Manchester Airport opened on June 25, 1938, as Ringway Airport, named after the parish where it sits, 7 miles south-west of Manchester city centre. KLM flew its first scheduled service two days later, a Douglas DC-2 to Amsterdam. During the Second World War the airfield became RAF Ringway, serving as a base for aircraft production and parachutist training. It returned to civilian use after the war and grew steadily.

In October 1962, the Duke of Edinburgh opened a new purpose-built terminal at a cost of £2.7 million. It was the first airport in Europe to incorporate covered passenger piers, allowing travellers to board without stepping outside. The departures hall featured four Venetian glass chandeliers handmade at the Venini factory on Murano. The first transatlantic services from Manchester launched in 1963, with BOAC operating a thrice-weekly Boeing 707 service via Glasgow Prestwick. A second full-length runway opened in February 2001, making MAN the only UK airport outside London to operate 2 full-length runways.

Today, MAN is the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom and ranks 20th in Europe. It served 32.1 million passengers in 2025. The airport connects the North of England to roughly 199 destinations worldwide, a network that includes long-haul routes to North America, Asia, and the Middle East that, in the UK, are otherwise only available from London. It is owned by Manchester Airports Group, which is in turn owned by the 10 local councils of Greater Manchester alongside Australian infrastructure investor IFM Investors, giving the airport an unusual civic character for an operation of its scale.