The group’s three airports, Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands, recorded 49.9 million passengers, compared to the 60 million-plus seen in 2019.
In the calendar year, Manchester and Stansted both accounted for just over 23 million passengers, with East Midlands 3.2 million.
In December, the first restriction-free festive travel period for three years, Stansted served 1.8 million passengers, 93% of pre-pandemic traffic. Manchester accounted for 1.7 million in the same month – 88% of December 2019’s total. East Midlands’ traffic was 75% of pre-pandemic levels, with more than 150,000 passengers passing through.
MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish said: “It was great to see so many passengers back enjoying air travel again over the Christmas period and our traffic figures for 2022 demonstrate the strong recovery we have seen across all of our airports over the past 12 months.”
MAG said 99% of passengers at Stansted and East Midlands had passed through security in 15 minutes or less in December, with the figure for Manchester Airport at 95%.
