Manchester Airport

❎ Not Verified | I always praised Manchester airport where I found that passengers were treated with respect and not cattle. Why oh why have they removed the drop off zones, forcing people into car parks, where they struggle to pick up, cannot park and have to make their way into the terminal to pay, so its not even efficient. People were getting short tempered, blasting horns, because of the situation you have created, not user friendly.

✅ Trip Verified | Departed from T3 on Sunday November 26th. Standard amount of people queuing but awful staff at security. They seemed very stressed and were shouting at people and altogether very inefficient. Took longer than usual to get through. I am a frequent traveler and this has to be the worst airport I came across in Europe.

❎ Not Verified | Woeful service at Manchester Airport - had to wait nearly 40 minutes before we could disembark. No comment from ground service staff available; the Captain commented "frankly it’s quite unacceptable". Use another airport if you can. After the ultra efficiency of Munich it’s s stark reminder that we’re back in the United Kingdom.

❎ Not Verified | Absolutely awful airport, rude staff, terminal one is still set in 1960's, everything way out of date. Choice of places to eat/shop absolutely terrible. I'm a frequent flyer from this airport and I'm embarrassed about Manchester airport. Absolutely fantastic city, shocking out of date airport.

✅ Verified Review | Simply awful and in some places disgusting and scary. And very, very, very tiresome. In the 'olden days' - i.e. the 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's, the old Manchester 'Ringway' airport was well known and loved by all who lived in the North West of the UK and used it regularly for holidays abroad. The Terminal 2 extension was welcome and it was a modern, comfortable, and functional addition to the existing airport. I cant put my finger on exactly when things started to change, but certainly over the last five years, at least, I have noticed a rapid and continual decline in almost every aspect of the airport experience. Without writing War and Peace I will set out the key problems with this airport [with reference to Terminal 1 upon departure]: 1) The road network access has become increasingly complicated to the point where it is almost inaccessible with any kind of ease. It seems that the airport doesn't like taxis, because the taxi drop-off facilities are so poor. I think the airport likes private cars and really just wants to provide car parking for these, which I presume it makes a lot of money from. 2) Baggage check-in is relatively uncomplicated unless you have a holdall-type bag, pushchair, or similar. The arrangements for getting these handed over for loading onto the plane are complicated, time-consuming, ill-signposted - you get the idea. Manchester Airport doesn't seem to like bags they think are difficult to process, and seems to feel entitled to make life difficult for the users of the airport in return. 3) Security screening is, quite simply, horrendous. Bedlam. Strip search territory. Airport staff with blank staring eyes barking orders at people. Children and old people looking bewildered and frightened by it all. Electronic body scanners. Scowling airport staff if people don't comply with their frenetic screeched commands instantly. If nothing else spoils your holiday [apart from arrival at the airport upon return - see later] then this will. 4) After you clear security screening Manchester Airport sends you through the yellow brick road of their "duty free" shops. There is no escape from this tour of things you don't want to buy because to get to the main lounge you have to go through the shops. You just have to keep plodding on like lemmings. 5) When you clear the yellow brick road of consumerism the first thing you see is the obligatory car gambling podium. There has been a 'luxury' car lottery-type thing going on at Manchester Airport for many years now. It is very, very, very tedious. 6) The main departure lounge at the airport is nothing to write home about. Over the years they have gradually reduced the seating to practically nothing, with the exception of seating in food outlets. Thus you are compelled to spend money consuming over-priced food/drink. 7) The toilets in the main departure lounge are grossly inadequate for the size of the facility. There are not enough toilets. The toilets are generally dirty, wet, and smelly. Just disgusting. Upon arrival back at the airport after a holiday, things do not get any better. Passport Control is a ridiculous affair. Endless zig-zag lines of people queueing. Airport or Customs staff barking orders and shouting at people. Scowling immigration officers. Ridiculous electronic passport machines that work badly. Luggage carousel delays. And of course, yet more filthy, dirty, and disgusting toilets. I am going to try Liverpool Airport.

✅ Verified Review | What an absolute dump and a disgrace for the city of Manchester. Had the chance to use both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 recently, and these places are like something from the 1960's. Squashed, dark little passages everywhere, it feels like a local authority building built in 1960, and has less charm than a garden shed. In case you wonder what basis I comment, I visit on average about 50 airports worldwide each year, and this is worse than many in Africa. Terminal 1 arrivals is a mess, cramped and dirty - departures is even worse, overcrowded with rather cheap shopping area. Dirty is a polite description for the two sets of toilets I used. Security at 0730 in T1 was awful, and they need some serious advice from airports even like Heathrow that are so much better. I feel sorry for the people of Manchester and nearby to be stuck with such an awful, awful airport, and the company managing this place should be fired.

❎ Unverified | I have traveled extensively and have a list of the worst airports I have encountered, Manchester Airport managed to raise itself to the very top of that list. Departure: Arrive a good 6 hours ahead of flight (arriving in Manchester by train). Signage is very poor from the train to the terminal building, but - managed. Found the terminal - found the Emirates counter, had a long wait 3 hours before flight - counter opened, and was processed fairly quickly. Had a cloth based bag - was told it had to go in "special handling" 15 minute wait for special handling - bag was thrown onto conveyor. 45 minute wait to enter security, 38 minute wait to place items on security conveyor belt. 22 minutes wait for items to come out of the security conveyor belt. Warnings of additional 40+ minute wait if your bag is pulled for screening. Contact yelling and abuse by staff to empty all toiletries etc. Express passes for idiots: If you do not plan ahead tell security and get brought straight to the front of the line and really annoy the people who were smart, arrived early, and waited patiently. Was physically moved from the conveyor belt, my items removed, to allow a couple who "arrived late because of traffic". No warning, no please or thank you - I mumbled complaint and was told "you better remain quiet". So; for those doing the math - I arrive 6 hours early for my flight, and I am now left with 1 hour before the flight leaves - and the departure board is still not showing a gate. Decided to have a beer. Stood patiently waiting for bar tender to finish taking the order in front of me, when they paid and left, so did the bar tender. All 7 remaining bar staff were helping clients further along the counter and refused to acknowledge me. I left. Saw two Emirates crew members walking to the gate. Followed them, tried to enter the seating area, and was rudely told to take a seat as they were not ready to begin processing people. Sat patiently, was finally allowed to enter the seating area. Waited patiently, was finally (5 minutes to departure time) allowed to enter the gangway. Assisted another passenger carry her bags as she was left holding baby and all bags - and no staff offered to help. Flight crew finally came to the gangway and saw us all patiently waiting behind the ribbon and allowed us to enter. Overall - the worst airport I have ever traveled through. Never again. All staff were rude, airport is dirty and old feeling, passenger flow management is terrible, signage is awful - and - its all the passengers fault (according to all staff I met).

✅ Verified Review | Reminiscent of a 1950s bus station but without the charm. Arrival and departure from Manchester Airport was a truly grim experience, and for an arriving passenger (especially a Brit coming back from abroad) a shock. Firstly in international arrivals a toilet cubicle not just with no toilet paper but with no receptacle for toilet paper (seemed to have been torn off the wall and disappeared) and no soap in the basin cleaner. Then an information counter whose staff, when asked for my connecting airline just said "never heard of it" (after I insisted, her younger colleague then bothered to look it up and direct us to it). Incredibly long walk between terminals - the information said "you could take a taxi". The domestic terminal had a mass scene of huge numbers of Ryanair passengers having their bags measured but we got through this to our own airline. Because of a delayed flight (not the airport's fault, of course) we were referred to an interline booking counter where over an hours wait involved standing the whole time as there was no seating anywhere. Indeed apart from the cafes the departures terminal seemed just to have no seats. This wait included their attempt to contact the airport hotel and getting no reply, and a lengthy negotiation to get us a £10 meal voucher, although meal options were surprisingly limited. The crowds milling round the terminal generally seemed grumpy and we were not surprised. To think that Manchester once bid to host the Olympics! Pathetic. It is a wonderful city and a wonderful community and deserves a lot better than this. Finally when we left Manchester on our domestic UK flight we had more intrusive and aggressive security than we have ever experienced. Nobody should mind airport security these days but rude men insisting on every item of a handbag being removed in public and individually inspected with aggressive remarks - underwear, cosmetics, everything - is something different.

✅ Verified Review | Arrived Manchester Airport to find three trolley signs showing 'Out of Order'. Fourth one had a few trolleys but not working. Spoke to airport staff to say it was a very bad image for passengers arriving at airport. He indicated which two trolley sites were in operation so finally got a trolley. Also I don't understand why passengers are expected to pay for a trolley? It's not the type of equipment that people want to keep or run away with and it's an extra task after long flight and perhaps no sterling currency. (I do wonder whether the change machines might also have been out of order?) Next problem was, as it appears to be quite common from previous flights, some of the walkway conveyor belts weren't operating. Rather embarrassing. We need to project a welcome and efficiency at the gateway to our country.

✅ Verified Review | Manchester Airport is without doubt the single worst airport I have travelled through in recent years. It's hard for me to put into words how much I hate this airport. I travel once a month minimum for work and this is my local airport. I am always struck by how every airport I encounter on the return journey - whether it be USA, China or elsewhere in Europe - shows Manchester up to be terrible. Security here is the crux of it. The staff are rude to the point of aggressiveness. Staff turnover is extremely high, hence the constant recruitment drives you see adverts for when you pass through, and I think that is reflected in the service delivered. Manchester is also the only airport I have ever passed through ever that counts such things as a push-on deodorant stick as liquid "because it is spreadable at room temperature" - literally anything is spreadable at room temperature, it is merely a question of how much pressure is applied. Bags are pulled for re-scanning for the most spurious of reasons. You will never see more bags pulled at any other airport. I suspect they are working to quota. Literally no other airport anywhere ever, have I seen the kind of chaos nonsense I see at Manchester on a regular basis. Today was my 15th or 16th trip through there this year. Today was another level again. First a guy who seemed to be in the middle of a panic attack, as if he was organizing the evacuation of Dunkirk, demanding in urgent panicked fashion that every little thing be put in a separate tray, so that usually what takes me three trays - I carry the same things for business all the time - today took six. Then on the other side, his counterpart, a guy who seemed to be working his first day on the front line and was as pumped up and gung-ho as a guy doing his first day in the vietnam jungle. Move! Move! Don't stand there! Keep moving, he's shouting at people, which again, I have never seen at this airport or any other. He's also yanking trays the second anyone takes their stuff out of them. I said to him, calm down, is this your first day or what? He got verbally aggressive in response; at the same time, he's still pulling trays left right and center and feeding them back into the machine, so his mate at the front can have a steady supply of empty trays for his "every pencil needs a separate tray!" regime. I got hassled out of there and then went to board and only when I got on the plane did I realize that he had stacked an empty tray onto a tray of mine which contained a kindle and a portable hard drive. Manchester Airport direct you to a third-party lost-luggage company if you leave anything in their airport security, or elsewhere. So I had to spend an hour on hold to speak to a woman based somewhere in the south of England who told me that there was no record of anything being left at T3, matching my description. If you at all have the chance to travel from Liverpool or any other airport other than Manchester, take it. The security procedure is a joke and for sure they will ruin your day / trip.