Manchester Airport has announced that despite the snow and ice, which closed a number of airports around the country during December’s severe weather, its efforts to stay open and keep services flying resulted in an increase of 1.67 per cent in passenger numbers. BAA, which runs airports including Heathrow, Glasgow and Aberdeen, reported an overall drop in passenger numbers of 11 per cent.

For the third month in a row Manchester Airport saw a rise in the number of travellers coming through its doors. Scheduled flights to international destinations were up by 9.22 per cent. It also experienced an increase in the number of services to ski destinations and long-haul services to US cities such as New York and Las Vegas.

The airport managed to keep running, when others could not cope, largely because it had invested heavily in equipment such as snow ploughs, trucks for gritting and adequate stocks of de-icer. The airport’s busiest day was 22 December when 70,000 passengers were handled. There was however a 19 per cent drop in the number of people flying domestically and charter flights were down by almost three per cent.

Manchester Airport’s managing director, Andrew Harrison, said it was pleasing to have had such a strong month in December; especially because a number of other airports had found it hard to deal with the severe wintry weather.

Harrison said there was the inevitable disruption due to the closure of other connecting airports, but that this had not prevented Manchester from seeing a positive increase in traffic, despite the harsh conditions.