Airport City Manchester is an £800 million expansion of

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those ...

currently under construction. The plan will follow an

airport city An airport city is the “inside the fence” airport area of a large airport, including the airport (terminals, apron, and runways) and on-airport businesses such as air cargo, logistics, offices, retail, and hotels. The airport city is at the ...

model with the aim of stimulating the

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

economy by creating on-site logistics, manufacturing, office and leisure facilities. Manchester Airport will become the first airport in the United Kingdom to build an airport city. Manchester Airport is the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom after

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

and

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

, and is the international gateway for northern England. The site was announced as an enterprise zone in March 2011. In October 2013, it was announced Beijing Construction Engineering Group would invest £800 million into the project—becoming one of the largest single investments in Britain from China. It will be one of the largest property development schemes in

alongside MediaCity and NOMA as well as in the United Kingdom.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

paramount leader Paramount leader () is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often hol ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

, alongside former

UK Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, visited the Airport City development in October 2015 as part of his

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

Proposal

Airport City Manchester will follow the airport city model, that has been implemented at other such as Barcelona and Frankfurt. Two main zones will house the new developments. The first will be adjacent to the airport railway station, and north of the

M56 motorway The M56 motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England. It runs east to west from junction 4 of the M60 at Gatley, south of Manchester, to Dunkirk, approximately north of Ches ...

. The site here will mainly consist of hotel, office, and manufacturing facilities. The second core site will be situated nearby the existing cargo centre near junction 6 of the M56.

Scheme

Manchester Airport is the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom, and is overall the busiest outside the London region and has over double the number of passengers of its nearest non-London rival. It is predicted Manchester Airport will double its 18 million passengers in 2011 to 36 million by 2030. Unlike London Heathrow and Gatwick Airport, vacant land exists around Manchester Airport for expansion. Both Heathrow and Gatwick have encountered opposition in their wish to expand, particularly over a third runway at Heathrow. In March 2011, the site was selected as an enterprise zone, offering lower business rates to attract investment in the area. Former UK Chancellor George Osborne described the zone as one of the best developed and most advanced of any of the 24 enterprise zones which were announced in 2011. The site plan and design will be led by Manchester-based architects, 5plus Architects. Construction will be undertaken by a joint venture of

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following ...

and Beijing Construction Engineering Group. It was scheduled to open in 2016.

Transport

Enterprise Way, a new road within the site, started construction in January 2017 and was completed in February 2018.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Airport City Manchester website
Manchester Airport

Proposal

Scheme

Transport

See also

References

External links