Manchester Airport to Sponsor Leeds Pride

Leeds Pride is delighted that Manchester Airport will be another sponsor of this year’s Leeds Pride. It makes it the fifth UK Pride to be sponsored by the UK’s third largest airport.

To celebrate, representatives from Manchester Airport officially announced the partnership at the Freedom Bridge in Leeds this week. 

Speaking about the new partnership, Patrick Alexander, Manchester Airport’s Head of Marketing, said: “We are delighted to be working with Leeds Pride for the first time to support such a worthwhile event. 

“We have sponsored other Prides in the UK and thought it was time to widen our reach to showcase the great work undertaken by Manchester Airport, with many of our passengers coming from Yorkshire.

“We looking forward to working closely with the Leeds Pride team on what I am sure will be a world class event.”

Leeds Pride Directors Liaqat Ali and Alexandra McEwan-Hannant commented “We are really excited to have Manchester Airport come on board as a major sponsor of Leeds Pride. We look forward to working with them this year to make the Leeds Pride offer even bigger."

Manchester Airport serves more than 26.8 million passengers and flies to over 210 destinations with over 70 airlines. With a catchment area spanning as north as Scotland, south to the West Midlands, west to Wales and east to Yorkshire, it continues to add passengers and international routes. In the last year alone it has added direct routes to the likes of Beijing, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, Mauritius, Phuket, San Francisco and Boston. Manchester is the only UK airport outside of London to offer these routes. 

Leeds Pride 2017 will take place on the 5th and 6th August. The main event on the Sunday will include two hours of entertainment in Millennium Square, a parade through the city centre with over 60 floats and five hours of entertainment on Lower Briggate to finish off an incredible weekend. Running since 2006, it is now the largest Pride in the UK to still be a completely free event with over 40,000 people attending over the weekend. It is also considered the UK's friendliest Pride. The celebrations are run by a skilled team of volunteers with close links to local Leeds LGBT+ community and the event is funded through community fundraising, grant funding and sponsorship agreements with national brands such as First Direct and Manchester Airport.