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May is always a busy month for Manchester Airport – with families traditionally traveling during the half-term break when the weather in popular resorts is good, but the prices are not as high as in the summer.

However, this year, May was further boosted by Manchester United fans flying out to Spain to watch their team in action in the Europa League final and people heading to Switzerland to see Eurovision firsthand.

Almost 3 million passengers passed through the UK’s global gateway in the North over the course of the month, more than 130,000 up on May 2024.

Around 10,000 Manchester United fans traveled to Bilbao for the Europa League final, including fans on more than 30 flights chartered especially for the game.

The top five non-connecting destinations in May were Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Antalya in Turkey, Tenerife, and Dalaman, also in Turkey. Two Turkish destinations in the top five for the first time this year reflects the continued growth in popularity of the country.

During May, 99.5% of passengers waited for 15 minutes or less to get to security – with 86% of passengers waiting for five minutes or less.

Chris Woodroofe, Managing Director at Manchester Airport, said:

“May was a great month here at Manchester Airport. Not only have we now recorded 20 consecutive record-breaking months – but we’ve reached some key milestones in our transformation program.

“Passengers during half-term were among the very first to experience the new security hall in Terminal 2 – it’s equipped with the latest scanners and helped make sure the vast majority of people waited for five minutes or less to get to security last month.

“Many of those passengers will also have used the new check-in desks that recently opened and will have been guided around the airport by the huge new digital gantry at the World Way entrance to the site. Even those just dropping passengers off will have benefited from our new barrierless forecourts.

“It means that while we continue to break records – we’re also improving the service we provide to our passengers. That’s because here at Manchester Airport, we’re proud to connect the North to the world.”

Although their side could not give them much to cheer on the pitch this season, stats gathered by Manchester Airport Group, which also operates London Stansted Airport and East Midlands Airport, show that Manchester United are still top of the league when it comes to shirt sales.

Manchester United sold more shirts at Manchester Airport than their sky-blue rivals City, with England shirts being the third most popular ahead of Liverpool and Leeds shirts.

In fact, the data shows that the Red Devils are not just the most popular in Manchester; they are the most popular across the whole country – even selling more shirts than Tottenham Hotspur at their local airport, London Stansted, despite Spurs beating United in the Europa League final.

Top ten most popular football shirts sold in Manchester Airport:

1. Manchester United

    2 Manchester City

    3 England

    4 Liverpool

    5. England (Retro)

    6. Leeds United

    7. Arsenal

    8. AC Milan

    9. Inter Milan

    10. Real Madrid

    Top ten football shirts sold across Manchester Airport Group:

    1. Manchester United

    2. Manchester City

    3. England

    4. Arsenal

    5. Liverpool

    6. England (Retro)

    7. Chelsea

    8. Leeds United

    9. West Ham

    10. Paris Saint Germain (PSG)

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