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UK’s largest airport group set for period of growth and investment

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Manchester Airports Group (MAG) believes that it is well-placed to enter a period of investment and growth, after reporting a positive set of full-year results.

In the period 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023, the UK’s largest airport group recorded a revenue of £1 billion for the first time in its history, as demand returned following the removal of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

MAG, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, served 54 million passengers across the reporting period which is equivalent to 91% of levels in 2019-2020.

The Group recorded an Adjusted EBITDA of £412 million, up from £126m last financial year, when air travel was still constrained by government travel restrictions.

These earnings were delivered on revenues of £1 billion, which were up on the £462m recorded in the previous financial year.

An operating profit of £28.6m was recorded, after accounting for one-offs, recovering from an operating loss of £130m in the year to April 2022.

It notes that “as a result of the positive relationships” fostered with its airline partners, route networks across the Group continued to be restored throughout the year.

Recovery, it states, was particularly strong in the low cost, short-haul sector, with Ryanair, Jet2.com, easyJet and TUI adding a significant number of direct connections across the Group.

Long-haul connectivity also recovered strongly, including transatlantic routes from Manchester Airport to New York and Orlando with Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus, alongside Hainan Airlines’ service to Beijing, as well as the addition of a new services to Kuwait and Bahrain.

Emirates’ routes to Dubai have also returned to full strength from both Manchester and London Stansted, operating triple daily and double daily frequencies respectively.

The Group now claims to be focused on delivering significant investment in its airports to enhance the passenger experience.

Earlier this week, MAG announced that it was submitting a planning application at London Stansted, for an extension to the existing terminal building that will significantly improve the experience for passengers and provide terminal capacity for the airport’s growth within its agreed planning consent limits.

In January, the Group also announced it was commencing the final £440m phase of the £1.3bn Manchester Airport Transformation Programme (MAN-TP), due for completion in 2025.

MAG CEO, Charlie Cornish, enthused: “This year’s results highlight the scale of the recovery that MAG and the aviation industry have seen over the last 12 months.

“With our airports’ route networks returning to full strength, we have been able to offer passengers the wide range of global destinations they enjoy.  It has also been encouraging to see the strength of the recovery in demand for travel, with passenger traffic at our airports more than 90% of pre-pandemic levels.”

According to MAG, London Stansted continues to outperform other UK airports in its passenger recovery, serving 25.5 million passengers equivalent to 95% of pre-pandemic traffic.

Manchester Airport served 25.2m passengers across the year, equivalent to 89% traffic in 2019/20, and East Midlands Airport served 3.3m passengers, equal to 73% of pre-pandemic traffic.

MAG is also quick to point out that it is still firmly focused on the sustainable development of its airports through robust plans to achieve net zero carbon operations by 2038.

Other examples of this commitment include Manchester Airport announcing its partnership with HyNet, which aims to make it the first UK airport with a direct supply of hydrogen fuel from the mid-2030s.

Whil London Stansted has received planning permission to build a 14.3 megawatt solar farm, which will be the largest of its kind in London.

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