Manchester Airport

The worst airport in the UK and possibly in Europe. It is a profit making machine that puts nothing back into the infrastructure and facilities. Amongst many of things that I have witnessed in 7 years of commuting through this dreadful airport is: 1) Rubbish left lying around 2) Inadequate baggage belt system in T1, it cannot cope with the volume 3) Majority of staff in security haven't got a clue 4) Toilets are disgusting 5) A lot of infrastructure is rusting and past its life span, there desperately needs to be some investment 6) Rude staff 7) Escalators that haven't worked for years 8) Insufficient seating for the volume of passengers, I could go on but needless to say that if my route (Zurich) was served by another regional airport then I would not use MAN. I dread to think what opinion foreign visitors must have of our region when they arrive at MAN. It's about time that someone did something about this airport.

Like most of the other travellers,we had pre-booked our seats and had our boarding passes. The queues were intolerable, first to check in our own luggage and then to drop the baggage on to the conveyor belt. Then we queued again through passport control and security. I appreciate security is important these days, but we had no time to look around duty free, before we were told to go to gate. But we queued again along a corridor and down a flight of stairs for half a hour before boarding. It was dangerous and tiring. Some people were so tired they sat on the stairs and had to keep getting up and then down again to progress. The whole experience was a nightmare.

Traveled from Manchester with Jet2holidays. Departure from T1 B departures was excellent. Had previously checked in online so got to use the automated bag drop for the first time. Wonderful development to get you through to duty free. Returned to find the usual chaos. Minimum staff at border control and major queues with UK/EU passengers herded into half of the available snail lines. Then major delays with the baggage delivery and the children's buggies having to wait until last - 1 hour 30 mins after landing. All this from an airport that makes millions of profit every year but will not employ enough staff or invest in passenger comfort, just in infrastructure that generates more and more profit.

At Manchester to catch a flight to Skiathos nearly 3 hours the flight. Met with a queue at the car meet and greet, 30 minutes wait, luckily had priority boarding and security. Check-in went fine, then onto security, again despite having fast track another long wait, not enough staff and the ones they have in no hurry. We had booked a Lounge there was no time to use it by this stage, that's the second time out of the last three visits this has happened and it's a waste of time and money. Talking to others on the plane we are not alone. The shops airside must be losing a fortune due to lack of time to shop and eat as everybody rushes through. For arrival, surprised to find they had extra machines in passport control, and they worked rather well and a definite improvement on previous visits but we were the only plane in at the time. For baggage delivery, again, a surprise, nearly right away was one of our suitcases. Then nothing. Surely as the only flight it wouldn't be long but nothing else came for 45 minutes. Nobody to get any info from or complain to. This was a bit better than our last visit which was an hour and a half wait. Manchester has gone from being a very good and professional place to a shambles. I have used various airports in Spain, Greece, Portugal the last few years and all including Liverpool are miles better as a passenger experience. Only using Manchester as a last resort from now on, next year it's Liverpool for me. I don't care if it's even more expensive, I can't put up with the stress and unprofessional performance on offer these days, park and greet, priority check-in, security, lounge, it still didn't mean I got a good beginning and end to a holiday.

What an awful airport. It is ill-equipped to deal with the volume of passengers from start to finish. I have never before had to queue on a car parking bus just to get dropped off at departures, the drop off zone is small and narrow which resulted in a queue back to the roundabout. The entrance to the airport is dark, depressing and claustrophobic. Security was very slow with long queues - this is the fourth time I have had to fly from Manchester and on all four occasions security was slow with long queues. My bag was pulled and inspected (fine, not a problem) and when I asked the reason I was advised 'we have newly trained staff who are pulling everything and anything which is slowing things down. An experienced member of staff wouldn't pull half of these'. The departures lounge (T3) is small with limited facilities. It was very overcrowded. On our return to Manchester we were greeted off the plane and in to the airport by a really happy and friendly member of staff - he was the only highlight! We then went through passport control where some of the staff were extremely rude. My passport could not be read by the biometric reader so I was separated from my partner and guided to a desk. My partner waited for me and was literally barked at by the Scottish lady 'you can't wait here, if you wanted to come through together you should have stayed together'. Her whole manner was aggressive and unfriendly. A simple 'I'm afraid you can't wait here. Please go through the doors' in a friendly tone would have sufficed. I do anything I can to avoid flying from Manchester airport and think it is a poor first impression for visitors to the area. Someone please sort it.

This is a dreadful airport. The check out and ticket check were good. There were not too many queues for the security screening. But the facilities ag Terminal 1 are dire. You have to walk through the duty free is there are only limited seating available, done of which has no back., more for sprawling, Not really what you want with a two hour wait. 2 of he three Hand dryers in the men's were not working. This is a Termibal that is built around consumerism than the comfort and needs of its passengers it wouldn't have taken much to have had fewer luxury good stores and more some and comfort for passengers. Another example of this is that there is just one hour free WiFi. Other airports recognise the value of this to customers and either give longer free or make no charge - Manchester Airport is just after your money

I thought my experience was a one off bad day for the airport but seems not. Both the departure and arrival was a nightmare. Queues were extremely long and probably the worst I've ever experienced. This was my first time at Manchester Airport and hopefully my last. Clearly this was no isolated experience and from an overall customer satisfaction perspective they score a big fat 0. Given all we had time to do at the airport was queue then those other services lost customers.

✅ Verified Review | Arrival at Manchester Terminal 1 was without incident and quite normal. Departure was a different matter. The queue for the security check was very slow and the air seemed stale. It became apparent that it was slow due to the large number of items which were diverted for individual searches. This time the officer who did the search was polite, unlike last year where the officer was rude, aggressive and abrub and just snarled orders. When through the security you are then subjected to an IKEA type walk through the shops who have goods on display stacked on the walkway. One was tempted to "bump" a large stack of goods to make the whole lot tumble over. It was resisted but I really hate being forced to go through a shop rather than just past it. Next we arrived at the gate only to find there was hardly any seating or even a place to wait. The whole flight was forced to stand in the corridor and obstruct other passengers who were trying to walk to their gate further down the walkway. This has to be the worst airport I have had to use, surpassing even the disaster which is Heathrow.

I am a frequent flyer through Manchester airport terminal 2 and lately they seem to only have three out of the 10 security gates open it took 1hr to be herded through. Do they not have any staff? Not a very pleasant start to anyone's holiday. they must know how many passengers are due to be going through on any given day.

✅ Verified Review | Manchester airport is an absolute joke. Passport control queues were the longest I have ever seen, charged to retrieve your own property if it is lost. Security spotted a small jar of tiger balm which was in a first aid kit that amounted to about 30ml. Then proceeded to scan and search even more, if they can spot a small tiger balm they can see what is in my hand luggage without me removing everything. Poor line of sight signage. Insufficent seating areas and staff that have their personalities removed made for a very unpleasant experience.