Consent for Manchester Airport Premier Inn

A 276-key hotel within the £1bn MIX Manchester campus has been given the green light.

Manchester City Council has approved plans for the nine-storey Premier Inn hotel under delegated powers, meaning it did not go before the authority’s planning committee.

Designed by 5plus Architects, the scheme is one of several hotels within the vicinity. The Tribe Hotel is operational, while Dakota’s second Manchester offering is under construction.

Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn brand, announced its intention to open its largest ever Northern hotel at Manchester Airport last year.

The hotel quarter sits within the wider 60-acre MIX Manchester campus – a 2m sq ft multi-use science and innovation complex.

Jill Anderson, acquisition manager for Whitbread, said: “Securing planning consent for this major hotel just five months after announcing our partnership with MIX Manchester highlights our ability to work with developers to deliver at pace.

“With approval now granted, we’re excited to bring this fantastic new hotel to life and provide the much-needed accommodation for the growing number of passengers using Manchester Airport.”

Gareth Jackson, group property director at Manchester Airports Group, commented: “Securing planning permission for Premier Inn’s largest hotel in the North at MIX Manchester is superb news for Whitbread, our joint venture partners and Manchester Airport.

“This hotel will complement the existing brand offerings at MIX and will continue the theme of delivering market leading accommodation, high-quality infrastructure and public realm to the site in support of the wider Manchester economy.”

He added: “This new project comes at a pivotal time at Manchester Airport where our airport colleagues are in the final stages of delivery of the fantastic £1.3bn Terminal 2 Transformation Programme, which is due to complete later this year and of course our development team are working hard with our joint venture partners to bring forward MIX Manchester, one of the largest science, innovation and manufacturing campuses in the UK.

“With planning now in place, further exciting announcements will be forthcoming in due course on main contractor selection with a start on site for construction of Premier Inn in late summer.”

To learn more about the Manchester Airport Premier Inn, search for reference number 141662/FO/2024 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.

ROC as the structural engineer. DFC is the fire consultant. Planit is the landscape architect. The project team also includes M&E and BREEAM expert CPW and acoustics consultant Sandy Brown. Rihbell is the project manager and Atkins Realis is the cost consultant.