Manchester Airport

25 minute wait to get through passport check in T1. Bags waiting on the carousel. Paid for fast-track security on departure to avoid any stress. Needn't have bothered as no queues. Adequate catering facilities but too many 'duty free' shops.

Arrived at T1 on 13th November 2014 to be greeted by a horrendous queue for security. The queue stretched outside the terminal building and into the car park and this is winter time not peak season! Unbelievable inefficiency. I felt sorry for the foreign travellers who had no idea what was going on. Heaven knows what they must think about this airport I felt embarrassed to be British.

This is a dreadful airport - avoid at all costs! Not only is security a shambles (45 minutes on my last visit last week) but the staff are surly and unhelpful; always a sign of bad management in my experience. It claims to be open 24 hours but I can assure you that terminal 3 effectively shuts down at 20:30. One bar one restaurant and a couple of shoddy shops (WHSmith Boots) just doesn't cut it I'm afraid especially for the volume of traffic they're cramming in to such a small space. Really poor they should be ashamed but I get the impression it's run by individuals who won't care about bad reviews.

I use Manchester a lot and the one constant is the slow and inefficient security procedure. Whilst some of this is simply down to a lack of staff a lot of it is down to passengers just not being prepared. Flew out early on Saturday 15th from T3 - very short queues through security but we were all held up by totally unprepared people in front of us. Liquids not in clear bags not taking laptops out banned items not putting all their metal items/coins in trays etc. Once through security the airport is quite clean with enough shops/bars to keep you happy while waiting for your flight but there are often times I've not been able to use them as it's taken so long to get through security. It's a good airport but they really need to sort out the shambles that is security.

On return to T1 from Australia apart from March up and down stairs to passport control was in fact very quick and efficient baggage started coming out almost immediately my experience is better than most.

I have criticised Manchester Airport many times for its terrible queues both at security and border control when returning. Went out of T2 on 4th November and returned on 21st very fast at security and border control. I may of been lucky because there is still lots of complaints but I have to comment on the experience I had.

On a Sunday morning at T3 after an eventless KLM flight from AMS. No lines at immigration and without luggage on my way to the train station within 5 minutes. The airport itself doesn't have a very welcoming feeling it looks a bit rundown. A long walk including going up on an elevator at T2 at least 15 minutes to the train station. In and out of buildings. For the return flight again arriving by train and the long walk to T3. This time checked in a suitcase at the AF/KL desk. No one in front so direct service from a friendly employee. Then the nonsense starts: first of all the security check. Someone mumbling you have to go line 11 a group of security staff members extremely busy amongst themselves and an attitude that would do a TSA officer in the US proud. Waiting in a small and overcrowded lounge for the flight and the gate to appear. Then a dash through the shopping mall to the gate where too many people are gathering with very few seats and no queuing. Boarding a free for all. Arrival is reasonable but flying out is a pretty poor experience.

Requested help in placing luggage on check in conveyor due to my age of 83 and my wife in a wheelchair. A male member of staff was sitting at a desk 3 meters away but refused due to health and safety. Fortunately a passenger in the next queue volunteered and lifted our cases which incidentally were under weight. It was also suggested we should take less luggage. The queue in security was horrendous with wheel chairs perambulators and children racing up and down crashing into legs. Later when in lounge noticed the aircraft seats were not the reserved longer legroom seats but at the back of the aircraft. Fortunately the passenger help desk managed to obtain long legroom seats. Our return to Manchester was utterly chaotic waiting for wheelchairs at the plane. After waiting 45 minutes the appropriate 10 chairs arrived with 5 operators who promptly disappeared leaving just one two or three people gave up and pushed their partners through miles of corridors. The luggage was not on the conveyor stated but on the next one. No one there to assist so I and two other elderly people lifted their cases off the conveyor belt. My wife balanced one case on her lap whilst I pushed the chair and one case. The airport in Tenerife was completely opposite. Manchester makes me thoroughly ashamed.

What a shambles on Thursday 14th November the queue to clear security snaked from the security gates up and down the barriers along the corridor out into the check-in hall along the front of other check in desks out of the door 500 yds across the front of terminal 1 and then even across the zebra crossing and back on itself. I joined the queue at 07.30 for a 8.45 departure and if it had not been for mine and some other passengers on my Emirates flight to Dubai insistence to an official who allowed us access to the "fast lane" at 08.20 we would have missed our flight. As it was I finally sat in my seat airside at 08.40. It needs sorting out Manchester authorities or you will loose custom!

Every aspect of MAN airport is poorly executed from the car parking the ancient and wobbly lifts security - the rules seem to change daily but the one constant being you know anytime of day you go the queues will be long and slow. We are now forced to be subjected to your shopping arcades of perfume and alcohol before being forced into shoddy waiting areas and the inevitable delayed departure. The worst experience is saved for arrivals. Always a long wait to get off the plane. We are then subjected to going through tiny entrances up stairs in dingy corridors down stairs then upstairs again! I'm embarrassed as a local when I see visitors struggling with the route to immigration. 15-25 minute waits to clear immigration for nationals. Immigration officials with folded arms usually 3 or 4 behind the counters doing nothing. It's very frustrating to see empty booths whilst staff look on. Then the final indignation - baggage. Most inefficient airport for baggage delivery. We are then subjected to the dingy arrival halls and trying to find a taxi - which the service has been fouled up spectacularly.