Manchester Airport (IATA: MAN, ICAO: EGCC) is a major airport located at Ringway in the City of Manchester within Greater Manchester, UK, and is the busiest airport in the country outside the London region in terms of passenger numbers. It offers non-stop scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, North America, Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Far East.

A small part of the airport extends into Cheshire East. The terminals are located 7.5 NM (13.9 km; 8.6 mi) southwest of Manchester city centre. It officially opened on 25 June 1938, and was initially known as Ringway Airport. During World War II it was called RAF Ringway, and from 1975 until 1986 the title was Manchester International Airport.

The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which is a holding company owned by the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, and is the largest British-owned airport group. Each of these councils has their coat of arms displayed on banners hung from the lamp posts approaching the airport. The airport has won awards including World’s Best Airport 1995 and Travel Weekly Globe Awards’ UK Best Airport 2008. The airport has two parallel runways, three terminals and a ground transport interchange, including a railway station.

Manchester Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P712) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. In 2008, Manchester Airport handled 21,219,195 passengers with 204,610 aircraft movements, making it the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom in passenger numbers and third in terms of total aircraft movements.

Manchester Airport has three passenger terminals (Terminals 1, 2 and 3). Following recent structural work between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, there is no longer a covered link between the two facilities. Terminals 1 and 2 are linked by the skylink, with travelators to aid passengers with the 10-15 minute walk. The skylink also connects the terminals to the airport railway station complex (known as “The Station“) and the Radisson SAS Hotel. Movement between Terminals 1 and 3 is via a short external uncovered pedestrian route; alternatively, a free bus service exists, which also serves “The Station“.

The airport provides regular direct flights to destinations worldwide by 84 airlines. North American carriers at Manchester include American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways. UK operators serving the USA market are bmi (but see below) and Virgin Atlantic. Airlines serving the Asian market include Air Blue, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Manchester has been an international hub for bmi which offered several destinations from Terminal 3. On 5 November 2008, the airline announced that it is to cease all its routes from Manchester to North America including to Chicago and Las Vegas, plus holiday flights to the Caribbean. Charter airlines Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways use Manchester as their primary operational base. The airport also serves as a secondary hub for bmibaby, Flybe, Jet2.com, Monarch Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Several other British airlines have a strong presence.

Manchester Airport offers flights to over 190 destinations across the globe and 65 tour operators utilise the facility. Many of Manchester’s overseas routes are served by charter flights to holiday destinations, some being seasonal. The proportion of scheduled passengers from Manchester has climbed from just 40% in the early 1990s to reach 63% during 2007.

Manchester also offers more destinations than some of the biggest airports in the US, including New York, Chicago and Dallas, although it is still slightly behind the three biggest ‘hubs’ in the global aviation network – Atlanta, Frankfurt am Main and Amsterdam – which each offer more than 250 destinations. However, Manchester serves more foreign destinations than Atlanta and Frankfurt (but not Amsterdam), although being much smaller in terms of total passengers handled. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/