Manchester Airport

❎ Not Verified | After reading other reviews, I feel I may be wasting my time. I drove to the airport at mid day to collect someone arriving at terminal 3, which I understand is the smallest of the 3 terminals. I appreciate there's improvements being made but signage for visitors is appalling. Anybody arriving for the first time would be completely lost. As I was early I decided to park in the arrival car park. There are no notices telling you how much the parking fee is so I was quite surprised when after 20 minutes I was charged £4.00. However I felt really bad for a driver who had parked for 2 hours and 5 minutes who had been charged £18.00 allegedly. This airport is a mess and I speak as someone who lives close by. There appears to be construction going on at all three terminals. Why don't they do it terminal by terminal. I'm not a big lover of Liverpool airport but I'll try and fly from there whenever possible until the chaos at Manchester is sorted.

✅ Trip Verified | Just when I thought Manchester Airport couldn’t get any worse it goes and outdoes itself! Luckily I arrived 3.5 hrs early for my flight. I discovered the hall to be completely full of queues. Apparently they had shut one of the security halls due to staff shortages leaving everyone to snake around the hall. I decided to upgrade to club to ensure entrance to the priority queue only to discover that they sell priority queue entry and it was almost longer than the regular queue. So if your traveling business class folks expect to stand for hours behind a bunch of people who got free priority with their car parking. Ridiculous! So as usual this airport is the result of a business run by total amateurs. To be honest, the staff, who are usually pretty rude and unpleasant, seemed to be making the most of the total chaos and trying quite hard to make it work. In summary if you enjoy queues, get yourself over to Manchester airport, they have loads, even Starbucks managed to produce a nice long queue, starting outside of its area!

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester Airport T1 is the worst airport terminal in Europe. The check-in gates constantly move for my airline and the security process is a joke which seems to have different rules every week. The long stay car park bus runs when it feels like it and often can't be bothered doing the whole car park. The security queues are intolerable and badly managed taking an hour to get through where this only takes 10-15 mins at other european airports with the same bags and content. The queues are huge and they have to stop people getting into the queue regularly by shutting the boarding pass check gates as they can't cope with the volume of people. It cannot be hard to look at the volumes of planes and their passengers to forecast staffing and put process in place whereby people aren't hurded like cattle for an hour.

✅ Trip Verified | I flew from Manchester T1 on Monday 12th March. I was flying with EasyJet to Copenhagen. This is the first time I have been sent to the downstairs (aka PIT) that is now the security / baggage checks if you have not paid extra for the fast pass. What can I say other than shambolic. The queue system is a joke. They randomly let people in as space comes available from anywhere in the line. The staff are obviously stressed and to be honest unfriendly. One of the conveyor belts broke causing more chaos. I fly at least once or twice a month and I have never seen anything this bad. I was expecting to be told to strip naked just to get through the scan. I am used to belts and watches sometimes being removed but cufflinks! When I flew home from Copenhagen I kept my watch, belt and cufflinks on! I realise the most important thing is security and safety and applaud any measures that improve this but why did it take me nearly 1 hour to clear this at Manchester and 10 mins in Copenhagen? The PIT is also dirty, hot and just a nasty place to be. I am a very proud Mancunian and it saddens me to see how far behind this airport is falling compared with others around the world. Finding a charging point is near impossible. The airport in general is dirty and its just not a good experience.

✅ Trip Verified | Without a doubt the rudest security people I have ever met and I travel a lot. They treated a Spanish traveller who did not speak English as if he was a moron. He was getting late for his flight and could not explain his problem. I tried to help as I speak Spanish and now it was my turn to be treated like a moron. I then understood the Spanish guys dilemma, my bag was diverted for examination, after 30 min I still did not get my interview. Now I am running out of time, tried to draw the attention of what looked like supervisors. However, they were clearly well trained in how to ignore requests for assistance. I then started shouting and was eventually interviewed, not because of my shouting the supervisors kept ignoring me, but the police did not. Fortunately, the police did nothing and let me go about my business. My bag was examined, I was asked nothing and to this date, I do not know why my bag was diverted.

❎ Not Verified | Once again Security at Terminal 1 showed how not to treat people as valued customers Shouting, shoving, rude and hacked off staff, too hot, banging and bashing of trays, ages to get a simple bag rechecked. After all that, are we any more safe? Double the staff and security lanes on at busy times, Manchester, and you would fix this. But of course that would mean less profit for your local authority shareholders, less bonuses for management and more concern to treat people as customers not cattle. And, as usual we missed the chance to enjoy the facilities. I’m now meeting people who take the hours trek to Liverpool, straight through security and no issues. You are a shambles.

✅ Trip Verified | Truly the worst airport I have been in, after a late arrival because my first flight couldn't land I rushed to check in and go through departures with my son, the very unhelpful signage, lack of escalators and lack of customer service desks really hindered the search for my next check in desk which was hidden down one of the many bizarre areas behind other check in desks, hidden behind a wall. The airport has lots of pointless spaces that really don't make sense. With only 45 mins to get through and get to my gate, I was told I couldn't use the priority there was plenty of time, in good faith I joined the line, half the lines were in usage and the line was so slow, taking 20 mins, when I asked the lady who was directing us to each line, politely how long it normally takes to get to gates she replied not long with as much politeness as a toilet brush. This was clearly an untruth as it took myself and my son running at speed 15 mins. Lip balms delayed us yet again (my fault), when I said to inspection staff I was in a hurry they really had little regard and said I would have to speak to management. After a while they assisted, and after a slow inspection and my thanks said you might catch your flight. It seems to me that contrary to many other airports they actually enjoyed and hindered people catching their flights with little regard for peoples personal lives, we all have bad days, in the line we seemed like cattle and all the signage for rules was behind us therefore people naturally looked at the line ahead and not the rules which included no mobile phone usage, first time I have seen this rule especially as people are phoning ahead to loved ones or work to keep them in the loop about their journey. One man was very aggressive about a person using his mobile. I would really advise the staff at Manchester airport to take a little visit to Gatwick see how it is done and just to add for the shopping and eating outlets , you need people to get through to spend, I was hoping for a quick UK shop session before going home.

✅ Trip Verified | Always the most hideous experience through security. Aggressive, condescending, horrible staff. I totally understand the need for seriousness and security but their attitude stinks and it is in all of them, it’s either a culture of total arrogance or they are trained this way. Whatever it is it’s unnecessary, rude and makes everyone’s journey more stressful. Hate travelling through this awful airport for this reason.

✅ Trip Verified | The airport was filthy. It took one hour and twenty minutes to clear security. The security staff showed total disrespect to their customers. They were both rude and aggressive. Upon our return the escalator was broken down yet again. The hand drier in the arrivals hall was broken down yet again. The queue at Border Control was very long and slow moving and as usual the E Passport scanners created a lot of problems. The border control staff were abrupt and rude when the scanners failed to operate correctly. Altogether using Manchester Airport was a thoroughly bad experience. I am sure that most farmers treat their cattle better than Manchester Airport treats its customers.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester Airport, specifically Terminal 1 has got to be the worst, or one of the worst airports for a major city in Northern Europe. I'm a regular business traveler throughout Europe, and unfortunately Manchester is my "home" airport. The real horror is the security screening. There is clearly a total failure of management as well as the complete collapse in morale and culture among the staff who work there. The staff are rude, incompetent, and bullying. Passengers are herded around and shouted at like animals, and treated with open disdain by staff. It is nothing less than a absolute disgrace. Not only is it a really unpleasant experience, it is also bordering on being unsafe. Personally I find it amazing that the Airport supports this mess. The entire management team at Terminal 1 should be replaced.