Manchester Airports Group (MAG) lost £320m in the year to the end of March as passenger numbers were just a third of pre-pandemic levels.
MAG, which owns Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, said its combined losses over the past two years had reached £694million.
Although the group’s sales fell by 48%, the decline was significantly smaller than in the previous year.
MAG served 20.5 million passengers in the 12 months ended March.
While that was three times as many last year, in 2019/20 it was still only a third of the total.
MAG, which is nearly two-thirds owned by Greater Manchester’s 10 Borough Councils, said its recovery from the worst of the pandemic has “outperformed” other UK airports.
Passenger numbers in May reached 82% of pre-pandemic levels, it said.
“With travel restrictions in place for almost all of the last 12 months, it has been another uncertain and unpredictable year for MAG and the airline industry as a whole,” said Chief Executive Charlie Cornish.
An increase in travel demand has coincided with staff shortages.
Manchester Airport recently appointed a new chief executive, Chris Woodroofe, after weeks of travel chaos.
Mr Cornish said the pace of recovery in demand for air travel “has presented its own challenges” and recruiting new staff “has taken longer and has been more difficult than expected”.
MAG said more than 1,500 new employees had taken up positions at the three airports since January.
There are also hundreds of new employees working for ground handling companies, retailers and airlines.
MAG said waiting times at security have “improved”, with 92% of June passengers at Manchester Airport being cleared in less than half an hour.
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