Manchester Airport

Came back through T yesterday. Customs hall dangerously overcrowded. Thousands of people and more pushing from behind as they came down the stairs into the hall. Its a serious accident waiting to happen. Woefully short of staff - took us an hour to get through customs. thankfully bags were there when we finally got to baggage reclaim - including two guys unloading them off the carousel as there was no one there to collect them as everyone in the customs hall still!

It is dreadful - I am mostly familiar with T1. Unfortunately the staff in Security seem uninterested in their work and are very seldom pleasant with the passengers. Many of them appear more than 30 years older than staff doing the same job in other airports. A few weeks ago I forgot to take a bottle of liquid out of my hand luggage but it was never noticed! The building is not clean is lacking paint in some areas and in places the flooring is a disgrace. There is a total lack of lifts and escalators - the ones that are there seldom work. Older people do not have a chance and none of the airport staff appear to care I have complained so many times about escalators not working but it makes absolutely no difference. The eating areas are not particularly restful or pleasant and the prices are very expensive. It is a sad situation.

The airport advises to allow 3 hours for check in due to tightened security checks! We arrived on Sunday 31st August at 3.20am for a 5.30am departure. The queue in the said security area was horrific the security agent was stopping passengers scanning board cards to access the security area it was chaos. The agent was also shouting "wait five minutes the staff don't start till 4am" so I ask myself why arrive before 4am if the staff are not available to process you? Perhaps if the Airport spent less money on retail outlets and invested in staffing passengers would have time to spend money instead of standing in queues and listening to a battle axe bellow at you!

Truly awful experience at passport control .queue stretched down corridor yet queue for non EU was very short. Eventually we passed through immigration thinking at least our bags would be ready sadly they were not took one hour 15 minutes from getting off plane to receiving baggage - a shambles. Get your act together Manchester!

I was not looking forward to using Manchester for our trip to Canada after reading reviews on here. I purchased the fast track security pass. Best £7 I've spent! We were able to bypass the huge queues to the desks and were through with minimal fuss. After that the shops were quite good and the information screens were numerous and clear but no PA announcements. Hope it's as good on our return!

I've been flying in and out of terminal 1 a lot the last twelve months (with Lufthansa). I truly loathe this terminal. For flights around 06.00 to 06.30 the security queues are horrendous. They have to constantly call flights to pull passengers forward to avoid missing flights. Arriving back you usually have to go down and back up steps due to the badly thought out separation of departing and arriving passengers ad then there is always a big queue for passport control and the e-passport gates hardly ever work. This terminal is run down dirty scruffy generally awful. Arriving back here is like arriving back in time somewhere in the early 1970's. The only redeeming feature is the good selection of shops in the departures lounge. It used to be a much much better place.

August Bank holiday weekend claimed to be the busiest of the year yet at 8pm all the shops in T1 (except duty free) were closed. Couldn't even buy a coffee or magazine! I visit family in Manchester regularly and this airport is getting worse and worse a real embarrassment to the city.

Travelled to Malta Saturday 9th August returned 23rd Aug. Very nearly missed our outbound flight due to security queues arrived 2 hours before flight so should have been plenty of time. Had to run to the gate. Security staff very rude and unhelpful but can hardly blame them - if I was faced by those queues for hours I would probably be grumpy as well. Returning the queues at passport control were long but quick moving our problem was baggage collection. Initially screens telling us they were coming to one belt then after half hour wait was directed to another one which had 3 flights bags arriving at the same time. It was utter chaos and very disorganised. I will certainly think twice before travelling from Manchester again.

Appalled by the extremely large queue at passport control when returning to Manchester airport on 15th August at 1.30am. Only five members of staff checking passports one male member of staff stood looking over his colleagues shoulder not assisting in any way. The queue snaked along the corridor of the terminal and it took approximately 30 minutes to even reach the zig-zag area. A number of flights had obviously landed and there must have been over 1000 people many with young children and babies waiting in the queue. The electronic desks were not in use! What is the point of having one of these passports if you are unable to use the facility they are issued for? When we finally reached a member of staff after waiting over an hour we complained only to be told in a flippant response "Well it is a busy time of the year". I then used the toilet facilities which were dirty and didn't appear to have been checked. Not a good impression for any traveller entering the UK. I will seriously consider choosing an alternative airport next time I travel. Use Manchester at your peril!

Three of us including my 77 year old father travelled Manchester to Lanzarote. Depart date 31st July 07.20hrs with Thomas Cook booked cases online dropped cases off no problem at all. The chaos started going through security the queue started in the booking-in hall then snaked all the way through security we queued for over 90 minutes. To compound things airport staff were calling flights that were due to leave within the hour for passengers to make themselves known so they could be rushed through. So many around us were asking what's the point of arriving early might as well arrive late and get rushed through patience was wearing thin and it wouldn't surprise me to hear anytime soon about trouble in this part of the airport. Definitely treated like an animal being herded not pleasant and a bad way to start a holiday. Arrived back at 23.10hrs on Sunday 10th August none of the travelators worked not easy having a tired 77year old with our party and having to walk for a long distance. Then the fiasco at passport control two flights must have landed at the same time so two queues merging and again the animal herding began none of the e-passport machines were working so no option other than to queue. I did notice that the EU route was severely clogged up however the none EU route was empty apart from five people who filled in their cards breezed to the front and where seen to immediately an hour later we were still queuing. When we finally got to passport control we were politely asked if we had enjoyed our holiday yes apart from this fiasco I then pointed to the queue behind me. The Officer handed me a complaint form and said please fill this in and send it back we are sick of telling them about this if enough people complain something will get done. Then we went to baggage re-claim and despite the wait at passport control we expected our cases to be waiting for us yet another half hour wait for cases to arrive. Time taken from landing at 11.10 to departing the airport 01.00hrs almost two hours. I echo what lots of people are saying on here if you have the option of using a different airport do yourself a favour and save yourself a whole pile of stress and grief and go elsewhere! Finally the shops and cafe's must be suffering due to the queuing to get through security time isn't available on the other side to browse and purchase so this must be effecting their business? Surely it would be in their interest to lobby for improvements.