Manchester Airport

Grim as usual. Rude staff both at checking in (Flybe) and security. Shouting at people, treating us like sheep. Such a bad impression for our foreign visitors. Signs only in English - it's an international airport! Terminal three does not have enough seats.

Unpleasant experience through security - there is no other airport like it! E passports - when will somebody wake up - see the queues and admit that it cannot be self service if several staff need to help. Airport service and reputation continues to go downhill.

✅ Verified Review | Arrived at Manchester airport Terminal 1 at 5 pm on a Friday afternoon to catch the 6.45 pm flight to Malaga. With only a small carry on rucksack, this should have been plenty of time to enjoy a pre-flight drink and some relaxed airport shopping. Not a chance. The queue seemed to meander endlessly around the security area. We finally passed through the x-ray machines 55 minutes after joining. Not a pleasant experience and made worse by the fact that the staff are constantly shouting instructions as if addressing children in a playground. This does not happen at other UK airports or any other European ones. Very strange. Then there is the issue of staffing levels. I don't claim to know how to run an airport but I would guess that a Friday afternoon is one of the busiest times with worker returning home and weekenders flying off for a break. It is therefore difficult for a lay person to comprehend why, when there are 12 security stations with x-ray machines, only 4 are open and staffed. If it is lack of trained staff then employ more. Or is it that passenger comfort is unimportant. It is not a pleasant experience and not a great start to a holiday. I am sure other travellers, like myself, will start to abandon Manchester in favour of other regional airports if tis congestion does not improve.

Appalling. Arriving from Germany with Flybe to transfer to an Edinburgh flight, also Flybe. Bussed from one terminal to another, fair enough. Before being enter the second terminal we have to go through security again. Why? We are already airside and have been screened in Germany. I don't have to do security again returning via Birmingham, so why at Manchester? My Flybe mobile Boarding Pass is rejected because it doesn't have a date on it. So what? This is direct from the Flybe app. It got me into Dusseldorf airport and again onto the plane at Dusseldorf. It isn't at issue at Edinburgh or Birmingham. Why is this an issue in Manchester? Then I wait, with other passengers, for 15 minutes for Border Force to show up (their passport desk was empty) and look at our passports. Utterly disgraceful. Manchester Airport, sort yourselves out.

Consistently the slowest baggage reclaim of any airport in Northern Europe Airport. Slmost closed for the evening and it takes 40 mins to wait for bags, on top of the smalll, overcrowded terminals and poor cleanliness I really think Manchester should look at some other airports on the continent to see how to operate - poor service!

Usual farce on 7th Jan at Manchester Airport. 1hr 30 to clear security, queue for bag drop, queue for security. My kids meccano spanner was taken as a security risk in case he tried to take the plane apart. Is security poor staff, management, or equipment or all 3? Kids play area is appalling, airport isn't very clean, trolleys are free, WiFi is limited in time and barely works, fair to many steps and stairs, shops overpriced, limited seating, car hire off-site. There are no positive redeeming featured to the place. I gave 1/10 thinking somewhere must be worse, I've just never been there.

✅ Verified Review | My family and I had an appalling experience at Manchester T3 security. We ended up missing not one, but two flights. By far it was the worst airport experience of my life. In general security at MAN appears to focus on punishment rather than proactively helping a family that is running things a bit tight. I complained and got a reply which stated that "we were processed in a timely manner" according to their data. Either I was lying, or the data was incorrect. You can make your own mind up. Here's what happened: Things started off well. The line was quite short (~10 people) and we passed through the scanner OK. However, it then immediately became clear that we had a problem. Our bags were stuck getting through the scanner. This was because the scanner was blocked as the “side channel” for bags requiring inspection was backed up. In fact it had overflowed onto about four trolleys. I’d estimate there were about 12 trays requiring inspection, and about 12 trays stuck trying to get through the scanner. We were becoming mildly stressed but waited patiently since we still appeared to have plenty of time. Also, I knew that our gate was very close. Surely the staff had a process for dealing with the backlog/spreading the load across multiple security lanes? The answer turned out to be no and we missed our flight. At no point did anyone check with the passengers if anybody was on an immediate flight. This is standard procedure at many airports I have flown from. At no point did the staff appear to raise the situation to their managers. At no point was it suggested we try a different line. In any case our bags were stuck in the scanner. We mentioned to the staff several times that we were going to miss the flight. Their replies ranged from "sorry love, nothing we can do" to blank stares. A manager did not appear until another passenger went to the control booth where 3 managers/officers were chatting. No attempt was made by that manager to assess the situation and investigate if any passengers were in danger of missing their flight. Finally we got through and raced to our gate to no avail. The gate had closed and we got yelled at my an incredibly rude member of Manchester airport staff. Anyway, we needed to re-check-in and that is when things started to get surreal. A member of BA staff was assigned to guide us to get our bags from "carousel 3". Unfortunately he messed up and took us to international baggage reclaim where there was no "carousel 3". We were stuck. Of course, there was no access from international / domestic and we couldn't go back through immigration. It took 30+ minutes to resolve the issue and we missed the next flight too. To top it all, as we waited for the 3rd flight, we took our kid to the children's play area which turned out to be disgracefully dirty. It was covered in food spills, crumbs, and litter. I’m a proud Mancunian, now living in San Francisco, and I want to sell my home city as somewhere that my friends should visit. I would love them to be able to fly directly to the North of England to visit the Lake District and North Yorkshire without dealing with a change in London. However, based on our experiences, I’m wary of doing that. The airport is an embarrassment.

Most invasive security personnel I have experienced in 35 years of extensive travel. Horrible check in facility. Poorly staffed and very unprofessional - in general. Will never commute through there ever again if only because of the the horrible treatment I experienced with my three - 16-20 year old daughters.

✅ Verified Review | Never Again! Arriving early morning three hours before our flight to Tokyo, we expected to have plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast before boarding. Wrong! Thaings started badly as the Skylink moving walkway from our hotel was out of action (It was still not working on our return four weeks later). Getting through a seriously understaffed security check took over two hours and finding our way to departures involved being forced through a circuitous route through duty free. What is that all about? This really got my back up and ended up with me shouting at one of the assistants "Just tell me where the planes are?" When will UK airports realise that we use airports to travel on planes, not to shop. Instead of breakfast we only had time for a quick coffee in a hot, over crowded and far too small cafe, before the long walk to the gate. Manchester Airport further sought to annoy us on our return by charging a non-refundable fee for the use of a luggage trolley. To get my own back for this money grabbing initiative I left the trolley in an awkward area out of site on the railway platform - serves you right Manchester bean counters. By contrast the other airports used on our trip (Tokyo, Narita, Abu Dhabi and Singapore) were exceptionally clean, well staffed, efficient and provided (free) services that Manchester probably has never dreamed of. Neither did any of these airports insist of liquids being separately shown, iPads/phone being out of luggage, shoes being removed, belts being taken off, water bottles being left behind. Security checks at all these other airports took less than five minutes - Are you listening Manchester? Manchester is my nearest airport, but one I shall not use again. The four hour drive to Heathrow, already booked for my next flight, will be worth it to avoid this appalling excuse for an airport.

Had the misfortune to be re routed via Manchester when travelling back to Heathrow due to fog. Joined the back of he security queue at 0545 and got through to the other side at 0640. It was chaos and not even organised chaos. I assume Manchester airport don't get projected pax flow forecasts like other UK airports? Or if they do get choose to disregard them when it comes to staffing numbers, at least the london airports have nothing to worry about with any competition.