Manchester flying high with busiest ever December in its 76 year history

Britain's third biggest airport, Manchester, Tuesday announced figures showing last month was the busiest ever December in its 76 year history, with passenger numbers 7.45 percent higher than the same month in 2013.

With many people seeking winter sunshine or returning home to Britain for the festive period, 1,435,470 people used the airport in December 2014, beating the previous highest December of 1,386,259 passengers in 2007.

It marked the ninth consecutive month of growth with the total number of passengers carried during 2014, reaching 21.97 million, more than six percent higher than 2013.

December also saw the start of the new Cathay Pacific service, flying direct to-and-from Hong Kong four times a week, making Manchester the only British airport outside of London with a direct service to China.

Ken O'Toole, the airport's chief commercial officer, said: "2014 has been an outstanding year for Manchester in terms of growth and gives us the momentum to attract even more new services and increased capacity on existing routes in 2015."

"We now fly to over 200 destinations around the globe and continue to attract new airlines and routes," said O'Toole.

During 2014 Manchester was named as the UK's Airport of the Year. Endit