Manchester Airport

Manchester has to be the worst airport I have had the misfortune to use, and for so many reasons. 1) I am forced to walk through "Duty Free" despite being allergic to perfumes. I then spend several hours with my nose streaming and in extreme discomfort. 2) Too many of the airport staff are rude and unhelpful to the point of being churlish. 3) Security inspection - so what do you have to do to avoid having your bags taken to pieces by officious operators on a power trip? We always separate electricals and our fluids and if we carry anything unusual we always ask - and we have never got through Manchester's baggage check without having at least one, and usually both bags literally taken to pieces. 4) Passport and immigration - why have we been having to queue for an unacceptable amount of time just so we can be herded by an irritable immigration "officer" into machines which are slow, inaccurate and only work (if at all) after several attempts? The delay was in excess of an hour three weeks ago. 5) Late flights and unacceptable delays - it comes to something when hire car operators in Faro tell you that Manchester flights are always late - and they are not wrong. In over 18 months of traveling regularly (every other week normally) to and from Faro every Manchester flight has been delayed. 6) Vehicular access at Terminal 2, two roads (one in and one from a car park) terminate at the same roundabout and all the traffic is channeled down into one lane to arrivals and departures. The time from the roundabout to the rank is enormous despite being less than 100 yards.

Security is the worst part of the airport. Not only are there often long queues to get into security - the worst part is the security machines they use, which (if you hand luggage needs checked) gets "trapped" down a chute that takes ages to get processed. If your hand luggage checks checked for a search - it will take 10-20 minutes before you see it again - time that could easily cost you your flight. Best avoided as an airport if there are other options (unless you have lots of time).

Manchester Airport is not at all welcoming. My wife is Thai (myself and our daughter are UK nationals so we end up in separate queues at UK border force) and it take hours to get for non EU passengers to be processed. UK border force at Manchester are not welcoming and while you while away the hours with your upset child waiting for your spouse to get past, the airport staff will do precisely zip. No place to wait, no offer of water nothing. No offers of help with luggage even if you have toddler in tow. You stop to carry luggage at the drop off and shepherd your toddler across the traffic lines, do you think you might get any understanding? No of course not instead the staff comes after you threatening to tow your car. We travel through Bangkok and Beijing a lot both are infinitely more welcoming than Manchester. My wife took 10 mins to pass through Zurich with a Guten Morgen Welcome to Switzerland. If it was not for the kindness of our fellow sufferers travelling though this place, we would have had an accident by now.

I travel a lot for both business and pleasure. I am always perplexed at the reason for the rudeness displayed by security staff. I know they have a job to do and I realise that this is an extreamly important task. However, a little politeness costs nothing. Staff shout at people demanding they take off shoes coats and belts and put in the trays. I recently travelled through Schipol Airport and have to say they were the most polite/human and subsequently efficient staff I have ever encountered.

On departure I was singled out by security for a full body scan. I was led to a screened area and after a few minutes was given the all clear. The problem was that all my worldly goods money, expensive watch, passports etc. was still in the tray which was not brought with me. The guy did not know where he had picked me up from so it meant that when I eventually found my tray it had been left unattended for about 10 minutes. On arrival back everybody on the flight (Tenerife) had to pass through automatic passport control. Lots of failures, lots of apologies and told to complain to Border Control. Luckily we were near the front of the queue but I suspect those near the rear would probably have had to wait over half an hour.

I've travelled all over the world and Manchester is consistently the worst departure (long security queues) / arrival experience (long queues at passport control and late luggage). As a resident of this great city, I feel ashamed what visitors must think. Shame on you - it never changes and I doubt they bother to read reviews.

Manchester airport security personnel are the rudest staff I have ever come across. I have recently been traveling half way around the world and I have never come across a disgraceful standard of service and customer relations. These members of staff need to learn some basic customer relations skills and manners. A awful experience for my 85 year old mother in law who felt very insulted. I also have never been spoken to in such a disgraceful manner.

Consistently the worst and slowest passport control for incoming flights, of the dozens of airports I use yearly. Capacity is woefully inadequate if more than one flight arrives at once, and waits of over an hour are common place. The same excuse is trotted out each time that too many flights have arrived at once. That's scheduled flights, scheduled months in advance. The reality is customer service is sacrificed in the interests of costs in my view. Very poor, avoid at all costs.

Manchester Airport is terrible. Especially Terminal 3. Everything is uncoordinated. Check-in lines were a myth. Unless you have checked in online, expect to be lined up with the rest of the flight. Check-in staff were friendly though. We went through Security, fortunately we had pre-paid for Priority. If you hadn't, however, the line was long and not organised whatsoever. It was a rushed process with unhelpful staff. After security, we went along a hallway to the main area. We were greeted by the typical airport shops, Dixons, WHSmith, etc. Manchester Airport food quality is shocking. You can go to Costa, or one of those Cafes that only seem to exist in small Airports. Breakfast choice is typical of sandwiches. It's very greasy and doesn't taste nice. The lines are long and the seating area is dirty and small. After breakfast, we went to the gate area. Not many seats for a large international flight. It was very dirty. It filled up quickly and suddenly became very cramped. Our flight was delayed due to a delayed arrival. The announcements made by the airport staff were bland, unhelpful and hard to hear. When it was time, it was in Boarding Zones. Manchester Airport is not skilled in dealing with Boarding Zones. You had Boarding Zone 4 people stood around during Boarding Zone 1's time. There were no proper lines and it was a slow process. The staff couldn't scan boarding passes very quickly and so it took a while. I do not recommend this airport.

Arriving from Amsterdam early morning at Terminal 1 meant a long stopover before departure to Qatar from Terminal 3. Starting with no terminal transfer bus, having to walk a significant distance to get from 1 to 3 and finally entering departures to find all restaurants and food outlets closed my experience was less than satisfactory. Just a simple message informing passengers that all outlets were closed would of allowed me to find an alternative before entering departures. Very poor performance from a leading UK airport.