Not a cloud in the sky

A clear advantage that Manchester has over many cities is its ever growing airport which now has over 60 airlines serving over 190 destinations throughout the world. Now with two full length runways and three passenger terminals, the airport has the capacity to grow well beyond its current total of 19 million passengers a year. Without doubt, this has given the North West a real international status, which is enhanced by such organisations as Manchester United (probably the best known football team in the world). This is only part of the story because the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is the UK’s largest British owned airports operation with an annual passenger roll of 24 million through its network of Manchester, East Midlands, Humberside and Bournemouth. At the heart of the business is a property portfolio which has expanded to over £320 million with more than 200 buildings and 5,000 acres. That means it is a sizeable property company with 850 customers.

Clearly MAG is intent on expansion to meet the needs of all its airports. In the past decade one of the problems at the larges airport operator, BAA, has been a lack of major investment despite building Terminal Five at Heathrow. For example, MAG has an imaginative plan for Airport City to generate non-aviation income at Manchester. The long term lan aims to create an integrated business destination and transport hub, helped by improvements such as the new Metrolink to the city centre. The 15-20 year plan will transform 230 acres surrounding the airport into a mixed use development catering for a wide range of occupiers. At the moment the airport has offices of 27,356 sq.metres and 84,608 sq.metres of warehouses as well as hotels with 1,442 bedrooms.

This substantial business supports 20,000 directly employed and a further 42,000 jobs in the North West, numbers which are set to grow. The latest expansion is for an 18,580 sq.metres transit shed at the World Freight Terminal in a three storey freight handling unit with office space. MAG has not neglected its other airports and is expanding bournemouth, where it has a new letting to Jet Engineering Technical Support, and East Midlands where construction has started on a £22 million 4 star Radisson Blue Hotel in partnership with Azure Property Group.

The North West Commercial Property Register

The North West Commercial Property Register is a leading UK business property publication from Martin Austen Publishing. The aim of the publication is to offer a simple and effective means of finding Offices Space in the North West, Serviced Offices in the North West and commercial property in North West. You can also find the latest commercial property news for the North West.