Soaraway success
John Scheerhout
MANCHESTER Airport's bid to break the 20 million passengers-a-year barrier has been boosted by new routes, enhanced services and cut-price fares.
Bosses believe new and improved domestic and continental European routes, allied to the growing success of budget airlines now based at Manchester, will build on a bumper summer and sustain the airport's growth throughout the winter.
They are confident they can break 20 million passengers a year by the end of the financial year in March.
In August alone, 2.4 million passengers used the airport, an increase of 7.7 per cent compared with the same month last year.
In total, just under 19 million passengers used the airport last year.
PGA Portugalia airlines will increase the number of seats available this winter by using bigger 100-seat F100 aircraft on its Manchester to Lisbon and Porto service.
KLM has also increased capacity on two of its six daily flights between Manchester and Amsterdam, which now operate with B737 aircraft.
Continental Airlines, which is celebrating its eighth anniversary and more than a million passengers since its launch at Manchester, plans to introduce bigger B777 aircraft on its daily Newark service from May 15, 2004.
Ryanair, which last year withdrew services from Manchester to Dublin in a furious public row over landing fees, re-introduced a fourth daily frequency to Dublin on August 14.
Air Southwest plans to launch a new twice-daily service between Plymouth and Manchester from March 1, 2004, via Bristol Airport.
BWIA West Indies airways will introduce a second weekly flight from Manchester to Barbados and Port of Spain from January.
Suspended
Virgin Atlantic has announced its summer Orlando service will fly through the winter season for the first time. The six-times-a-week service has traditionally been suspended during the winter, but increased demand has prompted a re-think by the airline.
Bosses at Manchester holiday giant MyTravel's own budget airline, MyTravelLite, says the Manchester- Tenerife service, it started earlier this year, has pushed the fledgling no-frills carrier over the million bookings mark.
It celebrated by launching balloons with free flight tickets worth a million pounds earlier this month from MyTravel's Manchester HQ.
Monarch Scheduled has slashed its fares and is offering returns to Barcelona from £45, to Alicante, Faro, Gibraltar, Malaga and Palma, from £65, and Tenerife, from £105.
A Manchester Airport source told the Manchester Evening News: "It's looking pretty good for us, although the entire aviation industry is enjoying a much-needed change in fortunes after Sars and September 11."
August saw all previous monthly records broken at Liverpool John Lennon Airport as passenger numbers topped 327,000 - an increase of 7.5 per cent on the same month last year.
Passenger numbers continue to grow with over 300,000 additional passengers having used the airport so far this year, say the airport's bosses who claim they are the UK's, if not Europe's, fastest growing airports.
Robin Tudor, corporate affairs manager, expects through-put to reach 3.2 million passengers by the year end.
Flight articles
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Soaraway success
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