Yahoo News The surprising destination named Manchester Airport’s most popular in November, beating Canary Islands and Dubai
Thousands of passengers jetted off to winter sun destinations from Manchester Airport in November, with the likes of Dubai, Tenerife and Alicante proving popular. But one European city came out on top as the most visited place for jetsetters, bucking the trend for a sunny getaway.
A total of 94,990 flew to Amsterdam last month, making it the top destination from the airport - the first time this year its taken the title. It was closely followed by another northern European city, Dublin, which welcomed 92,299 passengers from Manchester.
Dubai, Tenerife and Alicante helped to make up the top five, as many travellers favoured warmer climes as the weather declined in the UK. Overall Manchester Airport welcomed 2.1million passengers in November, beating the previous record by 13 per cent.
READ MORE: The last-minute Christmas holidays from Manchester Airport starting from £42
This month travellers expected to seek out festive magic in colder destinations, with around 25,000 passengers expected to fly to Finland in December. Although you can fly to Helsinki from Manchester all year round, this month five more Finnish airports are added to Manchester’s networks: Ivalo, Kittila, Enontekio, Kuusamo and Rovaniemi.
All of these airports provide access to Lapland, home of thick snow, husky rides, pine forests and, of course, Father Christmas himself. The airport is expecting a busy Christmas holiday period, with around 1.1million passengers expected to fly into or out of Manchester during the two weeks between Friday December 20 and Thursday January 2.
Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said: “Christmas is a magical time here at Manchester Airport. We’re always proud to connect the North to the world but the importance of that role really shines through at this time of year. It feels wonderful when you see travellers having emotional reunions in arrivals and families in departures getting ready to visit Father Christmas in Lapland.
“It’s also always a popular time to fly and, having broken our passenger records every month for well over a year now, we expect this Christmas to be the biggest and busiest we’ve ever seen with over a million passengers flying in the two-week festive period.
“Not only will those passengers receive a great service – last month 82per cent of our passengers waited less than five minutes to get to security – but they will also be able to soak up some of the magic we have here, including Santa’s grotto in our Little Flyers Zone in Terminal 1 and choirs singing carols at various spots in all three terminals. We can’t wait to welcome passengers to Manchester Airport this festive season.”
As the year comes to an end the airport has reached a number of other key milestones in its £1.3billion transformation programme – which began in 2015 and will be complete next year. External work on the new pier on Terminal 2 – the second pier - has been completed in a significant step closer to completion.
Work has begun to build a brand-new road near Terminal 2, Sydney Avenue, a new link road near the Thorley Lane entrance to the airport site. The new road will replace the existing Sydney Avenue and will improve traffic flow around the area.
The first trials of new taxiways on the airfield have also passed by successfully. The new taxiways allow large aircraft to pass side by side en-route to Terminal 2. It is a significant step in opening the full capacity of the new terminal. Some of the retail spaces in the new part of the terminal have been handed over to the brands that will run them so they can be fitted out, ready to open next year.
The most popular destinations during November were:
Amsterdam – 94,990 passengers
Dublin – 92,299 passengers
Dubai – 90,628 passengers
Tenerife – 83,447 passengers
Alicante – 71,062 passengers
Paris Charles De Gaulle – 63,282 passengers
Qatar – 57,227 passengers
Lanzarote – 44,500 passengers
Belfast – 44,396 passengers
Copenhagen – 41,294 passengers
