The largest British-owned airport operator Manchester Airports Group is eyeing growing links with Asia, for both passengers and cargo.

Manchester airport which is mainly a passenger airport with about 800 fl ights a day of which only 12 are pure cargo, recently attracted fi ve new cargo carriers in the last 12 months. These include: Great Wall Airlines from Shanghai (four fl ights weekly); Jet8 from Singapore (two fl ights weekly); FedEx (four fl ights weekly); Aerofl ot (one weekly fl ight); and Air China (three weekly fl ights).

East Midlands airport on the other hand has around 50 freighter fl ights each night with almost all of it carried on dedicated freighters. The airport is also DHL’s UK freight hub with 35 fl ights a night. The airport also serves as the Royal Mail’s nightly fi rst class post hub and both UPS and TNT also make regular use of the airport.