Manchester Airports Group records historic growth as it plans £2.5 billion investment across UK airports

MAG has reported a record year, serving 65 million passengers for the first time in its history for the year ending 31 March. The Group, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, as well as travel services business CAVU, posted revenues of £1.3 billion, up 8.4% on the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 12.5% to £570.4 million, while operating profit increased 9.8% to £263.2 million.

Growth was driven by new routes and increased frequencies from major airlines including easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2.com and TUI. Notably, India’s largest airline, IndiGo, began its first European service from Manchester to Mumbai during the period. CAVU, MAG’s digital travel services business, grew revenues nearly 14%, now operating at 308 airports in 48 countries.

MAG continued its major infrastructure investment, nearing completion of the 10-year Manchester Airport Transformation Programme later this year. The Group plans to invest a further £2.5 billion across its airports over the next five years, including £1.1 billion at London Stansted announced at the Government’s International Investment Summit in October.

MAG CEO Ken O’Toole said, “This year’s record performance is a testament to the strength of our business and the dedication of our people. With more passengers choosing our airports than ever before, MAG continues to play a vital role in connecting the UK to the world.” He added, “Our airports are engines of growth for the regions they serve. Through continued investment, we’re creating jobs, supporting local economies, and enabling trade and tourism across the North, South and Midlands.”

O’Toole also highlighted MAG’s commitment to sustainability: “Our new five-year Sustainability Strategy builds on two decades of progress and reinforces our commitment to reducing emissions, creating opportunities, and supporting the communities we serve.”

Customer experience remained strong with 98.9% of passengers passing through security in 15 minutes or less across all three airports.

Manchester Airport

• In September 2024, Manchester Airport served 30m passengers over a 12-month period for the first time its history, placing its alongside other major international airports such as La Guardia in New York and Melbourne Airport in Australia. The UK’s global gateway in the North ended the period having served more than 31.1m passengers, up 8.4% on 2023-24.
• Manchester Airport welcomed a number of new carriers across the year. Its long-haul connectivity was strengthened as Juneyao Airlines started its three times weekly service to Shanghai – creating the first ever direct connection to the Chinese city from outside of London. The publication of today’s results also coincides with the inaugural flight of IndiGo’s Manchester to Mumbai service, signalling India’s largest carrier’s first route in Europe.
• New carrier Royal Air Maroc also introduced a route to Casablanca to the Northern hub this year, as well as FLYONE, which introduced a twice weekly service to Moldovan capital Chisinau.
• Manchester Airport is now nearing completion of its £1.3bn Manchester Airport Transformation Programme (MAN-TP), which began in 2015. The scheme has extended and modernised Terminal 2 as well as improving the efficiency of the airport’s airfield and taxiways.
• New retailers were also announced, including JD Wetherspoon, Chanel and Lego, which will feature in the refurbished legacy Terminal 2 building when it opens to passengers during the summer 2025 season. When complete, the airport’s transformation will increase contributions to the Northern economy by around 80% to £6.3bn by 2040.

London Stansted Airport

• London Stansted Airport also recorded significant growth across the year, serving a record 29.1m passengers, up 4.8% year-on-year. In October, the airport recorded its busiest day ever, with more than 107,000 passengers passing through its terminal in a 24-hour period.
• Serving more European destinations than any other UK airport, London Stansted’s unrivalled offering to passengers continued to expand this year. Ryanair added new routes to Dubrovnik, Sarajevo and Linz, while Jet2.com announced new services to Agadir, Marrakesh and Tivat. Following British Airway’s successful return to the London airport over the summer period, the carrier added a new route to Split.
• New carriers at the airport included Dutch airline Transavia with a route to Rotterdam, and Royal Air Maroc’s new service to Casablanca. Air Algerie also announced a direct service to Algiers.
• The airport’s double daily service to Dubai continued to prove extremely popular with passengers, connecting them to a host of global destinations from the middle eastern hub. The airline’s offering at London Stansted was enhanced this year, as the new Emirates lounge opened in September for business and first-class passengers. Just this week, Turkish Airlines announced a new double-daily service to Istanbul, adding another long haul route with strong onward connectivity options to its departure boards.
• This reporting period signalled the beginning of large-scale investment plans at London Stansted. Details of a five-year £1.1bn investment programme were revealed by the Prime Minister at the Government’s International Investment Summit in October.
• The centrepiece of the plans is a £700m extension to the existing terminal building, featuring new retail offerings and improved passenger facilities. It is estimated the growth this investment will unlock can create up to 5,000 new onsite jobs and double the airport’s economic contribution to £2bn annually.
• That extension will enable it to grow to its existing passenger limit of 43m passengers per annum (mppa).
• In December, London Stansted published its new Sustainable Development Plan (SDP), setting out how it plans to grow sustainably over the next 20 years. This included plans to increase its passenger cap to 51mppa, making best use of its existing spare runway capacity, without adding any additional flights than are currently permitted.
• Last month, the airport formally submitted its planning application to Uttlesford District Council with the proposal.

East Midlands Airport

• East Midlands Airport’s performance was in line with last year, once again serving 4.0m passengers, and as the home of the UK’s largest pure freight operation, handled more than 367,000 tonnes of cargo. It continued to offer its passengers a range of popular European destinations this year, with a number of new additions. TUI announced a new route to Naples over the summer season, alongside services to Burgas and Boa Vista. Jet2.com also commenced new service to Symi.
• Eastern Airways switched its operations from Paris Orly to the more central Paris Charles De Gaulle, offering passengers a more direct route to the French capital, which also offers onward connections to destinations worldwide.
• East Midlands Airport carries the largest amount of express freight that goes in and out of the UK, and this year its network of cargo routes also expanded. Chinese carrier One Air commenced new services to China and Hong Kong, and in May 2025, new cargo Yun Express and Ethiopian Cargo will be both announced services to China, while Atlas Air commenced flights to both the US and China.
• In January, the Chancellor announced a new partnership between East Midlands Airport and Prologis as part of a landmark speech on economic growth.  The new partnership will advance the airport’s Freeport plans, and subject to planning permission, will see the construction of a new logistics and advanced manufacturing park next to the airport.
• This is projected to unlock £1bn of investment stimulating economic growth and employment in the region. Last month, East Midlands also announced plans to being forward four sites next to its runway for development. The CargoMAX plans could generate up to a further 22,000 jobs when complete.
• The airport also continued to deliver its £120m investment programme at East Midlands Airport, providing improvements across the site over the next five years.

CAVU

• CAVU, MAG’s global travel services business also saw its international presence grow across the year, with revenues for the division up 13.9% on FY24.
• CAVU has a range of digital and physical products to enhance the airport passenger journey. It now has a presence in more than 308 airports across 48 countries and operates airport lounges across the UK, US and Australia – including at all three of MAG’s airports and Bristol Airport.
• In this reporting period, CAVU announced its acquisition of Parkos, a leading European parking comparison site. The site, which serves more than four million customers worldwide, adds more than 1,000 new parking providers across 15 countries to CAVU’s online marketplace
• CAVU also grew its lounge network this year, both in the UK and overseas. New airport lounges opened at Nortwest Arkansas, Portland and Kansas City airports in the US and Cairns and Brisbane airports in Australia, meaning it now operates 28 lounges globally.

Working together for a brighter future

As the Group continued to work towards its target of net zero carbon operations by 2038, its commitment to sustainability was once again independently recognised. In 2025, MAG was names a Financial Times European Climate Leader for the fifth time, as well as retaining its five-star GRESB rating. It also received a ‘gold standard’ award by EcoVadis, placing MAG in the top 5% of rated businesses.

Across the reporting period, MAG welcomed updates from UK Government about the use and domestic production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), including that the UK’s SAF Mandate, and the creation of a Revenue Certainty Mechanism (RCM) for domestic SAF. The creation of an RCM, which has now been passed into law, will assist the UK in realising the potential of a domestic SAF industry, which will ensure that the cost of flying remains accessible for passengers, while creating tens of thousands of green jobs in the UK.

In May, MAG launched its new five-year Sustainability Strategy ‘Creating a sustainable future for all’. The new Strategy builds on the more than two decades progress and focus that has placed sustainability at the core of how MAG operates. The Strategy has two main focus areas: Protecting our Environment and Community at our Core, with a number of targets in place, including reducing scope 1&2 market-based emissions by 48%, supporting 70,000 young people through education programmes, and donating £1.5m to local communities, all by 2030. You can read the full Strategy here.

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