First big getaway of 2026 underway at Manchester Airport with new destinations, new bars shops and restaurants – and a sneak peak at its new-look chandelier artwork

The Easter holidays have arrived at Manchester Airport, heralding the start of the travel industry’s summer season.

That means over the two weeks that started on Friday, the UK’s global gateway in the North is expecting more than 1.7m passengers to pass through.

And they will be heading to a huge range of destinations – with flight operators expanding their offerings as we enter the holiday season.

Traditional favourites like Alicante, Tenerife and Antalya are set to be popular – but there are some new additions to the 200-plus destinations you can get to from Manchester Airport for this year.

They include Montpellier, in France, and Bari, in Italy, via easyJet; Palermo, in Italy, and Samos and Thassos, in Greece, via Jet2 and Castellon, in Spain, via Ryanair.

Extra destinations are not the only new things at Manchester Airport this summer. As the airport’s £1.3bn transformation programme draws to a close after a decade of work, many new features are coming to fruition for the first time this summer.

Among the main things passengers will notice is a host of new shops and places to eat and drink. They include the new Great Northern Market – a market hall style eating area like Alty Market or Mackie Mayor – and the Fever-Tree bar in Terminal 2 and Sporting Chance which adds hundreds of seats to new space in Terminal 3.

Above and beyond those, a new barrierless system in the Terminal 2 West Multi Storey Car Park which is speeding up visits for people who are picking up passengers there and a new route for domestic arrivals which will open in early April.

Passengers travelling over the next two weeks will also be among the first to see the beginnings of the spectacular new artwork being installed in Terminal 2 – made from parts of the iconic chandeliers that once hung in Terminal 1.

The massive new installation is in the eastern security hall in Terminal 2 and uses 517 of the teardrop shaped pieces of glass from the original 1960s chandeliers which are suspended in the air and decorated with coloured parachutes. The artwork is so big that it will take several weeks just to put it in place.

Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said:

“The Easter break signals the start of the summer season so it’s always a really exciting time of year – but this year that’s more the case than ever before.

“We’re at the start of a two-week period during which we’ll see almost 2m passengers pass through the airport and many of them will be getting their first look at our brand new, £1.3bn Terminal 2 now that it’s fully open to the public.

“They’ll be able to try out things like our new Great Northern Market and get a sneak peak at our spectacular new artwork that is bringing the iconic chandeliers back to life.

“We’ve also introduced changes to the passenger experience too – we’re opening our new domestic route that means passengers arriving on domestic flights have a dedicated facility in Terminal 2 and we’ve also introduced some new measures to make parking quicker and easier.

“And on top of all that we’ve also got a whole new set of destinations for people to fly to – from the glamour of Montpellier in the south of France to exciting new Greek islands.

“Here at Manchester Airport we’ve always been proud to connect the North to the world – but in 2026 we’re connecting people to more of the world than ever and we’re doing it in style.”

The whole footprint of the new terminal is now open to the public, with just some specific retailers and features left to open. Those include Manchester Airport’s first Wetherspoon’s and high-end retailers like Jo Malone and Chanel that will open in its new Boutique Mall alongside already-open outlets like the Fever-Tree bar.

The investment in Terminal 2 is helping to unlock the full capacity of Manchester’s dual runways and driving the airport’s continued growth, letting it launch new routes like Islamabad with Pakistan International Airlines and Delhi with IndiGo, both of which launched recently.

It has also allowed the airport to migrate all airlines other than Ryanair to the new Terminal with Ryanair alone now operating from Terminal 3 – which is also in the middle of an expansion and improvement programme.

Terminal 3’s new bar Sporting Chance opened  last month adding hundreds of new seats to the terminal and opening up a significant new space. Further improvements will take place over the coming months.