AS the financial year comes to a close, the UK’s third biggest airport, Manchester, unveils the most popular long-haul routes chosen by the 2.6m passengers from Cheshire who flew through its doors last year.

And it turns out Cheshire residents are most likely to be jetting off to Dubai, Orlando, and New York. 

The top ten most popular long-haul routes in Cheshire are:

• Dubai operated by Emirates

• Orlando operated by Thomas Cook Airlines, TUI and Virgin Atlantic

• New York operated by Thomas Cook Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Jet2

• Vancouver operated by Air Transat

• Toronto operated by Air Transat and Air Canada Rouge

• Las Vegas operated by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook Airlines

• Cancun operated by Thomas Cook Airlines and TUI

• Barbados operated by Virgin Atlantic, TUI and Thomas Cook Airlines

• Boston operated by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook Airlines

• Jamaica operated by Thomas Cook Airlines and TUI

In recent years Manchester Airport has added numerous long-haul routes to its network that in the UK, can only be found at the Northern hub, or in London.

These include Beijing, San Francisco, Boston, Muscat, Houston and Hong Kong.

The airport’s catchment spans north to Scotland, south to the Midlands, west to Wales and Merseyside, and east across Yorkshire.

As well as adding numerous destinations in recent years, 2018 will be the airport’s busiest ever year and will see the launch of direct flights to Seattle, with Thomas Cook Airlines, again making Manchester the only non-London airport in the UK with this route.