Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport (MAN) is the United Kingdom's third-busiest airport and the largest outside London, a positioning that has given it an outsized role as the provincial long-haul gateway for a catchment of more than 22 million people across the North of England, North Wales, and the East Midlands. Located 13 km (8 mi) southwest of Manchester city centre at 257 ft (78 m) elevation, it handled 30.8M passengers in 2024 — a record — making it one of only three UK airports to clear 30 million. The two-runway layout (05L/23R at 10,000 ft and 05R/23L at 10,000 ft), opened in its twin form in 2001 with the commissioning of the UK's first parallel second runway since LHR, supports 61 movements per hour. Three passenger terminals operate, of which Terminal 2 is undergoing the GBP 1.3 billion 'Manchester Airport Transformation Programme', a phased replacement of the 1962 T1 and a doubling of T2 footprint that will consolidate all future operations by 2027. The expansion added 16 new widebody stands and, uniquely for a UK regional airport, a dual-level baggage system rated at 8,000 bags per hour. Manchester is the only UK airport outside LHR with a sustained Asian long-haul portfolio: Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Emirates (three daily A380s), and Qatar Airways all operate widebody services, and virgin Atlantic and TUI base long-haul aircraft here. The airport's Concorde Hangar, which displays one of only two production Concordes on permanent static display in the UK, is a visible marker of Manchester's mid-century industrial and aviation heritage.