Manchester Airport

Flew from Manchester airport on 17th June 2013 and were met with massive queues at check in and security only just made it for our flight after queuing for over 2.5 hours. No time for a coffee or browsing round the shops very stressful.

MAN is my local airport - unfortunately. I've had so many bad experiences there that it is difficult to recount. Flew back from Palma on Saturday afternoon 2 weeks ago and had to wait 2 hours for baggage which then came through on a different carousel than the one posted on the arrivals board. Appalling customer service total indifference to their paying customers and an all too familiar "take it or leave it" attitude. The explanation for the 2 hour baggage reclaim was "there were a lot of flights all arriving close together". This was late May and therefore out of high season. Dreadful officious passport control staff. People with non-British passports were processed much quicker than actual British residents. An appallingly sub-standard airport with many lessons to learn that continue to go unheeded.

Flying from Heathrow is already a bad idea. Manchester Airport is not any different. I was flying with Emirates and workers all the way from the check-in counter to security and boarding were all rude and impatient. Sadly none of them showed any level of professionalism in their speech and were all very arrogant. I have to admit that this is probably one of the most basic airport that I have ever used. The airport is obviously too small to accommodate all passengers. Very big disappointment indeed!

I see that the staff are impatient rude and generally unhelpful by an awful lot of posts. It is assumed the posters do not see themselves that way yet I would suggest that it is the case. I shall be flying long haul again in October but then I plan ahead and generally have little difficulty at any airport. If I have a "problem" my experience has been to just have polite word and amazingly something happens. I have never had a problem at Manchester except for some mistaken train information which was quickly apologised for and quickly resolved.

Had no problems at the airport apart from security at departure. My 75 year old husband was given a pat down security search and asked what he was wearing around his waist. On being told it was a hidden money belt the very officious young man demanded that this be removed. To do this my husband had to undo his trousers in front of a crowd of people. I also saw another elderly man having to do the same. Surely a bit of respect would not come amiss. On the other hand the young lady on passport control upon landing couldn't have been more pleasant.

Trying to board a domestic flight today was a nightmare. I must have scanned my boarding pass about 6-8 times. The new photo recognition equipment wasn't working. I joined a queue out of the departure lounge for the boarding gates and as I neared another check point I switched queues only to be told when I got to the front that I had to rejoin the queue (at the back) I'd just left as this queue was only for those that couldn't get through the automated scanning point - how was I to know? Impatient rude stressed security staff didn't help the situation. Hopeless.

Travelling to Thailand from Manchester T2 after check-in we were told to go straight to the fast track security queue as we had 1 hour before take off. Got to the fast track line and was told to join the main line even though we had given our take off time. Joined the line which was queuing out of T2 and up the stairs approx 600 people in the queue got to 20 minutes before take off and there was no way we were going to make it through security in time a staff member shouting out to come forward if your are due to take off in the next 30 minutes. So we were fast tracked through. It was a very unpleasant experience and we had only got to the security line. The flight was fine just the security line needs sorting.

Terminal 3. The main problem is with airport security. Arrived at airport 90 minutes before departure (even though you can check in luggage up to 40 minutes before departure). Big queues for depositing baggage. The new airport body scanners seem totally unnecessary and simply slow down the procedure. What they had before was perfectly adequate. My hand luggage was "queried" because a swimming mask and snorkel showed up as potentially a "blade and some piping". Can't the scanners tell metal from plastic? The contents of the whole bag had to be searched by hand and put through the scanners again. Meanwhile my jacket wallet passport etc. had gone down a different channel and was at risk of being taken while my bag was being "examined". By the time we were through this process the flight was on "last call" and had only 15 minutes before departure. So much for refreshments and shopping before boarding. As others have said the lack of sufficient staff is the principal reason for this inefficiency. Getting through the security gates in itself took over 30 minutes. It's not a pleasant experience when you're starting your holiday.

Terminal 1 - Would never use this airport again. - long queues backed up at security gates. I stayed at an on- airport hotel and arrived at the terminal 2.5 hrs before my flight. I had to demand to be fast tracked and then still had to run to the gate and almost missed the flight. Then the plane was delayed because the bags for the people who missed the flight had to be removed! They are simply not geared up to handle the number of people they have to process and need to urgently consider cutting the number of flights leaving the airport from this terminal. The security gates just can not process people quick enough. For Arrivals the design of the terminal is appalling. Off the plane at ground level immediately have to walk upstairs only to have to come down again a few yards later then upstairs again before finally back down again to retrieve luggage. There were people on my plane with walking difficulties and there were no escalators or moving walkways available to them.

The lines for the security check were huge I was lucky they called 2-3 flights that they calculated that if they did not take to the fast lane would lose the flight. So even with the fast line it was too long and the bag takes 8-10 min it almost had nothing inside and 2 separate lines go to one to get each and every one again checked and body search and shoe removal and they wait for everyone to take their shoes which can take a century for some. They could at least make everyone take off their shoes from the beginning and not waste time. I ended up running to go to the gate after you go through all the shops. Very stressful. It is the individual checks that lack personnel.