Manchester Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Post covid can not continue to be used as an excuse for terrible service, security, customer service and facilities. The terminal is going backwards with most eateries closing at 6pm, the duty free area poorly stocked and staffed and the terminal is dirty with a lack of cleaning staff and the security poor - even the armed police look complacent. They should be ashamed. The staff on baggage security are rude and incompetent and generally the airport has gone backwards - come on CEO and management - get this sorted out - it is a disgrace. You can’t keep putting posters up stating bear with us while we recover - covid has been and the rest of the world has learned from it and used it to make things better !

✅ Trip Verified | Checked in at İstanbul all the way through to Toronto via Manchester. Arrived in Manchester to see a person holding a piece of paper advising connecting passengers to collect their bags and re-check in. Grimy old passageways and no fresh air. Queue to cross the border because reasons. Listen to people being questioned about entering the UK because obviously everyone is suspicious. Bag did not arrive at baggage claim because zero bags did. Asked baggage handling staff how long the wait would be, usually. Told “this airport is crap” with a smile (actually the only really straight info I got.) Ran to the other terminal to make check-in for the flight I already had a boarding pass for. Huge line for security. Told to repack my 100ml toiletries in a different clear plastic bag 1cm smaller than the one I had. This cost precious minutes. Questioned at length about the medication in its packaging I had in my backpack. More minutes. Not many left! Ran through poorly signposted passages through shopping, in a circle, until another sign pointed the other way to where the gate actually was. Sprinted the last few hundred meters to arrive 5 mins before gate closure to find a hubbub of angry people because…the flight was delayed. Mopped sweat out of my clothes in a grubby airless toilet. Got the flight. Spent the next week wearing the same clothes with the spare undies, t-shirt, and socks I thankfully had in my backpack. Swore never to go through Manchester again. Worst 2 hours of the whole year or more. Sorry, but the staff were either overwhelmed, or standing around looking at their phones. It was the single worst travel experience I have ever had.

Not Verified |  I agree with the many other reviewers that Manchester Airport is a disgraceful affront to the travelling public. Exorbitant parking charges, inadequate seating, poor security operation etc etc, Perhaps the biggest insult is the fact that they have turned off the moving walkways between the rail station and terminals 1 and 3. This is a huge inconvenience to elderly people and those who experience difficulty walking due to injury etc. Probably the worst airport on the planet.

✅ Trip Verified | Possibly the worst in the UK. Only used it as the flight times suited us. Lacks cleanliness and just seems old and ragged compared to others. Would choose others where possible.

✅ Trip Verified | Seriously, you’ve got to see this place to believe it. We arrived 3 hours before our long haul flight. The first queue is in the carpark. We spent just under an hour waiting to get into building. The next queue is check in. You can tell the staff really don’t want to be there and there are signs everywhere about respect, zero tolerance for abuse, etc. Airport management probably hasn’t figured out that so many passengers are angry because every single aspect of the airport experience is botched. The security screening process is straight out of a bad comedy. My wife had her jacket trashed by one of the security guys who managed to get it caught in the roller conveyer. The scanner seems to detect liquids everywhere even when there aren’t any. A small nasal spray in my hand luggage caused an additional 30 minute wait. My wife had her bag completely unpacked with all her personal items tipped into a filthy tray for everyone to see. Two hours after arriving we cleared security. The terminal itself (T1). Looks like a relic from the 60’s. There’s not enough seating and the place really is knackered. So we went straight to the gate - which was a long hike, maybe because the air raft was an A380. There were no toilets or facilities of any kind in the gate area. There were not even enough seats so many passengers stood. I’ve never had an airport experience like this anywhere else. Sadly it looks like the place needs to be rebuilt and management needs to find careers they’re better suited to. I’ll try very hard to avoid travelling through this airport again.

✅ Trip Verified | I have visited many airports, and many of them large and busy, such as New York airport, but without a doubt, this is the worst airport, from which I will never ever travel again. One experience has been more than enough to know all the absurd rules it has, especially in the security controls. It is absurd that only one excessively small bag of liquids per person is allowed at the security checkpoint and they have even taken away my hair straightener. After warning the security guard 3 times to turn my suitcase upside down because he was going to open it in the wrong position, he opened it upside down and all my clothes fell on the floor. Imagine all your underwear on the floor while people walk around you. Oh, and let's not talk about the time it takes to check your bag at this airport or get through security. If you don't want to miss your flight, better come 6 hours earlier. I will never come back, this airport leaves a lot to be desired.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester Airport is the most confusing stressful airport I have ever been in. When I went to the UK from Brisbane airport I went through check in my bag went straight on the plane and picked it up at the other end no problems. In Manchester I waited in a line for around an hour and a half only to be told I need to go to another queue to get my bag x-rayed so I stood for around another hour waiting for this. When I went through the screen with my personal carry bag it went in a different queue and I had to wait another half hour, the problem was I had a tube of savlon cream in my bag and it was suppose to be in a zip lock bag (no where else in the world do they do this). So what should of been a leisurely coffee in the terminal was a stressful rush. Just the whole experience was a stressful experience with incompetent people running the place.

✅ Trip Verified | This was our third time through Manchester this year. We had booked Fasttrack and were directed into the lane quickly. Walking down to the corner we were astonished at how long the queue was and how the main lines were completely empty. The reason soon became apparent, all customers, irrespective of their booking were being directed into Fasttrack! It took us just under two hours to clear security. Of 34 security areas in Terminal 1, only two were operating! It was a shambles. No one cared about any passenger needs, from those with flights due to depart to elderly passengers, who were clearly needing to sit to families whose children were desperate to go to the toilet. A family in front of us finally managed to attract a member of staff because their daughter was desperate and was told they could leave but would have to go to the back of the line! Dad went with their daughter and we all helped him get back to his family after, despite the staff. I mean, we had only gone a few centimetres when they got back. To add insult to injury when we could see the security area about eight staff were lounging about doing nothing but chat with one another. Eventually, more staff came and they went up to four lanes. They also kept saying over the PA that it was the fault of passengers being slow that was the sole cause of the delays! What utter drivel. We pay a great deal for the privilege of standing in these queues and using airports, it is part of your airline ticket cost. We also pay Airport Passenger Duty and massive amounts for parking our cars. It is surely time for a change and airports to be held to account. Chief Executives have received massive bonuses for laying off too many staff and failing to re-recruit them when demand increased. Add to all that the fact that automatic walkways between terminals are all non-functional the place is awful.

Not Verified | This is by far the worst experience at an airport i’ve ever had. I have lived all over the United States, visited countless countries experiencing their airports - however this was a joke. Arriving 3hrs 45min early, narrowly making it to the gate with a 5 minute window after they had already begun boarding. I was in a check-in queue for over 1:30hours and a security line of 2hours 5minutes. I have never experienced such pathetic and incompetent staff members, along with such a disorganized system of movement. Security queues made us wait in check in lines, with a 1:20hour wait before we even saw anything regarding security, where we were made to queue once more for almost an hour. From there, they told me that they were no longer prioritizing flights, leaving many many people to realize how late they were going to be for the flights they were about to miss.

Not Verified | Just picked my brother and his family up from Manchester Airport, Terminal 3. Expensive parking, poor directions and indifferent staff. Added to the fact that my brother's luggage has gone missing (2 Large bags) and everything delayed. I am a proud Mancunian who is thoroughly ashamed of this awful, money grabbing airport. Andy Burnham should hang his head, good talker! Waste of space. 10 out of 10 for Liverpool airport though, a pleasure to use, so why can't Manchester get it right? Avoid it if you can.