Manchester Airport

Arrived in Manchester Terminal 1 at 3.30pm on 22nd July and we were treated like animals: herded into hot, stuffy rooms, snaking inch by inch for 2 long, uncomfortable hours before reaching Passport Control. No seating for the elderly, young families stressed, no escape. This is a disgusting way to treat fare-paying passengers. Avoid this airport. This is not service. Why not use some of the shop space for more passport scanners?

The management just wants the maximum passenger throughput and has no interest in service - convenience or quality. I'm writing this in an immigration line stretching out of arrivals in terminal 1 for the second time in 2 weeks. Check in is as bad. Food is poor. Business lounge are a joke. Avoid it if you can.

We decided to use Manchester Airport from the Emirates Dubai Hub having returned from a business trip to India. Normally we use Newcastle International Airport but we would save a long wait in Dubai if we travelled to Manchester and used their Business Limousine Service for the last leg of our journey. The service at this airport was dire. Five of their trolley coin-op machines did not accept any £5/10/20 notes and there were no staff available to over-ride the machines. All the Manchester Staff could say was "use the telephone number on the machines - it has nothing to do with the airport". Eventually a representative from Emirates assisted us and we could leave this inefficient airport. I will be avoiding Manchester Airport in future. The customer service was shocking. Emirates should take note, invest in Newcastle Airport, you can get a free trolley here.

I don't mind queuing to go through airport security checks, I want them to be thorough, but I thought automatic passport checking would speed things up not slow it down as it does at Manchester. There are obviously too few of them as we were held up for about an hour. Sort it out Manchester.

On arrival at Manchester, we were "forced" by a female employee to join the queue for electronic passports, when it was clear the other queues were shorter. There were hundreds of people waiting to pass through the electronic gates, and after 45 minutes we arrived to find there were only 5 gates for the hundreds of people to pass through. Where is the investment at Manchester - there should have been at least 15 gates to cope with the number of people wishing to enter? We want security, but the investment should be there to prevent such inconvenience, and as a taxpayer and passenger I feel let down. To make matters worse, when we arrived at the baggage collection, the system had broken down. There were no staff to answer people's queries, just a couple of announcements to say baggage was delayed. We eventually collected our bags one and a half hours after landing! Come on, Manchester, the service has got to be better than this.

At Manchester Airport passport control I waited for over an hour in a non air conditioned area as unfortunately I have an EU passport. E-gate system seemed to have its own set of problems. A complete shambles, the worst experience I've ever had at airport. One gets the impression it's some sort of perverse plan to have as few staff working as possible when most people needing to be checked - cost cutting no doubt in the face of recent celebrations of record numbers and profits for the airport. An embarrassment in 2016. Count me out as as customer if I can in future .

Arrived at Manchester Airport security 2 hours before our Aer Lingus flight time from Manchester to Cork. We were kept waiting in line by security for 1h 20m before finally getting to the security check point. There were 4 lanes open when we arrived but during the time we were patiently standing waiting, 3 of these were then closed as the crowd grew and the delay grew, leaving only 1 security check point open. There were facilities for 14 check points which were all closed to the passengers. This is the worst experience we have had at airport security. Families, mothers with babies left standing with no access to water or toilet facilities. We are in good health, but anyone who was old or infirm this was a disgrace for both passengers and staff on the front line. Why would you put your staff and passengers under such stress and duress? I pride myself on my patience and understanding, but never again will I use Manchester as a way of travel into the UK. Its 2016 and this is an International airport. I will be telling Aer Lingus why we are not using that route.

The shops at Manchester obviously pay rent to the airport to be there so they keep their areas ok. But the main part of the airport, away from the franchises, is poorly signed with no available help and is shabby. The lifts are often out of service and then there is the option to check in at A or B with no explanation as to where you have to be. The eating facilities are on the ground floor and the departures mostly on floor 5 so there is very often a long queue to get the lift up to that floor with many people trying to get out of the lift and crossing the queue waiting. Generally there doesn't seem to be any planning with regard to anything and people are left to their own devices in where to go and how to queue properly, which, as most psychologists will tell you, is a 100% way in which to infuriate people. The seats are uncomfortable and not enough. In conclusion: it's a poorly run, badly organised and dirty airport with indifferent staff which creates a selfish and uncaring attitude. And wi-fi non-existent to boot.

Managed to arrive and depart efficiently at Manchester airport with British Airways, however I did not have to check in or pick up any luggage so I didn't have to queue since I used the self service kiosk. However I do agree with a lot of other opinions that suggest the terminal (3 in my case) is dated and I do believe that for its size, it should be better. The seating was particularly bad in the center of the departure lounge in terminal 3 and the shops and space is limited, also getting from security to the departure lounge was sort of a strange route. They could do with more windows too.

There have been problems with the e-passport gates at Manchester for many months, yet things have got even worse. At terminal 1 there are just 5 and today just 3 were working for processing hundreds of passengers. We were kettled into 'cattle pens' in sweltering heat (the aircon was not working either). I was in this hell for longer than the flight time. When I did get to the e-gate, this one also failed to work. E-gate technology is supposed to be faster, not a 1000 times slower. Utter chaos - worst ever experience at Manchester.