London Stansted airport reached 90 per cent of pre-Covid traffic in July when it catered for 2.5 million passengers.
The UK capital’s third largest airport has recovered more quickly than its two sister airports, Manchester and East Midlands, where passenger numbers were down by 17.9 per cent and 26.9 per cent respectively in July, compared with the same month in 2019.
The three airports are part of Manchester Airports Group, which catered for a total of 5.5 million passengers last month - still 15.4 per cent lower than in July 2019.
MAG’s CEO Charlie Cornish said: “July was MAG’s busiest month since the pandemic began, with millions jetting-off for their long-awaited summer holidays, some for the first time in two years.
“This summer, more than 11 million people will travel through our airports and, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our teams, we will ensure they get away on their travels smoothly.”
MAG was also keen to emphasise its improvement in operational performance at its airports: all passengers travelling through Stansted were able to clear security within 30 minutes during July; this figure also reached 93 per cent of passengers at Manchester airport last month and rose to 99 per cent in the first week of August.