Manchester Airport

❎ Unverified | The process of bag drop at Easyjet followed by security screening at 5.30am on Sunday 9th July was slightly less than two hours. I was the last on the plane! What was irritating was to find at least four of the scanning machines sitting idle. Surely Manchester Airport have got the know how to bring all their facilities into use when customer numbers demand? The other interesting aspect of this queuing is that passengers have little or no time to spend time and money in the shops and restaurants in the terminal. I wonder if those clients of the airport,who doubtless pay hefty zone A rents for their shops and restaurants realise this and ever complain? The terminal needs a thoroughly good going over to improve this dreadful but necessary aspect of flying! Flying with Jet2.com was marginally quicker on another recent flight but the labryinthine route from ground to the main departure area was to say the least ludicrous! Returning was also marginally better once the eternal queue through passport control was negotiated.

✅ Verified Review | Hated Manchester airport. Disorganized, dirty (bathrooms are filthy), and no communication amongst staff. Never again will I fly in or out of this airport. The lines for security are completely confusing and it's the fault of the staff. Trays get loaded and sent random, so instead of waiting for your two trays, you may be waiting and queuing to collect those after security as well because they just send any ones. It's just a stressful and disorderly experience.

✅ Verified Review | Arrival at Terminal 1 was utterly depressing. The pier was shabby and dated with shoddy signage, low ceilings, and not particularly clean. Worse was to come at immigration with its confusing layout and far too many people being funnelled into an inadequate, stuffy space. Departing from Terminal 1 was just as bad but this time the longest queues were at security followed by entry into an overheated, noisy, scruffy departure lounge with inadequate seating. When I was at university in Manchester in the 1970s I had a summer job as a baggage handler/porter at Manchester airport and it is sad to see that Terminal 1 has remained much as it was 40 years ago with little effort having been made to improve passengers' experience apart from the obvious desire of management to maximise profits through cramming in as much retail activity as possible. Overall, a total embarrassment to the city of Manchester.

✅ Verified Review | Dirty, crowded and cramped in areas where large groups need to pass by, long queues especially at passport control that is ridiculous and beyond badly organised, miserable staff and squalid toilets! I can only compare this airport to those of far poorer countries. There is no excuse for it to be this run down with the prices charged.

✅ Verified Review | Arrived in Manchester Airport terminal 3 and almost couldn't move. It was like a cattle market. Security was fine but bars shops and restaurants were ridiculously busy. Came back and waited for over an hour for our bag. No information given. It was terrible service. If you can avoid Manchester airport please do.

✅ Verified Review | Awful, truly awful. T1 security queue is truly shocking. Long queues, you are penned in by barriers in a hot airless queue. After 40 minutes crammed in this queue I get to the scanners. Friday evening in holiday time and four weren't being used. I complained to the manager and got the rudest most disinterested staff member who told me there was no problem! She was totally disdainful and couldn't care less about my opinion. Awful, did I mention that.

❎ Unverified | Terrible, absolutely terrible. After getting no sleep for an early flight to Alicante I found my flight removed from the flight times board without one piece of communication from the airport on when I could expect to leave or even what exactly was causing the delay. This lack of communication is unacceptable causing me a lot of unnecessary stress that could have been solved by a simple announcement.

❎ Unverified | My wife and I arrived at Manchester Airport T1 on Friday 16th June 2017 at approximately 6.00pm, and were immediately struck by the masses of people queuing to enter the building. We put this down to it being a busy Friday evening and thought no more of it. We went to the Aer Lingus desk and checked in our luggage, and within a couple of minutes approached the security screening area. We were horrified to see the massive crowds of people queuing to enter security. Thankfully, we had access to the Fast Track security and we entered and joined a queue. This queue moved incredibly slowly and it took almost 90 minutes to finally clear security. This was Fast Track, and we heard passengers in the other queue saying that they had waited over two and a half hours. During this time, there were numerous announcements advising passengers to remove devices, etc from bags so as to speed up the security process. What a joke! At no time was there any announcement to explain this delay. We were confined inside a very hot area with no cool air, no offer of drinks of water (this was especially shameful as there were many elderly and pregnant passengers in this very uncomfortable area. When we finally reached the screening area, I was met by a very friendly operative whom I asked the reason for this delay. He explained that it was due to the airport being very busy. This is totally unacceptable: Airport management have information on the precise number of passengers due to check in at any given time. That such a large crowd was allowed to congregate in the departures area was a serious health hazard. Being confined in a very warm airless area with no access to water, and being denied the most basic information is a dreadful way to treat paying customers. In all my time travelling through airports (including the USA post 9/11) I have never had such a terrible experience. The management of Manchester Airport should hang their heads in shame at this debacle. My wife and I both love visiting the UK. On foot of our experience today, we will certainly think twice about flying out of Manchester.

✅ Verified Review | I have travelled extensively all around the world. My experience at Manchester Airport last week was the worst ever. Security was to blame for this horrible experience, they treated us like cattle and screamed instructions at people as if we were imbeciles. There were several in our group and we all felt verbally abused by these offensive people. I understand that they have to carry out certain things that none of us like but the lack of respect and politeness was unacceptable. I will never travel out of Manchester again, it was a really bad start to our holiday.

✅ Verified Review | For those who crave disappointment Manchester Airport is for you. For charter flights it's the airport equivalent of toothache where the passenger has the dubious privilege of paying for appalling standards. What other sphere of activity is it OK to charge for a knowingly poor service? The reviews over months are mostly pretty bad, common issues coming up again and again. Note to the airport: why not use some of the trumpeted £2 billion spend to sort out the easy-to-remedy stuff first? Do something about smelly toilets, empty soap dispensers, slow baggage, access staircases that work, are easy to position and ready for an on-time flight. We've used the airport many occasions over the years and our opinions of the place has lowered each time. Repeated mentions about clunky check-ins, unexplained queues, tortuous security control, upstairs / downstairs / round-the-houses walks, unavoidable travel through the 'duty free' perfume arcade on way to departure. Manchester Airport bills itself 'global gateway for the North of England' we arrived on-time Bilbao last Tues [20 Jun] and had to wait 10 mins for the steps to be wheeled in [it took 2 goes]. This was better than experience a week before on a flight from Nice where passengers were kept waiting 20 mins. We were ushered through a narrow litter-strewn passageway through a sliding door that opened and closed sporadically splitting up families. This little insight says it all. One of the first things you see on the Manchester Airport website is an invitation to pay £6 to fast-track book in. Not only is the airport aware that check-in is slow but rather than sort it out no – it's opportunity to further milk the punters! I'm sure the internal debate went along the lines: how much can charge for a service that other airports of a similar size do as standard for nothing? Others like Stansted [same group] charge £7 and Gatwick [a mere £5] both advertise the same service although not quite as rapaciously. The 3rd largest airport in the country is a disgrace.