Manchester Airport has launched a free iPhone app aimed at helping passengers using its facilities. Among the features include real time flight information for arrivals and departures, with the ability to view whether a flight is ready to board, and the option to save specific flights into a personal list.

Users can also view Google maps of the terminal buildings, and get directions to the airport, and once inside interactive maps will help passengers find the location of shops, cafes, and other facilities. The application also enables iPhone users to “save time and money” by pre-booking car parking at the airport.

Andrew Harrison, Commercial Director for Manchester Airport, said: “Having recently launched our travel extra brand, The Travel Extras Store, we wanted to continue to develop all of our supporting applications around it and that will continue with the iPhone app. We want to give our customers the services they require in a way that suits them. Digital and web technology is an area of increasing interest for us across all of our airports and we want to stay ahead of the curve.”

This will be the first phase of a launch that the airport hopes to expand with passengers able to book all holiday extras through the iPhone application and will support the recently launched ‘The Travel Extras Store’ on the airport website.

Having unveiled a massive £80 million investment last Summer and seen that investment welcomed by passengers, the airport is hoping to provide more products in a new ‘one stop shop’, the Travel Extras Store. It will make it easy for passengers to finalise their travel plans in one place and will support customer’s travel planning whether they may be flying through Manchester or another airport.

The products themselves consist of a new Escape lounge in Terminal 1, car parking, private jet hire, luggage tracking, overseas assistance in an emergency, car rental, hotel booking, flights, holidays and park, stay & fly which will include a hotel stay and car parking the night before travel.

The application has been developed in conjunction with the airport’s digital supprt agency, KMP Digitata. Rhodri Edwards, Client Services Director for KMP, said: “We didn’t want to make just another app or launch one just for the sake of it. Just as we have assisted on the airport’s Twitter stream, it has to have a purpose. With live flight information and way finding available, we feel we’ve achieved that. The next step is to see if passengers can begin to use the app to book those services they want from the airport.”

The airport has more information on the app at manchesterairport.co.uk/iphone, but it can also be downloaded directly from the iTunes store by searching under Manchester Airport.