Manchester Airport is a shambles

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Wilburrabbit

Well-known member
I have been unfortunate enough to use Manchester Airport for the first time recently and cannot believe what an absolute pigs ear of an organisation it is.

Having been based in the south until recently most of my trips have been from Gatwick, Stansted or Heathrow with occasional use of Southend or Luton.

Manchester has a huge catchment area and I assumed ( wrongly it seems) that it would be run along similar lines. How wrong I was…

There were queues from the car park to get into the airport even at 4am and staff barely seeming to know what was going on. The building itself was pretty shabby and the lack of any information was a joke.

The queues for the check in led to similar size queues to even be allowed to join another huge queue for security. Very few desks were open despite hundreds of passengers and the whole thing took 3 hours from arrival to getting to the gate. This led to quite a few people being fast tracked as their flights were leaving making the queues even worse!

Security we’re dealing with people in a rude and patronising way.

Prior to this I thought Luton was bad but it was like first class by comparison.

I know there are staff issues and there have been problems at other airports but the whole experience was so poor I will never use Manchester airport again.

Frankly it’s worth the petrol to drive to the south just to avoid going near the place. Complete shambles from start to finish.
 
We went through T3 departures on the 13th and it was clear. Only issue was a little Hitler about the size of the liquid bags.

That was at 3.30am and we didn't put any bags in the hold so no queue pre security.

T3 airside is awful
 
In January i had pretty much word for word the same experience as you from Terminal 2 …Horrendous…in May we flew from Terminal 1 and skipped through baggage and security in 15 mins…it seems to be a lottery which experience you have…..puts you on edge before your holiday.
 
Manchester is a patchwork arse of an airport where they've started the cheap prefab rebuild of T2 at the furthest away point and are pretty much saying the rest of it is what it is. If something fails, like a moving walkway, then it isn't repaired. I flew through the pandemic where possible and whilst there obviously wasn't this situation where everyone is trying to fit two years worth of holiday into one summer it still wasn't easy to use.

I like how they have staff shouting at you and belittling for not being ready at the security check. Like it's all your fault for having the audacity to be keeping them in a job. Nothing to do with poor infrastructure, there only being one lane open because of limited workforce/the airport liking the profit margin they're operating on currently, and nowhere to prep your hand luggage for checks when it's busy.

Certainly in T1/T3 if they had the facility to collect your two trays at start, move them along with you and then place them alongside each other when you get to the front of the queue then it wouldn't be half as cramped and rushed as it is. Or the volume of secondary screening going on.
 
Flew from M/chester A/P, earlier this month, to Munich and return with Lufthansa.
No delays either way.
 
Went through T2 three weeks ago on our way to Florida, absolutely no problem and no delays! I did buy everyone the fast track security pass for £2.50 each that saved us possible 5 - 10 minutes. On the return journey we arrived on time, straight through security and our backs arrived inside 15 minutes so I'm guessing we were lucky!
 
We went through Terminal 3 to San Francisco via Heathrow Terminal 5 , just a few weeks ago . No problem getting through at all, however long queues for anything to drink or eat .
 
I spent many years of my working life employed by US financial institutions and as such travelled every week to different cities around the world. Some major hubs and some minor and some supposedly third world. Without doubt returning or leaving from Manchester airport was almost always the worst experience. Even in the late 90's there seemed to be a culture of rudeness amongst the majority of staff. It got to the stage that I would actively look for other connections back to the North West. I would almost never fly with check in baggage as that would add an unknown and often considerable amount of time in the collection area. It is not the staff's fault re shortages, but I fail to understand how 25 miles away at liverpool airport security and check in staff are in the main cheerfull and helpfull but at Manchester it is nearly always the exact opposite. Even Gatwick and Heathrow staff are (or were) friendlier.
 
Wilburrabbit said:
I have been unfortunate enough to use Manchester Airport for the first time recently and cannot believe what an absolute pigs ear of an organisation it is.

Having been based in the south until recently most of my trips have been from Gatwick, Stansted or Heathrow with occasional use of Southend or Luton.

Manchester has a huge catchment area and I assumed ( wrongly it seems) that it would be run along similar lines. How wrong I was…

There were queues from the car park to get into the airport even at 4am and staff barely seeming to know what was going on. The building itself was pretty shabby and the lack of any information was a joke.

The queues for the check in led to similar size queues to even be allowed to join another huge queue for security. Very few desks were open despite hundreds of passengers and the whole thing took 3 hours from arrival to getting to the gate. This led to quite a few people being fast tracked as their flights were leaving making the queues even worse!

Security we’re dealing with people in a rude and patronising way.

Prior to this I thought Luton was bad but it was like first class by comparison.

I know there are staff issues and there have been problems at other airports but the whole experience was so poor I will never use Manchester airport again.

Frankly it’s worth the petrol to drive to the south just to avoid going near the place. Complete shambles from start to finish.
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I thought the new terminal was opening? Manc airport has to be the shabbiest cess pit of an airport i've ever been to, you cannot even just go and get a beer at the bar you have to line up with everyone else at the cash desk while they make multiple food orders, terrible dirty place and to be avoided.
 
We flew from T2 Manchester at the beginning of June arriving there at 4am. The queues were similar to Wembley stadium on a cup final day, but we did get through baggage & security in time for a brew (as the plane was 2 hrs late taking off).
For several years they've got greedy at Manchester airport and are continually adding on extension after extension. To the point where it's now become far too big, unfriendly & cumbersome, with the intention of them making as much money as possible. The drop off & pick up areas are a nightmare & costly.
Liverpool John Lennon airport was on the local news this morning. That is the exact opposite to Manchester & is making money. We're going to try booking a holiday from there in future.
 
Scaramanga said:
Went through T2 last week, went like a dream.
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Used Manchester Airport in January , wasnt very busy but you could see they had staffign problems then . Security took ages , with hardly any staff working . We agreed to avoid using it for the time being - we go away again in August and going from Liverpool , at geater cost , purely to reduce the chance of the horrendous delays people are experincing .
 
onedayitwillhappen said:
It is not the staff's fault re shortages, but I fail to understand how 25 miles away at liverpool airport security and check in staff are in the main cheerfull and helpfull but at Manchester it is nearly always the exact opposite. Even Gatwick and Heathrow staff are (or were) friendlier.
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I think the answer is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Airport_Holdings

Manchester Airport Holdings Limited, trading as MAG (originally Manchester Airports Group)[6] is a holding company which is owned by the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester, in North West England, and Australian investment fund IFM Investors.
 
mate of mine who went through this morning at 4 am and commented he had not had any trouble at all.
 
Very similar experience thru T2 end of May. Early start and massive queues.
2 hour wait for our bags to come out when we returned!!
 
Went through T3 at 3am last Thurs. It was very busy but car parking was fine and it took an hour from walking into the terminal to sitting down in the departure lounge. Back tomorrow.
I do agree with the o/p though that the airport overall is currently very badly run. Add to that when things are going wrong the airport management blame it on everyone else, Border Force, Airline etc. never their fault.
 
Poorly trained staff, poorly managed airport that has far too many flights than it can cater for, whenever possible I fly from Liverpool every time, Blackpool should be reopened to take some strain off Manchester if that is at all possible.
 
I agree with all of the criticisms.

Interestingly. The Chief Executive of the Airport resigned a couple of months ago to spend more time with her family!
 
Having had my flights from Newcastle cancelled I was forced to use Manchester last week. Terminal 3 , parking was easy and through all checks in 25 mins. Getting food and drink was the challenge. On return through immigration in 10 mins. Got to say pleasantly surprised.
 
Been through T2 twice in the last 3 months and not had an issue.....

The only queues I saw were at the food n drink outlets which looked to be down to low staffing levels

My tips would be book a security fast track ticket for a fiver and if you can book a lounge deal then go for it as if you like a couple of drinks before your flight then it's well worth it and it's usually fairly peaceful
 
Fly from T3 on Saturday at 3pm.

Absolutely dreading it. Booked into the lounge prior to the flight but I'll be surprised if I manage to sit down and have a pint with all the absolute carnage.
 
is a horrid place - before covid and the current issues it was not much better ... we use it annualy to go to / from Lisbon then connect to Brazil

arrival is just as bad as departure. I remember arriving when my Braziian wife came to the UK for the first time... rude immigration, rude staff everywhere... departing with our baby the security staff were disgusting... they often tut and roll their eyes at people who dont speak English very well etc... they shout at people for doign things ''wrong'' ...

I remember being in the line and asking one security guy if I should take off my belt... he said no.... when I got to the scanner the guy went nuts at me cos I had my belt on... not just off hand but downright rude... he heard me speaking Portuguese to my wife and presumed I wouldn't understand his utterances in English.... along the lines of ,,dumb ass foreigners;''' in any other situation you would either report him or punch him but you just want to get on the plane

Lisbon airport is chaotic and the check in staff even ruder but at least the securtity / immigration staff there are pleasant...
Liverpool is much better but does not help us much connection wise!

what the North West needs is another airport / another airport to take the pressure off ... somewhere like Blackpool :(

not sure if is true but I heard is all about profit margins - they have no desire to recruit more staff / improve the current situation - they are making profit and people keep booking as we all havent travelled much in the last 2-3 years ... ???
 
Raging_Bull said:
Poorly trained staff, poorly managed airport that has far too many flights than it can cater for, whenever possible I fly from Liverpool every time, Blackpool should be reopened to take some strain off Manchester if that is at all possible.
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Yep changed all my hols this year from Manc to Liverpool and future hols will be booked from there too!
 
Went through T1 Saturday 18th June at noon. From leaving car at the meet and great to airside, 10 minutes. Very helpful friendly staff, no queues
 
Bristol is no better. We flew out and had a 2h 45m delay and then av3h 10m delay coming back.
In fairness security checks were good and we flew through.
Delays were caused by baggage handlers. We waited over 1h 30m to get our luggage off the conveyor belts. It’s put me off travelling by air for a while.
Anybody have similar issues on cruises as we’ve never been on one before ?
 
T
cleveleysbfc said:
Been through T2 twice in the last 3 months and not had an issue.....

The only queues I saw were at the food n drink outlets which looked to be down to low staffing levels

My tips would be book a security fast track ticket for a fiver and if you can book a lounge deal then go for it as if you like a couple of drinks before your flight then it's well worth it and it's usually fairly peaceful
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The fast track option was suspended and has only just been reintroduced as an option recently. Otherwise that might have helped with one of the queues. The airport itself is a run down old dinosaur though.
 
Try and avoid it at all cost. Flying to Alicante on Saturday and paying a few quid extra to go from Leeds Bradford. Be great like Sped mentioned if they could open up Blackpool again for Faro and Alicante.
 
TangerineBayern said:
Yep changed all my hols this year from Manc to Liverpool and future hols will be booked from there too!
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Yes Liverpool is great Bayern plus you just step outside the terminal building for your flight and don't have to walk miles to the plane like you do in T2 at Manchester, the only downside is you are limited to just Easyjet and Ryanair flights and the limited destinations they offer from there.
 
Raging_Bull said:
Yes Liverpool is great Bayern plus you just step outside the terminal building for your flight and don't have to walk miles to the plane like you do in T2 at Manchester, the only downside is you are limited to just Easyjet and Ryanair flights and the limited destinations they offer from there.
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Very true RB but since Easyjet took over some of the holidays when Thomsons and others (l think) went bust they now now have some very good holiday destinations and reasonably priced, we’re in Side at the moment flew out from Liverpool and it was perfect.
 
Wilburrabbit said:
I have been unfortunate enough to use Manchester Airport for the first time recently and cannot believe what an absolute pigs ear of an organisation it is.

Having been based in the south until recently most of my trips have been from Gatwick, Stansted or Heathrow with occasional use of Southend or Luton.

Manchester has a huge catchment area and I assumed ( wrongly it seems) that it would be run along similar lines. How wrong I was…

There were queues from the car park to get into the airport even at 4am and staff barely seeming to know what was going on. The building itself was pretty shabby and the lack of any information was a joke.

The queues for the check in led to similar size queues to even be allowed to join another huge queue for security. Very few desks were open despite hundreds of passengers and the whole thing took 3 hours from arrival to getting to the gate. This led to quite a few people being fast tracked as their flights were leaving making the queues even worse!

Security we’re dealing with people in a rude and patronising way.

Prior to this I thought Luton was bad but it was like first class by comparison.

I know there are staff issues and there have been problems at other airports but the whole experience was so poor I will never use Manchester airport again.

Frankly it’s worth the petrol to drive to the south just to avoid going near the place. Complete shambles from start to finish.
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Manchester Airport is a disgrace. And the shambles you describe is nothing new. A few years ago I arrived at 3a.m for a 6 a. m flight and very nearly missed it.
 
Must agree....absolute circus t2..nothing open, queuing for some kind of breakfast/drink..massive walk (through the old t2) gate 211 I think....crap !!!
 
We sailed through T2 a couple of weeks ago and the only criticism was that all the moving walkways from the train station to T2 were switched off.
Oh, and on our return there were only 2 carriages on the the train and it was absolutely jam packed (but that has nothing to do with the airport.)
 
It seems to me, from the conflicting experiences, that the issue is they can't match staffing levels with demand, so when demand is low they have plenty of staff on duty and everything runs fine, but when demand is high they have the same numbers on duty, and it's a disaster.

So either management is too incompetent to forecast demand (which should be easy) and ensure that sufficient staff are on duty, or the staff are too inflexible to respond to variations in demand, which is also ultimately a result of incompetent management.
 
Same as Halifax we flew from T3 and got there 3.30am ... security was fine as one of first but could see it backing up but nothing open and really was pish... managed to grab a coffee.. just.
 
The problem with EGCC is that, notwithstanding the T2 extension, the basic model of the terminals is the same as it was since about 1998 when T3 was opened. In that amount of time (up until the pandemic) pax numbers nearly doubled. Also security became far more stringent meaning far more space was required for this.

Terminal 1 is a case in point - I'm sure many of us have fond memories of jetting away on our hols to be greeted by those famous chandeliers in that huge departures hall, grabbing a quick drink and watching the planes take off from those bars at the top and then breezing through security with about an hour to go. Now due to the higher demands of security that room has been converted into the security area and is dark, dingy and unpleasant. The terminal is of course sixty years old now, and really needs to be rebuilt (I believe there are plans to do this, but in the current economic climate we'll see what happens).

I flew to/from T1 a few weeks ago - going out security wasn't too bad - it was about 45 minute but pretty frustrating that there were only two lanes open. The self-service bag drop though was awful, massive queues, no organisation and so many people didn't know what they were doing.... Coming back I landed at about 11.45pm, and given that EGCC has always been pretty poor on arrivals I would have been happy to have been out of the airport by 1am - to my pleasant surprise after a ten minute wait at passport control my bags were already on the conveyor!
 
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Wilburrabbit said:
I have been unfortunate enough to use Manchester Airport for the first time recently and cannot believe what an absolute pigs ear of an organisation it is.

Having been based in the south until recently most of my trips have been from Gatwick, Stansted or Heathrow with occasional use of Southend or Luton.

Manchester has a huge catchment area and I assumed ( wrongly it seems) that it would be run along similar lines. How wrong I was…

There were queues from the car park to get into the airport even at 4am and staff barely seeming to know what was going on. The building itself was pretty shabby and the lack of any information was a joke.

The queues for the check in led to similar size queues to even be allowed to join another huge queue for security. Very few desks were open despite hundreds of passengers and the whole thing took 3 hours from arrival to getting to the gate. This led to quite a few people being fast tracked as their flights were leaving making the queues even worse!

Security we’re dealing with people in a rude and patronising way.

Prior to this I thought Luton was bad but it was like first class by comparison.

I know there are staff issues and there have been problems at other airports but the whole experience was so poor I will never use Manchester airport again.

Frankly it’s worth the petrol to drive to the south just to avoid going near the place. Complete shambles from start to finish.
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And yet the Manchester Airport boss is on a staggering £2.5 Million a year. Even the Heathrow boss is "only" on £1.5 Million.
 
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