Most of Europe’s big airports recorded bumper passenger figures for January — some breaking records — but many are still affected by the pandemic. Smaller airports, which are often unable to draw the same frequency of passenger flights as the biggest, may want to look at their current predicament and recall how they survived Covid. As flights were grounded and governments locked down international travel at short notice, cargo became a reliable source of revenue. Now, with cargo shipments through the Red Sea routinely under threat and fears growing over domestic product shortages in the UK, airports are stepping up. Figures released this week show that cargo flights were up 51 per cent at Manchester Airport year-on-year in January. For Stansted Airport, they were up 17 per cent. Even passenger-focused Heathrow’s cargo figures are up 5 per cent.