Manchester Airport is flying high again after winning another award – this time for being the world's number one airport on Twitter.

Almost 150 airports across the globe use the micro-blogging site to update passengers but Manchester was ranked the best of the bunch.

The airport came out top in a survey by social media firm AirGate Solutions, which praised bosses for their 'innovative' use of the service.

Passengers are able to access real time flight information for arrivals and departures as well as finding out when their plane is ready to board.

Currently, the airport has around 9,300 followers after becoming the first in the UK to launch an official Twitter stream.

Famous followers include top comic Jason Manford who joked how he'd forgotten he'd left his car at the airport and DJ Clint Boon even asked them to divert planes while his wife was giving birth!

Supermodel Agyness Deyn told how she was shopping in duty free and X Factor twins Jedward posted a picture of themselves with staff from one of the shops.

Manchester topped the list, which ranked them using a ratio of airport passengers to followers. Others in the top 10 include Heathrow, Boston, Baltimore, Gatwick, Orlando, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Minneapolis St Paul and Dallas Fort Worth.

Vital

Russell Craig, Manchester Airport’s head of external communications said: “It’s fantastic to receive this recognition – during our recent experiences with snow and the volcanic ash cloud, Twitter became a vital channel.

“Updates were posted as they happened, enabling those following the airport to get the latest information at the same time as the news organisations – even the M.E.N. was taking live updates from our Twitter stream to use on its website.”

Robert Cook, managing director of AirGate Solutions and influential blogger with New York’s Forbes magazine, published the survey.

Speaking of the results, he said: “We feel that if an airport has a higher ratio of followers to passengers then it is more engaged with its travelling customers. Manchester came out on top in the 20 million passenger category, which demonstrates that the airport is using it to very good effect.”

“Since publishing a similar report last March we have received much interest within the industry and there has been a 26 per cent increase in the number of airports adopting Twitter to talk to passengers. More and more organisations are beginning to realise the growing effectiveness of using Twitter and other social media tools to connect with their audiences.”

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