The growth of long-haul flights has helped Manchester to record its best year for traffic with 22.32 million passengers using the airport in the last 12 months.
Manchester’s passenger numbers rose by 7.5 per cent for the year to the end of March 2015 to beat the previous record of 22.26 million set in 2006.
The airport also wants to take advantage of the lack of capacity in the south-east as it bids to become the “UK’s global gateway from the north”.
Manchester has benefited from new flights by Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, Delta’s introduction of a service to New York JFK from next month, and more capacity from the Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways. Turkish Airlines has also increased frequencies to Istanbul.
Managing director Ken O’Toole said: “We have worked closely with our airline partners to cement and maintain this continued growth, increasing capacity and frequency on existing routes, plus confirming new services, particularly to serve demand that exists from Manchester in the long-haul market.
“With Manchester airport having spare runway capacity we can offer those customers and airlines an alternative to travelling via a congested London airport.
“We have made great headway to unlock the spare capacity at Manchester Airport and are in talks with a range of carriers to further capitalise on the potential we offer in the short to medium term while the South East capacity debate evolves.”
manchesterairport.co.uk