MAG airports saw continued strong growth in both passenger numbers and cargo tonnes flown in May.

At Manchester Airport, record numbers of passengers travelling long haul and within Europe meant that passenger volumes grew 11.9 per cent, and the growing breadth of the airport’s long haul network drove cargo tonnage to 12.9 per cent growth.

The destinations that saw the biggest jump in passenger numbers compared with last year were Alicante, Hamburg and Berlin.

Numbers at Manchester were further boosted by the thousands of Manchester United fans who flew to Stockholm on 50 dedicated flights to watch their team lift the Europa League trophy in the Swedish capital.

Flyers also took advantage of new direct flights from Manchester to Muscat with Oman Air and more direct flights to San Francisco with Thomas Cook, routes which both successfully launched in May.

London Stansted welcomed over 2.3 million passengers to the airport during its busiest ever May, an increase of seven per cent over the same month in 2016, as Jet2.com’s new southern base experienced a strong second month and Ryanair and easyJet also grew passenger numbers.

The international markets seeing the strongest passenger growth compared to May last year were Denmark, Bulgaria and Cyprus, while the most popular countries to fly to from London Stansted were Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland.

East Midlands and Bournemouth airports also grew passenger numbers in the month, with East Midlands growing 3.9 per cent and Bournemouth growing 4.7 per cent.

East Midlands’ growth was driven by passengers flying to Hungary, Croatia and Malta, while Bournemouth passengers jetted off to the Canary Islands and Cyprus in growing numbers.