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How to get to Manchester
Getting to Manchester is easy. This northern powerhouse is well connected to the rest of the UK – and the world – by air, road and rail.
Travel Information
Language: English | Currency: Pounds (£) | Local time: GMT | Avg. Flight time: 1 hour
Arriving at a global gateway
Manchester Airport (MAN), the third busiest in the UK, has an extensive international network, with 60-plus airlines offering direct cheap Manchester flights to more than 200 destinations worldwide. Even better, it’s just a 20-minute train ride from Manchester Piccadilly Station in the heart of the city, to which trains run every 10 minutes.
Book cheap Manchester flights with budget airlines Ryanair and easyJet to short-haul destinations including Croatia, Iceland, Morocco and Italy, or strike out to far-flung destinations such as Canada and Thailand.
American Airlines, Air Transat, Delta, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are just some of the other airlines operating a busy flights schedule to and from Manchester.
Taking flights around the UK
Manchester Airport is also a hub for domestic travel, offering more UK and Ireland routes than any other airport in the country.
Flying to Manchester is a breeze from London, with average flight times of just one hour. British Airways operates flights from London Heathrow to Manchester Airport several times a day, and offers some of the cheapest Manchester flights when booked well in advance.
There are also direct flights from Manchester Airport to various other domestic airports.
Flybe offers two options when travelling from the southwest: Newquay and Exeter, with direct services from both these airports taking an hour and 10 minutes.
Flying from Scotland is also a doddle, with four airports – Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Inverness – all flying direct to Manchester in around an hour, again with Flybe.
Elsewhere, Belfast is served by both Flybe and easyJet, with the journey taking as little as 55 minutes.
Travelling by train
If you're travelling from within the UK, the train is another easy and relatively speedy option. Choose from four main train stations: Deansgate, Oxford Road, Victoria and Piccadilly, which is the key gateway to destinations across the UK.
High-speed train services to Manchester run from London Euston every 20 minutes and take around two hours. The journey time from Birmingham is an hour and a half, from Newcastle it takes three hours, and from York it’s an hour and 15 minutes.
If you’re travelling from Wales, the journey time is three hours and 10 minutes from Cardiff, while those in southwest England can reach Manchester on a direct train from Bournemouth in less than five hours.
There are also various train services connecting Manchester to the north of England and Scotland. And if you’re craving greenery, Northern Rail links Manchester with the surrounding countryside, running frequent services to locations in the Peak District and Lake District national parks.
Just remember to book well in advance for the cheapest Manchester flights and train tickets.