Manchester Airport

Arrived at terminal 1 after a flight from Vancouver. We had to negotiate flights of stairs and dingy corridors no travelators or escalators here. Ok for some but many elderly people were struggling. Immigration was fairly quick tho then the fun started in very busy baggage claim area many people needed trolleys you need a pound to get one its finding or pleading with someone who has one thats the problem. Having left the baggage hall and being met by a fiend who then went to pay for his parking ticket only one machine was working and it took 20 mins to pay for parking trying to get out of the place was chaos only one barrier seemed to work and then not for everyone so cars were backing up. 1 hour 35 mins to get from collecting our bags to exiting the car park.

Flying off to the sun with Thompson TOM2512 on 14 September 2012 we arrived at 4.00 am for a 6.00 am flight and nearly missed it due to the long queue at T2. This queue was for a number of flights some leaving after us and very few check in desks were manned a nightmare! 1.5 hours to check in is bad not a modern international airport standard. I guess Manchester airport lost £40-£60 as we were not able to purchase breakfast or shop in the duty free so they loose money and give a bad service to 3 customers! Having a single long queue for any number of flights does not work on our return at Venice we queued for our flight only result check in 15 mins. Come on Manchester you are letting Thomson and others down and if I have a choice I will not use you again. Sorry Thomson the holiday was great the hotel fantastic but you will not have our bookings again if we have to fly from this poorly organised airport.

I'm lucky in that I'm fast tracked through immigration/customs/security so that's one headache less. I don't like that when you leave this area behind you then find yourself in the middle of a duty free shop and have to negotiate countless obstacles. The lounges are sub standard unless your travelling Etihad or Emirates. The travelators don't work toilets dirty and not enough seating at the gates. Arriving is worse - no heating travelators not working general unfriendliness and the toilets in the baggage hall too small and unsanitary. £1 for the trolley's and no where to change money. One pay machine for the car park if you can find it and when you do there is a queue. All designed to rip you off. First impression for many people arriving is not a good one and that's not good for Manchester and the north of England business. Third world airport and the management just don't care.

We flew out of Terminal 1 on the 3rd of September and arrived via the train terminal using the lifts on arrival in the airport is confusing they do not clearly state which level you need to be on and a lot of people were confused. Many of the travelators were not in use and there was a very long walk to our gate. Lots of people have debilitating illnesses that do not require a wheelchair for example asthma arthritis and so on so the lack of any assistance from the travelators or any other form makes the walk very difficult! Returning into Terminal 2 on the 17th was even worse it was a longer walk which proved extremely difficult for one of our party in particular. Once again not all travelators were working and when we got the end of a very long walk we found the lift down to the rail terminal was also broken so we had to struggle with large cases and hand luggage down the escalator - quite a dangerous exercise! This is the last time I will use this airport it is decidedly non-accessible for those with difficulties had there been the use of golf type buggies in operation or if the facilities in place had at least been working it would have been far less traumatic!

T3. 18 Sep 12 at 0730. Having read some horror stories was a bit concerned with using MCR. Courtesy transport from nearby hotel had to drop passengers off in the morning drizzle - it appear there is no undercover drop-off for courtesy vehicles users. Check-in prompt and courteous security very efficient friendly and well manned. Post security facilities clean and varied with ample seating overlooking the ramp and runways. Gate allocation only about 30 min prior to departure and a lengthy hike but well manageable. T3 is certainly not letting Manchester down at least not today.

I usually fly from Manchester and have never experienced a problem with the airport or its staff itself until my last trip at the weekend. Terminal 3 now caters for a vast array of airlines instead of being a mainly BA terminal for domestic flights. As such it is a lot busier and on a Ryanair flight the queue stretched from the gate around the cafe and past the duty free shops - poor organisation there. I was also reprimanded at the entrance to security for having a plastic bag of the wrong type! A food bag with a knot in the top that is very obviously able to be resealed. Apparently this is not allowed - even though I fly regularly and have never been told this before in any airport. When I questioned the security officer he said well alright then but you'll have a better chance if you put it in your partners plastic bag even though its too big (again nothing ever mentioned before about the size of the plastic bag he takes on). Surprise surprise not even one eyelash batted about either of our plastic bags. Just a jobsworth out to cause hassle at 5.30am.

If you're arriving by train and using Terminal 3 this airport is a grim experience. KLM has recently moved from Terminal 2 to 3 - I used this airport regularly while they were at 2 but won't be doing so again if I can avoid it. There is no easy walking route from the railway station to Terminal 3: it's about a mile takes 20-30 minutes and involves multiple waits for lifts and dragging your luggage across a rough tarmac footpath in the rain. I could not find a baggage trolley for love nor money either on my outward or return journeys. Once you make it into the actual terminal the queue for the Internet bag drop is ridiculous (and security if you can't use the frequent flyer fast lane). The airside restaurant area was full of drunken rowdy passengers catching the Ryanair flights that seem to account for most of this terminal's traffic. None of the restaurants that I could find had any vegetarian food options and once again there were long queues for every retail outlet in the airside departure area. The toilet I used near the KLM gate was smelly and filthy.

Arrived at Manchester airport at 5.30 am on 2nd Sept 2012 for flight to Faro departing at 7.35 am. The check in and security took so long that a visit to the toilet before boarding was the only thing I had time for (2 hours in total) Then to top that we was one of the last people onboard the Monarch flight to receive a hot drink. The drink was served to us 30 minutes before landing - 10.00 am. We had planned to buy some books etc at the airport but due to a shortage of check - in staff the whole experience was a total nightmare. The journey back from Faro airport was a complete different experience. The Monarch air crew also managed to serve drinks much sooner.

Leaving was OK. Once bags were checked we were through security and into departures in no time. Coming back was a very different story. Manchester portrays itself as a modern airport but two American Airways flights landing closely together meant long tedious queues for passengers at immigration and no access to automated kiosks. Following our queuing up and down we had a further very long delay until they decided to start throwing the baggage onto the belt. I do mean throwing as I saw two cases come shooting through the rubber doors and fall off the belt onto the floor on the passenger side. This was accompanied by hoots of laughter from baggage handlers and eventually someone did come through to throw the bags back onto the line. Pretty shoddy all round. I have said before that I dislike Manchester and the lack of organisation there nothing has changed and I avoid this airport if at all possible.

Often more of a bazaar than a set of airport terminals especially at T1 Manchester's real strength is in bringing third-world standards to the UK. It's aided in this by Northern Rail's 30-year old historic-bus-style Pacer Trains that wobble hopefully to and from the airport - ours managed to take 2 hours for the 50 miles from the airport to Southport.