MAG, which owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, served 3.5 million passengers in February.

MAG’s flagship Manchester airport accounted for 1.67 million passengers – 500,000 more than February last year and 93% of February 2019. Stansted served 1.7 million passengers in February, 92% of February 2019’s total. East Midlands’ traffic for the month – 137,452 - was 64% of pre-pandemic levels.

February saw Stansted mark 10 years of MAG ownership, during which time passenger figures rose from 17 million in 2013 to 28 million in 2019, with Jet2.com and Emirates among the carriers establishing a presence.

MAG said Stansted “now serves more European destinations than any other UK airport”. In 2021 it secured planning permission to increase passenger capacity to 43 million a year from the current 25 million. 

At Manchester, low-cost carriers had a particularly strong month, with 865,000 passengers, 99% of pre-pandemic levels. Long-haul markets are also recovering strongly, with 320,000 passengers during February, 92% of 2019 totals.

The most popular destination from Manchester in February was Dubai, with more than 88,000 passengers travelling either point to point or to connect to locations like Thailand, Australia and India. Dublin, Amsterdam, Tenerife and Paris made up the rest of Manchester’s top five.

The airport also said more passengers were flying to Barbados, Istanbul, Sharm el Sheikh and Doha than before the pandemic.

Manchester airport managing director Chris Woodroofe said: “It’s fantastic to see so many travellers choosing to fly through Manchester airport– and passenger numbers returning to normal shows how far we’ve come.

“It’s also interesting to see how the landscape has changed with more people looking to travel long-haul than previously.”

Manchester airport recruited more than 2,000 new staff members in 2022 following issues with security queues. It claimed 96% of passengers queued for less than 15 minutes at security in February, with new systems due to be in place from April.