Christmas cheer at Manchester Airport with bumper community giveaway and millions jetting off for festive breaks

Manchester Airport is getting in the Christmas spirit with a range of community initiatives to mark the festive season, as millions of passengers prepare to travel through the airport at one of the busiest – and most wonderful – times of the year.

Flights to Lapland are now underway, and almost 30,000 passengers are expected to travel to one of the region’s four airports – Rovaniemi, Kuusamo, Ivalo and Kittila – between now and the end of December.

Many more will travel through the Northern hub in the run-up to Christmas, taking advantage of its unrivalled route network of over 200 destinations, and travelling for Christmas markets, winter sports trips, or visits to friends and family overseas.

Passengers travelling through the airport in the run-up to Christmas are advised to keep an eye on flight updates from their airline in the days before they travel and plan their journeys to the airport, allowing plenty of time to account for potential delays on the road and rail networks caused by wintry weather. You should aim to arrive two hours before your flight departure time for short-haul flights, or three hours beforehand for long-haul flights.

Passengers will see plenty of seasonal touches on their way through the airport, with a giant 20ft Christmas tree on display in Terminal 2, and decorations also on show in the other terminals. The airport’s ‘Holidays Mode Activated’ campaign is also live, promoting offers and discounts on dozens of stocking fillers, and a number of the hub’s bars and restaurants have special festive menus.

And colleagues at the airport are helping spread the spirit of the season to neighbouring communities through a range of activities, from present giveaways to opportunities to meet Father Christmas.

A Santa’s Grotto in Terminal 1’s free play area, the Little Flyers Zone, will be open until Wednesday 18^th December – giving young travellers an opportunity to send off their Christmas lists (and receive a reply) with a Letters to Santa Station. Santa’s elves are on hand throughout the next few weeks and the big man himself will be at the Grotto to greet families on Thursdays and Fridays.

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Santa will also be making an appearance on children’s charity Childflight’s annual Search for Santa on Tuesday 10^th December, when 140 children from Manchester embark on an unforgettable adventure. The circular flight will take them over the snow-capped peaks of North Wales, doubling for the North Pole, and sees Santa surprise them mid-flight before returning to Manchester later that afternoon. The event, run in partnership by Manchester Airport and TUI for Childflight, provides an unforgettable experience for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom have either never flown before.

Airport colleagues are also helping Santa out by gathering gifts as part of the airport’s annual MAG Giftmas campaign. Colleagues taking part in the campaign took a bauble from a Christmas tree in the airport’s offices with a suggested present written on it, and then provided that gift to the collection.

These will top up an approximate £3,000 worth of gifts purchased by the airport, and the airport’s senior leadership team will be wrapping these gifts and delivering them to local communities for distribution at community centres, community cafes, care homes, sheltered housing and schools. The scheme aims to ensure that no child or vulnerable person in the communities around the airport goes without a gift to open on Christmas morning.

The airport has also provided local schools with tickets to watch a pantomime at Wythenshawe Forum this week, and has extended invites to a number of community choirs to perform in its terminals throughout the month.

“I’m enormously proud of the active role the airport plays in its neighbouring communities, and that’s particularly important at this time of year. I’d like to thank all colleagues who have donated gifts or volunteered their time for schemes like MAG Giftmas and Childflight this year, and I know their efforts will help create some magical memories for youngsters across Manchester.

“We are also very much looking forward to welcoming the millions of travellers jetting off on festive trips to all four corners of the world. Around 99% of passengers got through security in under 15 minutes last month, so we are seeing strong operational performance and we’ve also invested in new snow-clearing equipment this year, so we’re well prepared for the challenges of winter weather.”

Chris Woodroofe – Managing Director, Manchester Airport