Protesters halt flights at Manchester

ENVIRONMENTAL protesters brought Manchester airport to a standstill this morning in protest at airfreight.

Six members of the Manchester Plane Stupid group managed to cut their way through the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a Monarch Airlines aircraft. A second group blockaded the road entrance of the airport’s World Freight Terminal.

The group were more specifically campaigning against the proposed expansion of the terminal, which currently handles 170,000 tonnes of airfreight a year.

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “The disruption to the airport’s operations was minimal and the airport is open for business as usual.”