Manchester Airport, the UK’s third largest, is set to be headline sponsor of Pride Edinburgh for the next three years..

As well as being headline sponsor, the Northern hub will also be sponsoring the main stage, which will become known as The Manchester Airport San Francisco Stage.

Airport staff will be in attendance during the festival to join the march celebrations and to shout about its 210 global routes, particularly its popular new direct route to San Francisco.

As part of the sponsorship, Manchester Airport will be offering Pride Edinburgh fans the opportunity to win a holiday of a lifetime to San Francisco, which is served by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook Airlines. The competition is live now on Pride Edinburgh's website.

Patrick Alexander, Manchester Airport's Head of Marketing, said: "We are delighted to be working with Pride Edinburgh for the first time to support such a worthwhile event.

"We have sponsored other Prides across the UK and thought it was time to widen our reach to showcase the great work undertaken by Manchester Airport, with many of our passengers travelling down from Scotland.

"We look forward to working closely with the Pride Edinburgh team, on what I am sure will be a world class event and wish everyone the best of luck with our San Francisco holiday competition".

Pride Edinburgh Chair, Brett Herriot, said: "As we enter our twenty-third year of celebrating pride in the capital city, we are delighted to be working with Manchester Airport as our headline sponsor. This will enable us to work with a city that exemplifies LGBTQI equality and acceptance, that is what Manchester as a city is all about. Bringing two great cities Manchester and Edinburgh together in a unique celebration of diversity".

This year marks the twenty-third annual pride celebration in the capital city and is officially titled Pride Edinburgh 2018: True Colours. True Colours will mark not only the fortieth anniversary of the creation of the Rainbow Flag as the international symbol of the fight to equality and acceptance, say the organisers: it will also celebrate the many colours that make up the culturally diverse city that is Edinburgh in all its glory. Pride Edinburgh 2018: True Colours will take place on Saturday, 16th June, with the formal Pride Scotia March, followed by the Pride Festival at EUSA's Teviot House, Potterrow and Bistro Square campus. Full details will be available via the Pride Edinburgh website.

Manchester Airport, with more than 27.8 million passengers, offers over 210 destinations served by more than seventy airlines. With a catchment area spanning as far north as Scotland, south to the West Midlands, west to Wales and east to Yorkshire, it continues to add passengers and international routes. In the last few years alone it has added direct routes to the likes of Seattle, Beijing, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, Mauritius, Phuket and San Francisco. Manchester is the only UK airport outside of London to offer these routes.

In the last year the airport has also sponsored Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle Prides.