It covers an area of hectares 1, acres and has flights to destinations, placing the airport thirteenth globally for total destinations served. Officially opened on 25 June , [ 6 ] it was initially known as Ringway Airport , a name still in local use. Ringway , after which the airport was named, is a village with a few buildings and a church at the western edge of the airport. In , an 8-year redevelopment programme commenced which will culminate with the merger of Terminals 1 and 2 to form one large terminal to better facilitate transfers.
Construction commenced in Ringway parish on 28 November and the airport was partially operational by June , with full construction completed on 25 June After the War, the base reverted to a civilian airport and gradually expanded to its present size. Manchester was Britain's second-busiest airport, after Heathrow, by the s. In , Air France began operations from Manchester following the commencement of peacetime passenger services from the airport, and remains the airport's longest continuous operator, celebrating 75 years of service in The first transatlantic flights to originate at Manchester began in In , the runway was extended to 2, metres 9, ft , allowing aircraft to take off with a full payload and to fly non-stop to Canada.
In , the airport reached a milestone of handling over 2 million passengers in one year. The following year saw the opening of a link road connecting the airport to the M56 Motorway, improving road access from Manchester, Cheshire and North Wales. The airport saw rapid growth and expansion during the s and s, shaping the airport for the coming decades. Many of the developments made during this period remain in place or have only recently been altered following the introduction of the Manchester Transformation Project.
Passenger numbers continued to grow, reaching the milestone of handling one million passengers a month for the first time in The following year, in Manchester celebrated its Golden jubilee. In , Terminal 2 was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh along with the official opening of Manchester Airport station. During the early s, British Airways scaled down operations from Manchester Airport with the sale of their BA Connect subsidiary to Flybe and the ending of their franchise agreement with GB Airways , a business subsequently sold to easyJet.
In October , the daily New York—JFK service was terminated and in March the daily to London—Gatwick was ended, although the service has resumed in recent years. Since taking over BA Connect 's select routes, Flybe has gone on to add several more destinations. In , Flybe introduced the "mini hub" concept co-ordinating the arrival and departure times of various domestic services throughout the day and thereby creating combinations such as Norwich—Manchester—Belfast, Glasgow—Manchester—Southampton and Edinburgh—Manchester—Exeter with conveniently short transfer times.
