The M60 Junctions and Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport is not on the M60 — but the M60 junctions that feed it carry a measurably different mix of traffic from the rest of the ring. Live M60 news is below, then what the counts show.

How airport traffic reaches the M60

Manchester Airport describes itself as “located 9 miles south of Manchester city centre, with direct access from the M56 and convenient links to the M6, M60 and M62.” So the M60 is not the airport’s own motorway — the M56 is — but the M56 joins the M60 on the southern side of the ring, and a large share of airport journeys crosses part of the M60 to get there.

The airport handled 32,088,626 passengers in 2025, up 4% on the previous year and its busiest year on record. Averaged across the year that is about 87,900 people a day — basis: the annual total divided by 365. We give that figure to put M60 traffic into context, not as a count of vehicles: it includes everyone arriving by train, tram, coach and taxi as well as by car.

The airport corridor is the most car-dominated part of the M60

This is where the traffic data says something a timetable cannot. Comparing the composition of the M60 stretches nearest the M56 interchange against the rest of the motorway:

The M56 interchange link itself is 83.2% cars and just 2.7% lorries — the lightest for freight of any substantial stretch measured on the M60. Around the north-western arc, one vehicle in ten is an HGV. Here it is closer to one in thirty-seven.

That difference is consistent with what airport journeys are made of — passengers, taxis, private hire, staff shifts and small delivery vans — rather than the distribution traffic that dominates the other side of the ring. It is an observation about the mix of vehicles, not a measurement of how many are airport-related, and we would not claim the second from the first.

The stretches carrying it

The busiest of them, at 169,133 vehicles a day, carries more traffic than all but four stretches of the entire M60 — and does it with a lorry share of 4.2%.

What this means if you are driving to a flight

An incident on the southern side of the M60 reaches the airport approach quickly, because the M56 is fed by it. The latest M60 traffic news at the top of this page is refreshed through the day from National Highways’ own feed, and M60 closures tonight is worth a look before an early departure, when overnight roadworks are most likely to be in place.

We do not publish airport journey times or flight information, and we are not connected with Manchester Airport. What this page adds is the M60 side of the journey.

Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025. Annual average daily flow, both carriageways combined. Live incidents and roadworks: Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.