Whitbread PLC, the parent company to Premier Inn, and MIX MANCHESTER have announced plans to develop the largest Premier Inn in the north of England at Manchester Airport.
The new 276-bedroom hotel will grow Premier Inn’s bedroom stock by more than 50% in the catchment serving the UK’s third busiest airport, and a gateway to over 200 domestic and international destinations.
The new hotel which Premier Inn will occupy on a leasehold basis will offer a mixture of Premier Inn’s latest style bedrooms, including its popular Premier Plus rooms, and the brand’s stylish ‘The Social’ space on the ground floor.
Whitbread has been investing heavily in Manchester as the company works to realign and grow its network of hotels in the city for its customers. So far this year, the company has acquired a consented freehold development site on Rochdale Road for a new 229-bedroom Premier Inn and disposed of its Deansgate Locks hotel for redevelopment into alternative uses.
The company’s confidence in the city is being driven by a refreshed network plan for Manchester and its underlying belief in the long-term potential for 125,000 Premier Inn bedrooms in the UK – an increase of 40,000 bedrooms on its current trading estate of 85,500 rooms.
Jill Anderson, Acquisition Manager for Whitbread, said, “We are serious about continuing to grow Premier Inn across the north of England and offer the flexibility, security, and development expertise to acquire large hotel sites as we have done at Manchester Airport. Securing what will become the largest Premier Inn in the north of England is a significant moment for Whitbread and one which we are proud to have delivered. With passenger numbers growing strongly at the airport I’m sure it will be a popular choice for our customers when we open the doors and start welcoming our guests.”
A planning application for the new hotel is expected to be submitted to Manchester City Council this side of Christmas which, if approved, will allow construction to commence in early 2025. The hotel will be built on a cleared site adjacent to Manchester Airport’s transport interchange less than 400 metres from Terminal 1 and 2.
Manchester Airports Group is well into the final stage of its £1.3bn Transformation Programme at the airport. The company has undertaken an extension of T2, completed in 2021, and further upgrade and infrastructure works are due to be completed by 2025.
Whitbread currently operates three Premier Inn hotels serving Manchester Airport, the newest of which opened in 2009, and welcomes hundreds of thousands of guests to its 20+ locations across the city every year.