Travel agent Deborah drives away with a brand new Mini
THERE were nearly 13,000 entries but Huddersfield’s Deborah Little beat the odds and won a new Mini worth thousands of pounds.
She is one of five lucky UK travel agents to drive away with her very own new motor courtesy of Manchester Airport’s year-long MAG-nificent campaign, which was created for the airport’s 80th birthday to thank travel agents.
Deborah, who works for Travel Counsellors, drove off from underneath the wings of Concorde at Manchester Airport’s Runway Visitor Park – a hugely successful car park which has seen 4.8 million passengers from Yorkshire fly through.
For the last 12 months travel agents who have booked holidays from the UK’s third biggest airport have been able to enter the competition, which was drawn this month.
Deborah said: “I still cannot believe it, it’s absolutely amazing. You enter things like this but never think you’re going to win.
“I’ve won flights and vouchers before but never anything like a car. My daughter is 17 this month so when I arrive back in Huddersfield she will probably think this is for her!”
Patrick Alexander, Head of Marketing at Manchester Airport, said: “To mark our 80th birthday we wanted to do something very special which is why we launched our biggest ever trade incentive to mark the occasion.
“Travel agents are hugely important to the airport and we appreciate every booking they make for travel through the airport.
“What better way to celebrate our eightieth birthday and to reward all of the hardworking agents that sell Manchester Airport.
“It was my pleasure to meet Deborah and all of the other winners and hand over the keys to their five new Minis.”
MAG-nificent has been running for four years with this year having the biggest ever prize to mark the airport’s milestone birthday.
The incentive is a way of engaging with the travel trade to promote the key routes and destinations on offer from the northern global gateway.
Manchester Airport with more than 28 million passengers has over 210 destinations served by more than 70 airlines.
With a catchment area spanning as far north as Scotland, south to the West Midlands, west to Wales and east to Yorkshire, it continues to add passengers and international routes.
In the last few years it has added direct routes to the likes of Mumbai, Seattle, Beijing, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, Muscat and San Francisco.
Manchester Airport is the UK’s third largest, and on Saturday, June 25, 1938, it was officially opened by an air display from the Royal Air Force by the command of Sir Kingsley Wood, his Majesty’s Secretary of State for Air.
Operations began two days later and in the first 12 months, the airport handled 7,600 passengers.