Manchester Airport (IATA: MAN, ICAO: EGCC) is a major airport located at Ringway in the City of Manchester within Greater Manchester, England, and is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom outside the London region in terms of passenger numbers. It offers non-stop scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Middle East and Far East. The airport is located within the City of Manchester except for a small overlap into the Cheshire East district. 7.5 NM (13.9 km; 8.6 mi) southwest of Manchester city centre. It officially opened on 25 June 1938, and was initially known as Ringway Airport. During World War II it was called RAF Ringway, and from 1975 until 1986 the title was Manchester International Airport. The airport is owned and managed by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which is a holding company owned by the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, and is the largest British-owned airport group. Each of these councils has their coat of arms displayed on banners hung from the lamp posts approaching the airport. The airport has won awards including World’s Best Airport 1995 and Travel Weekly Globe Awards' UK Best Airport 2008. The airport has two parallel runways, three terminals and a ground transport interchange, including a railway station. Manchester Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P712) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction. In 2008, Manchester Airport handled 21,219,195 passengers with 204,610 aircraft movements, making it the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom in passenger numbers and third in terms of total aircraft movements. The airport originated in mid 1934 when the location was selected to build an airfield. On 25 July 1934, Manchester City Council voted narrowly in favour of the Ringway site as the City's new airport. The site for the planned airport was at the time in the Cheshire parish of Ringway (as it was so...