Car Hire Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport is a major airport in Manchester in the UK. It opened to airline traffic in June 1938. It was initially known as Ringway Airport and during World War 2, as RAF Ringway. From 1975 until 1986, the title Manchester International Airport was used. It is located on the boundary between Cheshire and Manchester in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.

The airport is approximately a 20 minute drive from Manchester City Centre and is reached by the M56 motorway, with a dedicated spur road from the motorway at junction 5. The M56 is the main route used by traffic to reach the airport, so it will be easy to find the airport while driving a car hire from Thrifty Car Rental.

It has two parallel runways, the second of which opened in 2001 at a cost of £172 million. The airport has three adjacent terminals and a railway station. It is owned by the Manchester Airports Group, which is controlled by the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester and is the largest UK owned airport group. Manchester Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction.

Manchester Airport was ranked as the 16th busiest world airport in 2004 and is the fourth busiest airport in the UK, after London Heathrow, London Gatwick and London Stansted and is a great place to find car hire from Thrifty Car Rental.

In total passengers handled, Manchester ranked 48th in the world in 2005, down from 45th in 2004. Also, in 2006 Manchester had recorded 234835 aircraft movements, of which 213100 were air transport movements; this was the third highest in the UK behind Heathrow and just under Gatwick. So while driving that car hire from Thrifty Car Rental and you won’t be too far from the city centre.