MANCHESTER AIRPORT GUIDE (MAN)

QUICK FACTS Name: Manchester Airport IATA Code: MAN ICAO Code: EGCC Opened: 1934 Terminals: 3 Runways: 2 Destinations served:100+ Passengers: 18m (2009)

HISTORY

Manchester Airport’s origins can be traced back to 1934, when the site on which the Manchester Airport parking facilities were chosen to build an airfield. Construction began late the following year, November 1935, in a celebrated fashion lead by the Lord Mayor. By the summer of 1938, the airport was complete and officially opened to the public on the 25th June through a celebration that included a fantastic air display of RAF aircraft. KLM was the first operator to schedule a flight – a Douglas DC-2 from Amsterdam – into the new airport. In the first year of its operation, Manchester Airport (then called Ringway Airport) saw 4,000 passengers safely on their way to domestic and international destinations.
 
The outbreak of World War II saw Manchester airport temporarily bring to an end its civil operations and in place of passenger airliners, the Royal Air Force moved in. Construction of the RAF station began only a year after the opening of the airport to the public and upon completion, was used for both the training of new pilots as well as operational flying. Between the years of 1940 and 1946, over 60,000 paratroopers were trained at the Manchester Airport’s airfield by the No. 1 Parachute Training School RAF. During the war period, further assembly sheds and hangar bays were added to Manchester Airport from which came the design and construction of the three bombers, the Avro Lincoln, Avro Manchester and the Avro Lancaster.
 
Subsequent to the war years, Manchester Airport underwent further expansion and construction which began with the construction of two tarred runways, which were later replaced by its current-day network of airplane taxi lanes and runways. Terminal one and two were also built, as well as the Manchester Airport parking facilities. The first trans-Atlantic flight took off from Manchester Airport on the 28th October 1953, destined to JFK International in New York. The next two years saw passenger numbers grow by 500,000 per year and the next three decades (1988) saw around 9.5 million passengers annually! By 2009, the number of passengers making their way from the Manchester Airport parking facilities and into the terminal buildings had increased to 20 million!
 
In 1972, the flight hub was officially named the Manchester International Airport and since its early years has expanded and developed its infrastructure and domestic and international flight plans to such a degree, that it is now one of the most popular and busy of all the United Kingdom’s airports.