Manchester Airport served 3.1m passengers in August – an increase of 13% on August 2022 and the highest figure of the summer as travellers saw out the school holidays in style.

And the overwhelming majority of passengers had a great experience,  with 98% going through security in under 15 minutes and 79% getting through in under five minutes – the best figures on record.

This is reflected in a survey of more than 1,000 passengers at the airport over July and August that showed 93% of passengers rated their overall satisfaction as ‘good,’ ‘very good’  or ‘excellent’.

This summer, the Civil Aviation Authority also gave the airport its top rating for the service it provides to passengers with reduced mobility.

Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said:

“We are really proud to serve the people of the North, from Leeds to Liverpool and Salford to Sheffield – and I think now we can look back at the summer and say with confidence that we’ve done a good job.

“We’ve delivered one of the best summers ever for our passengers with more people than ever before getting through security in under 15 minutes despite huge numbers coming through on their holidays.

“That’s thanks to a lot of hard work from people all over the airport – including our own staff and our colleagues from third parties like airlines, ground handling agents, retail colleagues and many more.

“Because of the nature of international travel there will always be moments where things didn’t go according to plan, but we had the people in place to make sure these hitches were fixed quickly. Our new 100-person resilience team, trained in a variety of roles across the airport, really helped make sure issues didn’t affect the vast majority of travellers when they did crop up.

“Now I’m looking forward to the rest of the year. September is always popular with travellers looking to catch the last of the summer sun outside peak season, while October half- term and Christmas are also busy periods.

“We’re looking ahead to next summer too – when passengers will be able to choose an even greater range of destinations including exciting new routes like Las Vegas with Virgin Atlantic and Cairo with EgyptAir.”

The most popular destinations for August included many of the most popular for the summer as a whole, with Palma de Mallorca the most flown-to destination for the area’s travellers followed by Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey. Dubai re-entered the top five for the month pushing Dublin out.

Top ten destinations in August:

1)    Palma de Mallorca – 132,000 passengers (inbound and outbound)
2)    Antalya (Turkey) – 101,000 passengers
3)    Dalaman (Turkey) – 98,000 passengers
4)    Dubai – 91,000 passengers
5)    Alicante – 89,000 passengers
6)    Dublin – 86,000 passengers
7)    Tenerife – 85,000 passengers
8)    Amsterdam – 82,000 passengers
9)    Faro (Portugal) – 66,000 passengers
10)  Malaga – 61,000 passengers