Airport still flying high
John Scheerhout
AIRLINES are suffering as people avoid travelling long distances because of the the war in Iraq - but short-haul flights from Manchester are booming.
Customers for flights to UK and European cities are being encouraged by a series of new routes, an increasing number of budget airlines at the airport and slashed ticket prices offered by national carriers like British Airways, Air France and KLM.
"It's an unexpected benefit of the war. The long-haul routes have taken a bit of a hammering, but in terms of short-haul, things are looking very rosy," said an airport source.
Domestic routes, particularly to London, are enjoying a mini-boom. The latest figures show that 220,620 people boarded domestic flights from Manchester during February, a rise of 11.58 per cent on the previous February. The number of international scheduled flights fell.
Last week saw the inaugural flight of the new twice-daily Manchester to Cologne service by Hapag-Lloyd Express, a new German budget carrier with one-way fares costing from £12.99.
Bmi baby, which launches Manchester Airport's first large-scale budget operation on May 1, has also reported bookings have remained strong for its new services to Belfast, Cork, Malaga, Murcia, Alicante and Palma.
British Airways also launched its Manchester to Vienna service, with new routes to Bologna and Pisa on the way. Eastern Airways, which last year launched services between Manchester and Dundee and Inverness, is to start a three-times a day service to Stansted from the end of this month.
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