The Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has celebrated the highest 12-month passenger total in its history with 66 million passengers having utilised its sites in 2025 – an increase of 2.2% on 2024.
In December; the Group processed 4.8 million passengers across all three of its airports, an increase of 3.9% year-on-year, with Manchester Airport welcoming 2.4 million, marking an increase of 5.9% year-on-year.
In total, Manchester Airport served 32.1 million passengers across 2025, an increase of 4.2% compared to the same period in 2024. London Stansted experienced its busiest year on record, serving 30 million passengers for a 0.9% increase year-on-year and seeing 2.3 million passengers fly out of the airport during December – a 1.6% increase.
Stansted was recently granted planning approval to increase its passenger limit from 43 million to 51 million per year, laying the foundations for long-term sustainable growth and maximisation of its existing runway capacity, as well as increasing the potential for the airport’s economic contribution to double to 2 billion GBP per year once complete.
East Midlands Airport served over 166,000 passengers during December (a 6.3% increase year-on-year), and saw a rolling 12-month total of 4 million passengers – a decrease of 4.3% year-on-year. Meanwhile, cargo operation at the airport increased significantly in December, with over 37,000 tonnes of freight being handled across the month – an increase of 31.1% year-on-year.
Across London Stansted and East Midlands, 99% of all passengers passed through security within 15 minutes or less, with the figure at Manchester Airport sitting at 98%.
Ken O’Toole, MAG CEO said:Last year was an historic one for MAG.
Record passenger numbers were driven by exciting additions to MAG’s extensive route network. That included the first ever direct links to Mumbai and Delhi from Manchester and many more unique destinations at London Stansted and East Midlands, providing passengers with value and choice across all three of our airports.
MAG is the UK’s largest airports group, and we are proud to say one in five UK air passengers use one of our airports.
That is why we are investing in the future, to drive economic growth and provide even more choice to passengers in the North, South and Midlands. As the UK’s largest investor in infrastructure outside London, we are set to conclude our historic transformation of Manchester Airport and to progress with significant investment programmes across our group starting this year.
