Manchester Airport Easter passenger increase
Manchester Airport has predicted its busiest Easter since 2005 as travellers take advantage of the series of bank holidays.
More than 500,000 passengers are expected to fly out between Good Friday and May 2.
The airport said that the figures are 4% up on Easter 2009 and match its pre-recession "heyday" in 2005.
A spokesman from the airport said the rise was also due to an increase in European city breaks.
"There will be about 200,000 passengers flying out just over the Easter weekend, but clearly people have decided to make the most of the succession of bank holidays to take a flight and have a good break," he said.
"We're back to the figures of what was really the airport's heyday in 2005 before we entered recession and the euro exchange rate was favourable to the pound.
"The recession and the strong euro affected flights to European cities as people just weren't tempted to take city breaks, but their popularity is increasing again, which is responsible for part of the upturn in passenger numbers," he said.
Bank holidays over Easter, the royal wedding and May Day mean that workers can take an 11-day break by using just three days' annual leave.
The airport said extra staff had been drafted in to cope with the increased passenger numbers.