Chief executive Chris Woodroofe said the airport was hopeful of reaching 40 million passengers a year over the next five years, adding there were several specific routes – including Riyadh and Tokyo – he'd like to add to Manchester's departure board over that same period.
"Equally, North America, South America and Africa are all places where we could expand our footprint," Woodroofe added.
His comments come with seven new European and Mediterranean short-haul routes set to take off from Manchester this year, including flights to Bodrum (SunExpress), Castellon (Ryanair), La Palma (Jet2), Montpellier (easyJet), Palermo (Jet2), Preveza (easyJet) and Samos (Jet2).
They also follow the addition over the past year of new long-haul routes to India, Pakistan and Thailand, and shorter-haul services to the likes of Strasbourg, Ljubljana, Rabat and Tallinn.
"We have a list here of what we refer to as our biggest unserved destinations – that’s the destinations that we don’t have direct flights to but have the greatest demand, demonstrated by people from the region travelling to them either on connecting flights or from other airports," Woodroofe continued.
"Those destinations are always our priority. At the start of last year, the biggest names on that list were Bangkok, Delhi, Mumbai and Islamabad – and we’ve now launched flights to all of those. This year we’ll carry on through the list."
Manchester's passenger numbers grew every month last year, with this growth expected to continue into 2026 as the airport prepares to open its new-look Terminal 2 after a 10-year, £1.3 billion transformation effort.
