Manchester Airport

Flew in today around noon. All immigration points and automatic scanners were open. UK/EU passport holders had no wait the rest of us maybe 20 minutes which is a standard from my experience. Screeners were polite and took priority on seniors and family's. All walkways working bathrooms were clean. A bit of a trek to get from terminal 1 to terminal 2 where the busses are but again seems the standard distance compared to other airports. A few suggestions are to clearly show which baggage carousel is for which flight and better signage explaining how to get a local transport for the first timers in the country (ie do we pay the local bus driver directly and does he provide change-the answer is yes).

I flew from terminal 2 on Friday 13th June on a 7.45am flight to Malaga. This was my first flight with a baby. I had previously checked on Manchester airport website the restrictions on taking babies milk. Based on the advise I took 2 x bottles of made up formula milk. Both bottles were identical however I had one taken away from me. This meant my baby was without milk he required for the journey. The attitude of the security guard was appalling he showed very little concern for my distress or the fact that my baby would not have enough milk to get us to our destination. I travel the world extensively with my job and can safely say I will use LBA and Heathrow going forward.

The three terminals are some distance from each other particularly terminal 2. Out of about 16 moving walk ways about half were not working on May 27. They were still not working on June 1. This would not be the case in Hong Kong or Shanghai.

I hope management reads some of these reviews at some point! All I want to say seeing as I agree and have suffered the same fate as 99% of the negative reviews below is we have just managed to book our next trip though Leeds/Bradford airport and if I never see Manchester Airport again I'll still wish I'd never used it in the past! Good riddance and I will do everything I can to avoid at all costs!

I fly from Manchester twice a year for holidays mostly from terminal 2 have just come back yesterday. Outward bound we had checked in on line and were able to use the baggage drop which was great but then we hit chaos getting through security have never spent so long queuing this was at 6am in the morning on 29th May. Arriving back on 12th June it was a long walk to immigration and the baggage claim and none of the moving walkways were in operation (in fact it is a few years since we have seen them move) my husband has walking difficulties and struggled with the long walk he does not really want to ask for assistance and be put in a wheel chair but this might become the only option. I thought Manchester would have more respect for people who have difficulty walking long distances after sitting down for a few hours on a flight but apparently not. All the improvement are about getting more of your money not helping people to be in dependant.

Arriving back at terminal 2 we had to queue off the jet bridge to queue in the walkway to queue at the zig-zag barriers to join the queue for Border Security. The E-Passport readers where being upgraded so out of order. 3 people manning the desks 6 or 7 unused! Is this the image we want to give to people wanting to visit or do business in UK?

June 4th 2014 arrived at Terminal 1 from Skiathos. Appalling delay at Baggage Reclaim area of 2.5 hours (is this a record?). Not one official person to advise us and no message on Tannoy telling us what the problem was or how long we'd have to wait. Passengers began to think that all baggage handlers had gone home. Thomas Cook desk unattended throughout. Customs desk unattended throughout. Unable to leave room ("No return beyond this point" outby and "No entry" to return to get back to immigration) so unable to find a living soul who could get a message to management or security (passengers were now getting angry). Four other carousels were not being used so the baggage handlers (SWISSPORT) were not busy. Departing from T1 a week earlier 2 hours is not enough time to ensure catching your flight. Appalling shopping mall to navigate (so on principle I won't spend a penny). Passengers are called to departure gate half an hour before they think about opening it (is this part of an airport plan to reduce numbers in main lounge?). I feel sorry for the insufficient staff who are expected to deal with enormous numbers. The whole problem is dreadful management who refuse to employ enough staff.

Dreadful queues even at 5 am on a Sunday morning and not even school holidays. This problem gets worse year on year for all terminals. Not all the security scanners were being used which lead to long queues. Many people only got through just in time to board their flights so the duty free shops must be losing a lot of business. Although we arrived at least 2 hours before take off as advised we only had 5 minutes before we were called to board. Again long queues on our return to get through passport control. Will try to fly from another airport in the future. Avoid this airport if at all possible is my advice.

Have used Manchester airport 4 times this year 6 times last year. In my opinion all airport staff in contact with paying customers really really should take regular customer care and service training. And managers need to start taking notice of posted reviews. Staff show arrogant and dismissive attitudes in response to routine enquiries and requests. I agree with a previous reviewer that security staff are abrasive and rude. This is either the result of highly selective hiring criteria or is a cultural problem. Not a good start or end to my holiday experience.

I normally travel from Manchester a few times a month as it is my local airport. It has quite a lot going for it in that is has good road and rail connections decent parking and a good selection of routes. I must however concur with other reviewers in that as more routes have been added the infrastructure has not been upgraded to take account of this. The area this is most apparent is in security. Over recent months it is not uncommon to experience massive queues and even in some cases out of the door of the airport. The airport says this is due to it being peak season but I travel through a lot of airports where it is also presumably peak season and do not experience this level of queuing. This is especially crazy as I personally now never spend money in the airport shops as I either don't have time or feel in the mood after being stood in a hot airless security queue for a long time. As so much of the airport is given over to retail this means Manchester Airport consistently does not make as much money as it could out of me and I am sure other passengers.