MAG Reports Strong Annual Results Amid Record Passenger Numbers and Major Investment Programme

Manchester Airport Group annual results: strong growth, record passengers and a solid funding position

This RNS is from Manchester Airport Group Funding PLC, but the real operating numbers sit at its parent, Manchester Airport Group Investments Limited, or MAGIL. In plain English, this is an update on how the wider Manchester Airports Group business performed in the year to 31 March 2026 – and it reads like a business still growing, still investing and still keeping lenders comfortable.

The headline numbers are good. Passenger numbers rose to 66.3 million, revenue climbed to £1,514.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA – a profit measure that strips out interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and certain one-offs – increased to £613.2 million.

Key Manchester Airport Group results at a glance

Metric	FY26	FY25	Change
Passengers	66.3 million	65.0 million	1.9%
Revenue	£1,514.6 million	£1,342.4 million	12.8%
Adjusted EBITDA	£613.2 million	£570.3 million	7.5%
Operating profit	£304.7 million	£264.5 million	15.2%
Profit before taxation	£227.4 million	£217.7 million	4.5%
Capital investment	£555.5 million	£642.7 million	Down 13.6%

Revenue rose much faster than passenger numbers – that is one of the best signs in this update

The standout detail for me is that revenue increased by 12.8%, while passenger numbers rose by only 1.9%. That is a strong gap. It suggests MAG is not relying only on volume growth and is getting more money through the business as it scales.

The RNS does not fully break down the revenue drivers, so it would be wrong to guess exactly how much came from aeronautical charges, retail, parking or other activities. But the message is still clear – profitability is improving even without huge passenger growth.

Operating profit rose 15.2% to £304.7 million, which is better than the revenue growth picture alone. That tells you the business is getting operational leverage – in other words, a decent chunk of extra sales is flowing through to profit.

Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands all played a part – but Manchester led the way

Manchester Airport had another record year, serving 32.3 million passengers, up 3.6%. That made it the strongest growth engine in the group, helped by extra capacity from its transformation programme and new airlines and services.

London Stansted also hit a record with 30.0 million passengers, although growth was much slower at 0.4%. That is not bad, but it does show Stansted is at a different stage of maturity right now and likely needs further infrastructure investment to unlock the next step up.

East Midlands was flat on passengers at 4.0 million, down 1.3% on the percentage line shown, but cargo was the real story there. Cargo volumes rose 12.5% to more than 413,000 tonnes, reinforcing East Midlands as the UK’s largest dedicated air cargo operation.

That matters because cargo adds diversification. Passenger travel can wobble with economic confidence, but freight gives the group another leg to stand on.

CAVU is becoming more important – and it gives MAG another route to growth beyond UK airports

A quietly interesting line in this results statement is CAVU. This is MAG’s broader travel services and airport-related platform, and it contributed £77.1 million to adjusted EBITDA in FY26, up 9.2% on FY25.

CAVU now operates in 58 countries and 399 airports. For investors and lenders, that is useful because it reduces dependence on just the three core UK airports and shows MAG is building a wider travel infrastructure business, not simply running terminals and runways.

This is a positive. It gives the group a bit more resilience and more optionality if UK airport growth slows at any point.

Capital spending is still huge, but the peak may now be behind Manchester

MAG spent £555.5 million on capital investment in FY26. That is lower than the £642.7 million spent in FY25, mainly because peak expenditure on the Manchester transformation programme has passed.

That said, nobody should mistake this for MAG taking its foot off the pedal. The group is now shifting into a major new phase at Stansted, with a five-year £1.1 billion investment programme and plans to extend the terminal and supporting infrastructure.

From an investor point of view, this cuts both ways. The positive is obvious – better infrastructure should support capacity growth, commercial income and long-term value. The less comfortable bit is that airport expansion is expensive, and returns take time to come through.

Still, this update suggests management is being deliberate rather than reckless. Manchester’s £1.5 billion transformation programme is complete, spending has eased from the prior year, and Stansted is now the next growth runway, if you will forgive the airport pun.

Refinancing, new bond issue and more than £0.7 billion of liquidity help calm any debt worries

For this issuer, the funding picture really matters because Manchester Airport Group Funding PLC sits in the debt structure. On that front, the news looks reassuring.

In November 2025, MAGIL refinanced its £500 million revolving credit facility and £135 million liquidity facility. The size of the facilities and lenders stayed the same, but maturity moved out to November 2030, with options to extend by up to two years, subject to lenders’ agreement.

Both facilities were undrawn at 31 March 2026. That is a healthy sign because it means the group had access to emergency or working liquidity without currently needing to use it.

MAG also issued a £300 million bond in January 2026, maturing in 2036 with a 5.25% coupon. A coupon is simply the interest rate paid on the bond. The funding is earmarked for investment activities in FY27.

At the year end, MAGIL had £253.8 million of retained cash resources and, together with the undrawn revolving credit facility, more than £0.7 billion of liquidity. That is a meaningful cash buffer for a capital-heavy business.

Debt metrics look comfortably within range

The leverage covenant was 3.9x and interest cover was 5.6x. Leverage compares debt to earnings, while interest cover shows how easily profits can pay interest costs.

Neither figure looks alarming in the context of this update, especially with investment grade credit ratings of BBB+ from Fitch and Baa1 from Moody’s, both with stable outlooks. For bondholders in particular, that is one of the most important takeaways.

What is less impressive in these MAG annual results?

There are a few softer points worth noting. Passenger growth at Stansted was only 0.4%, and East Midlands passenger traffic was broadly flat. So this is not a story of booming demand everywhere.

Also, capital spending remains very high. That is fine when the balance sheet is stable and travel demand is resilient, but major projects always bring execution risk, cost risk and timing risk.

The RNS also mentions heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty. That is not just boilerplate. Airports are exposed to consumer confidence, airline capacity decisions and broader travel patterns, so the sector is never immune if the world gets choppier.

My verdict on the Manchester Airport Group results for retail investors

This is a good set of annual results. Revenue, profits and liquidity all moved in the right direction, Manchester and Stansted both delivered record years, and the balance sheet appears well set up to fund the next phase of investment.

The most encouraging part is that profit growth did not depend purely on cramming in more passengers. Revenue growth materially outpaced traffic growth, which usually points to a business with decent pricing power, stronger commercial income, or both – although the precise split is not disclosed here.

The main watchpoint is the size of the ongoing investment programme. MAG is spending serious money, especially at Stansted, and that always needs close monitoring. But based on this RNS alone, the group looks like it has the financial breathing room to do it.

If you are looking at this through a credit lens, the message is fairly straightforward: trading is solid, liquidity is strong, facilities are undrawn and credit ratings remain investment grade with stable outlooks. That is the sort of update lenders usually like.

If you are reading it more broadly as a view on UK airport infrastructure, it says something else too. MAG is still seeing resilient demand for travel, still finding room to grow, and still putting large sums into assets it believes can handle more traffic over time. On the evidence here, that confidence does not look misplaced.