Manchester Airport

This airport continues to be the worst I have experienced in the UK for customs control queues, the response is always "there has been a higher number of planes landing than expected at this time". However I find it hard to believe on six occasions the same thing happens - maybe I'm just unlucky. Recently (midnight on a Sunday night) 3 planes land and 5 e-passport stations open results in queuing in excess of 45 mins, and no disability or small children lanes is unacceptable.

I can tolerate the arrogance of those who need to check everybody's passpost or ID when entering the country at Manchester Airport - which I find extremely annoying, but still, it's not the employees' choice. What I cannot tolerate is the horrible experience during departures - particularly the security checks. My sister's hand luggage was rejected, along with at least 50 other bags. Around 1 out of 2 bags gets rejected and, OK, a lot of travellers don't pay attention to liquids at all, but most of the bags were totally fine except for items which are normally accepted in every other airport. The most frustrating thing is waiting for your rejected luggage to be examined. The staff cannot respect the order at all, so you end up waiting for half an hour while people who were behind you in the queue manage to get through. In the end my sister's bag contained a scented candle, which apparently cannot be carried into the suitcase. Nobody showed a bit of respect for us or more unlucky people who were only 10 minutes away from missing their flight. Absolutely terrible experience, I would avoid this airport altogether if Leeds was better linked to Italy.

Manchester airport is generally a decent airport. I've never been overly delayed whilst boarding a flight and there's always stuff to do to keep you occupied, however terminal 3 is basically a cattle market, even on a Thursday morning in November it was just chaotic. People everywhere, drunk, immense amounts of stag do's and hen do's - yuck. Also when arriving back to Manchester airport you have to pass UK border control as you do in every country. This is the worst passport control I have seen in any airport. It's not just once it's been the worst experience. I waited over an hour last night to get through the queue. There must have been over 1000 people queuing to get through and they were using just 5 e-passport machines, foreign people couldn't understand the electronic system a lot of the time and one women was flapping around for ages with her passport in the machine with no success. I've flown back to Manchester airport at least 6 times this year and every time has been the same! Horrific passport control with hardly any staff. Every other airport you walk straight through. Manchester seriously needs to sort this out.

T1 - dirty, cluttered, confusing and generally abysmal, as usual. I booked wheelchair assistance with the airline for one of our group as they have heart problems and can't walk very far. Arrived at check in desk and enquired about the pre-booked wheelchair (airline advised on the phone that the wheelchair would be available at the check in desk), to be told we had to walk all the way down to the other end of check in area to the assistance office and ask in there. Went to assistance office to be met by rude, surly, couldn't care less staff who pointed to a wheelchair and told us to push it ourselves. So no 'assistance' then. Service was equally bad on our return, with several passengers requiring wheelchairs but not enough staff provided to push them, so family/friends were left to do it instead. I can't imagine what impression visitors to the UK must get after landing at Manchester, it's an over-priced and disorganised dump. It's time they invested some money in the place and sorted themselves out - they could afford it from all the £1 coins they collect for using the luggage trolleys. The only highlight of the experience was the Aspire lounge which we used on departure, where it was clean and comfortable with decent food.

✅ Verified Review | The security check in was a shambles, with little passage of information my wife spend 10 minutes waiting to reclaim her bag as it sat on the belt after being scanned. Staff not clear telling people what to do when second scan done on bag. On arrival back into the UK at passport control or should I say lack of control. Massive queue at the micro chip passport control while 6 lanes not in use. One border control staff sat playing with her hair looking bored while 200 people go through 1 gate. Then the machine to check passports did not work for half the people it checked. So you get sent to a human, who had a face like a wet weekend not friendly or welcoming. Meanwhile foreign nationals sail through passport control. Bad staff not friendly a shambles. Customs stood like a bunch of thugs leaning against walls in a group of 15 plus. I will never fly from Manchester airport again On a plus note the car park company were very good and professional I recommend APH.

A miserable experience. I travelled to New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. Manchester was the only one that was filthy. It is just such a dreadful airport to travel through. It feels worn out and dirty, the queue to get through passport control took half an hour for 4 automatic passport readers (the 5th one was out of order) to process the queue. They charge for everything. It was by far the worst airport I have visited and makes me embarrassed to be British. A terrible first sight of the UK for tourists.

✅ Verified Review | I have never experienced such rude staff in an airport and I've been in quite a few in my time. I was changing to a connecting flight from Paris (which had been delayed) on to another to go to Edinburgh. Going through security was a nightmare. The staff were rude and searching bags after they went through the scanner literally for the sake of it. I had a friend with me who had all her toiletries and liquids in a clear plastic bag as told. The woman said it was the wrong one (fair enough - but she said it so rudely) and then continued to go through her things saying that lipstick was a liquid. I've never heard such rubbish in my life (all 4 of mine got through without being questioned). When I confronted her she said it had been that way for 10 years at Manchester airport. Now I understand if the staff are stressed with their lack of staff but there's really no need to speak to people the way they did, everything was an inconvenience for them yet they were the ones choosing to make it harder for themselves. really disappointed - not even Paris is like that considering everything going on right now.

I am disgusted with Manchester Airport. I travel a lot and have never had to deal with staff that are so rude and discourteous. Firstly, check in-beyond ridiculous. No humans to do this for you just a free for all, no order and had to tag the bags and drop them off myself. Secondly, the rude, inconsiderate security - they really should be taught that if you inconvenience people and empty and maul their personal possessions they should at least have the decency to put them back in the bag they came from. When bringing this to a member of managements attention, I was just given a puzzled look and asked if I thought they had time? More so than myself, who had purchased queue jump for security and still had to wait. Upon our return, we had to wait for over an hour to get through passport control as there were only 2 members off staff on the EU passport line, while the international passport queue was empty yet fully staffed. There was then a further 40 minute wait for our bags. Poor and to be avoided if at all possible.

Arrived at 1100 Manchester Airport Terminal 2 check-in was swift and assistance was good, on entering priority security check area this is where things started to go wrong. Rude staff told us to place our belongings into the trays, then after being swabbed hands and shoes, we had a 15 minute wait for our things. When it was our turn we were made to empty all our bags and these were also swabbed. Asked why all the bags were being checked and told this was a random check. I am all for security but this was over the top it seemed every person was having there bags checked hence the 15 minute wait. Toilets are reasonably clean but the drains did smell. Waiting area, consists of very uncomfortable seats which have seen better days, there are lots with tares, and are very stained. Overall not a pleasant experience to the start of the holiday.

✅ Verified Review | Manchester airport never ceases to amaze me with its disorganisation. The layout, the staff and facilities are in such disarray, the staff seem to spend more time talking to each other about their nights out than actually doing what they are paid for. Security is a joke, whilst I fully accept the need for it there seems to be total chaos at unlike any other airport with queues and bags being carted from one belt to another by staff when rejected and people are lost picking up bag. The only place they have spent money is the duty free shops so it's a shame that for most flights you can't really buy anything, unless you want to get ripped off buying something like a newspaper where the shop and not the customer claim back the tax. I dread coming here and it's the only negative of moving to Lancashire, I use liverpool given the chance and even Heathrow for holidays but Heathrow is a 4 hour drive for me.