UK airports are looking forward to a busy Easter period with Manchester Airport expecting 1.1 million passengers over the holiday period, while Birmingham Airport is anticipating more than 414,000 customers to pass through its doors – 15% more than in the same period in 2022.
Between Monday 3 April and Sunday 16 April 207,000 customers will fly out and the same number will arrive at Birmingham with 126,000 customers expected to use the airport over the Easter weekend alone.
The five most popular Easter destinations from the Midlands transport hub include Dublin, Amsterdam, Dubai, Belfast and Alicante (a similar trend is being seen at Manchester Airport where Dubai has proven the most popular destination for an Easter getwaway). In anticipation of the busy Easter and summer period the airport has ramped up its recruitment campaign employing many new security officers and customer service ambassadors who have been hired, trained, vetted and deployed into the operation.
Nick Barton, CEO for Birmingham Airport commented: “While some airports have upgraded their pre-flight screening areas so that customers no longer need to remove liquids and laptops from hand luggage, Birmingham will not do this until June 2024. Until then, existing air travel rules still apply, including removing liquids and laptops from bags before they go through the scanners.”
Meanwhile at Manchester Airport , where more than 7,300 flights serving 258 destinations will be catered for over the two-week Easter period new routes include Catania in Italy, Kuwait, Bahrain, Podgorica in Montenegro and Trondheim in Norway. The airport’s forecasted figures of 1,174,462 passengers over the Easter break is a 13.1% year-on-year increase.
Following the baggage and passenger processing fiasco at Manchester last year which was due to a lack of staff available to cater for the sudden surge in passenger traffic, the airport is this year much better prepared with average security times for February below 15 minutes for 96% of customers.
“Easter is always a hugely popular time to get away, as people look to take advantage of the school holidays and grab a bit of Spring sunshine,” said Chris Woodroofe, Manchester Airport Managing Director.
“Manchester Airport is the UK’s global gateway in the North and that means we have a wide range of destinations for travellers from all parts of the region to choose form – whether that’s a city break, a European resort or a far-flung long-haul getaway. ”
He also underlined that the airport has put a range of new measures in place to avoid any delays or inconveniences to passenger journeys.
“We’ve got state of the art technology to help us track how long people are spending in queues and a new 100-person resilience team that can step in and trouble shoot any problems that may occur.
“In February, more than 95% of people got through security in under 15 minutes and we’re confident we will maintain that over the Easter period and into the summer.”
Header image: Birmingham Airport
