at this time last year.

At Manchester Airport, passenger numbers in April 2016 were up 11.4% year-on-year. Passengers flying to Spain were up 25% year on year, while other Mediterranean sun offerings were equally popular, such as Greece (+27%), Italy (+23%) and Croatia (+42%).

The airport's role in providing a global gateway to and from the North of England was also reinforced as key long haul destinations increased in popularity. Big increases in traffic to Orlando and New York boosted the USA by 30% YoY, while Mexico was up 24%.

Additionally, the airport saw large number of football fans travelling through due to Manchester City and Liverpool's involvement in European competitions in April.

London Stansted Airport saw its 25th consecutive month of passenger growth, with load factors at 86%, meaning planes were fuller than they ever have been in April before. In the 12 months ending April 2016, the total number of passengers using Stansted grew to over 23.2 million, an increase of 10.1% over the previous year and the highest annual total since July 2008.

East Midlands Airport, posted a 5.1% increase in passengers YoY - driven by a 49% increase in passengers travelling to Spanish resorts. The recently introduced route to Düsseldorf with Eurowings, which has proven popular with business travelers, also helped traffic to Germany increase by 38% YoY.

Bournemouth Airport had a good month, increasing passenger numbers by 6.5%, again accounted for by growth to popular sun spots, including Portugal, Canary Islands and mainland Spain.

Cargo tonnage increased across MAG's airports, with particularly strong growth in dedicated freight traffic at London Stansted (up 12.6% year on year)

Ken O'Toole, CEO, Manchester Airport, said:

"It's been another strong month for growth and it sets the tone for what we hope will be a record summer for Manchester Airport.

"April saw new route launches from Jet2.com and Monarch to the likes of Krakow, Naples and Tel Aviv and May sees the launch of direct flights to Los Angeles and Boston with Thomas Cook Airlines.

"There are many reasons people visit Manchester and football is definitely one of the city's key selling points.

"It is pleasing to see the airport play such a positive role in driving the visitor economy of the North West in this way.

"With 22 million people in our catchment area we continue to offer passengers a wealth of destinations and options to suit every traveller."

Andrew Cowan, CEO, Stansted Airport, said:

"The first full month of the summer flying schedule saw passenger traffic continue to grow at Stansted with a record number of seats occupied on each flight for any April in the airport's history.

"In our 25th anniversary year, we have now seen passenger numbers grow for 25 consecutive months, a very timely achievement that has helped us add over two million passengers to the annual total in the last year alone and pushing us ever closer to our all-time high of 24 million passengers a year.

"The summer season promises to be a very busy and exciting time at Stansted. This month we have already seen the launch of Thomson's new Dreamliner flights to Florida and Cancun and at the end of May we will welcome British Airways to Stansted with its first ever scheduled flights to the popular holiday sunspots of Faro, Malaga, Palma and Ibiza plus a new service to Berlin, which we know will be popular with business travellers"