Manchester Airport (IATA: MAN, ICAO: EGCC) is a major airport located at Ringway in the City of Manc...
Manchester Airport (IATA: MAN, ICAO: EGCC) is a major airport located at Ringway in the City of Manchester within Greater Manchester, England, and is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom outside the London region in terms of passenger numbers. It offers non-stop scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Middle East and Far East. The airport is located within the City of Manchester except for a small overlap into the Cheshire East district. 7.5 NM (13.9 km; 8.6 mi) southwest of Manchester city centre. It officially opened on 25 June 1938, and was initially known as Ringway Airport. During World War II it was called RAF Ringway, and from 1975 until 1986 the title was Manchester International Airport. The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which is a holding company owned by the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, and is the largest British-owned airport group. Each of these councils has their coat of arms displayed on banners hung from the lamp posts approaching the airport. The airport has won awards including World's Best Airport 1995 and Travel Weekly Globe Awards' UK Best Airport 2008. The airport has two parallel runways, three terminals and a ground transport interchange, including a railway station. Manchester Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P712) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. In 2008, Manchester Airport handled 21,219,195 passengers with 204,610 aircraft movements, making it the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom in passenger numbers and third in terms of total aircraft movements. The airport originated in mid 1934 when the location was selected to build an airfield. On 25 July 1934, Manchester City Council voted narrowly in favour of the Ringway site as the City's new airport. The site for the planned airport was at the time in the Cheshire parish of Ringway (as it was south of the River Mersey). Construction was ceremonially started by the Lord Mayor on 28 November 1935 and was completed for civil aviation use by early summer 1938. The airport was officially opened on 25 June 1938 during a public air display that included both civil and RAF aircraft and received its first scheduled flight, a KLM operated Douglas DC-2 from Amsterdam. The airport at this time was called Ringway, named after the parish it lay within. Pre-war, KLM was the only international operator out of Ringway and offered a request stop at Doncaster. 4000 passengers used the airport in 1938 and another 4000 during the first eight months of 1939, before declaration of war brought an end to civil operations. Construction of a Royal Air Force station commenced in 1939 on the north east edge of the airfield. RAF Ringway was used for both operational flying and training. The main user was No.1 Parachute Training School RAF which trained over 60,000 paratroopers between June 1940 and March 1946. The trainees parachuted over Tatton Park, after receiving permission from land owner, Lord Egerton. A complex of hangars and assembly sheds on the north west side of the airfield was used by Fairey Aviation for the construction, modification and testing of over 4,000 aircraft. From spring 1939, Avro used the 1938-built main hangar for assembly and testing the prototype Avro Manchester, Avro Lancaster and Avro Lincoln bombers. Three southside hangars were erected in 1942/1943 and used for the assembly of Avro York military transport aircraft. The advent of heavier aircraft types resulted in the all-grass landing area being badly damaged in wet weather during the winter of 1940/41. The ruts froze during cold weather, damaging the undercarriages of taxying aircraft. Two asphalt runways of 3,000 ft (910 m) length were therefore hastily laid down between June and December 1941. The runways were designated 06/24 and 10/28. The former was lengthened to 4,200 ft (1,300 m) by January 1943 to accommodate the four-engined aircraft now using RAF Ringway and the 3,300 ft (1,000
