the irony of MAG protesting against a which report. where do i start. the new terminal 2 - a significant walk from security to the gates even for the fit and healthy - i’ve passed so many older couples - not disabled - who’ve had to rest along the way, it’s that far.
a new terminal were you board the aircraft by a set of steel corrugated stairs instead of an air corridor. it’s 2024 FFS. from my own experience - i travel frequently - i’ve never - NEVER come across an airport where members of staff shout at you - either in security or on arrival at passport control. WTF? when will ALL the passport gates ALL be in working condition? ditto escalators.
car park and access. it only takes an Emirates flight to arrive for the terminal 1 car park to be in complete and utter meltdown.
The old Manchester Airport groupthink. Nobody in there can never do any wrong or accept criticism. It makes me think do these people ever fly through it.
At the end of the day if you wanted to build an International Airport, you would avoid everything they do.
That horrible walk from the railway/bus station to Terminal 3 through those horrible shelters and having to queue for a lift to access the Terminal.
The petulant shouting from airport staff to move through security and border control 🛂.
I used to sit on the Airport Committee, it was full of dinosaurs that had been on it since the beginning of time more bothered about flight paths than how a major international airport owned by the public functioned.
I can endorse these comments completely.The focus is on retail not passengers and additionally the car parking is problematic with over booking at peak weekends. The only positive feature is the rail links to other northern cities which work well as long as the train operators don't cancel due to staff shortages! I live close to this benighted airport but would otherwise choose Heathrow or Luton.
The airport has improved significantly the last few times I’ve been through. There does seem to have been a conscious and successful effort to make the security not just more efficient but, importantly, more friendly than before. Gone are the days, I hope, when they seemed to actively hate every passenger and take pleasure in being as rude and aggressive as they possibly could.
I have seen slight improvements since the place flatlined after COVID but compared to how staff are in other similarly sized international airports I feel like I'm cattle being moved round at a market rather than a passenger at an international airport
Capacity. Reviews of airports are useless unless you see them at peak. I use T1. At 5.30am it is hopelessly inadequate. At 6.45 it has calmed down. Then what bits don’t cope? I find security works ok. What doesn’t is food and beverage. At 5.30 it is completely overwhelmed. At 6.45 it’s managing. To measure - watch Starbucks.
So it may well be that an airport can be F for fail and A for great all in the same day.
Do you design an airport facility for peak use or 24 hour mean use.
Thus, a commercial enterprise will work on mean average. That means that a significant number of people like me stand and curse at 5.30am.
More seats would ease my sense that I have morphed into a chicken.
Security much improved this summer V previous summers with plenty of staff to help remind flyers what to put in the boxes; it didn't feel rushed to me, albeit day of week and time of day make a huge difference. I always sit near the gates as quieter and take in food, fill up my water bottle, plus good music and a book, so I don't notice the rest. Same with any airport really. I agree, the walk to the train is a bit annoying but I get picked up 1 station out to avoid the car pick-up charge and the free drop-off bus is ok. I check online for the departure info as it's published before the screens.
I fly only infrequently, but when I do I am with my child who has a hidden disability. He wears a sunflower lanyard when we fly. Perhaps because he is a child, we have found that staff really do recognise the lanyard and are quick to direct us to shorter queues for security and passport control. It makes the journey so much less stressful for our son. When he set off the gate at security, the staff member there took the time to explain what she needed to do and to reassure my son. He was therefore fine with being patted down and having the extra checks. So yes, it feels cramped and dated in there, but there are staff working hard and going above and beyond.
As a person with a disability, I have found Manchester Airport humiliating, in the way I am treated at security, and oblivious as to the atrocious quality of some of the staff, who treat you like cattle.
I have made the same complaint three times since my last visit, and customer services just keep fobbing me off with no replies to the points I raise. They are an uncaring monopoly. To be balanced, some staff have been brilliant, but they are in a minority.
Terminal 1 is like the worst example of how to design something for travellers. Security is cramped, on the other side it's 'hunt departure scereens' among the shops and refreshment outlines. The 'gates' are seats on each side of a busy corridor and when, as I experienced, a horde of people for another flight jam the corridor while queuing at a barrier, airline staff have to resort to shouting because there is no public address system.
Most airports now put retail first, but Dublin's Terminal 2 is much easier to navigate. And has gates. As I discovered on a round trip last week.
Manchester airport is overcrowded, full of groups whose main focus is drinking as much as possible before boarding and confused people who don't understand how to check in online. The BA shuttle to London is an unreliable disgrace. I have twice missed onward international flights because of this.
Terminal 3 departures isn’t helped by Ryanair’s cattle herding policies, and cheap fares mean 8am boozing whatever the space. But Costa is bursting at seams all day, and Boots and Smiths in tiny hovels compared with empty acres of duty free and tech shops presumably reflect ‘commercial realities’. Other airports seem to manage all those much better.
My moment of disbelief is always in the arrivals corridor with those huge posters boasting the hi-tech wonders of Manchester and the North West, shortly followed by the perpetually non-functioning walkways. Do they employ someone every few months to take a few covers off and pretend to be fixing them? As a symbol of decay, insouciance and contempt for the old, the lame, people with kids, people with heavy bags, bemused foreigners… they can’t be beat.
the irony of MAG protesting against a which report. where do i start. the new terminal 2 - a significant walk from security to the gates even for the fit and healthy - i’ve passed so many older couples - not disabled - who’ve had to rest along the way, it’s that far.
a new terminal were you board the aircraft by a set of steel corrugated stairs instead of an air corridor. it’s 2024 FFS. from my own experience - i travel frequently - i’ve never - NEVER come across an airport where members of staff shout at you - either in security or on arrival at passport control. WTF? when will ALL the passport gates ALL be in working condition? ditto escalators.
car park and access. it only takes an Emirates flight to arrive for the terminal 1 car park to be in complete and utter meltdown.
and finally just two words: terminal 3.
dante’s inferno
The old Manchester Airport groupthink. Nobody in there can never do any wrong or accept criticism. It makes me think do these people ever fly through it.
At the end of the day if you wanted to build an International Airport, you would avoid everything they do.
That horrible walk from the railway/bus station to Terminal 3 through those horrible shelters and having to queue for a lift to access the Terminal.
The petulant shouting from airport staff to move through security and border control 🛂.
I used to sit on the Airport Committee, it was full of dinosaurs that had been on it since the beginning of time more bothered about flight paths than how a major international airport owned by the public functioned.
We reap what we have sown!
I can endorse these comments completely.The focus is on retail not passengers and additionally the car parking is problematic with over booking at peak weekends. The only positive feature is the rail links to other northern cities which work well as long as the train operators don't cancel due to staff shortages! I live close to this benighted airport but would otherwise choose Heathrow or Luton.
The airport has improved significantly the last few times I’ve been through. There does seem to have been a conscious and successful effort to make the security not just more efficient but, importantly, more friendly than before. Gone are the days, I hope, when they seemed to actively hate every passenger and take pleasure in being as rude and aggressive as they possibly could.
I have seen slight improvements since the place flatlined after COVID but compared to how staff are in other similarly sized international airports I feel like I'm cattle being moved round at a market rather than a passenger at an international airport
Capacity. Reviews of airports are useless unless you see them at peak. I use T1. At 5.30am it is hopelessly inadequate. At 6.45 it has calmed down. Then what bits don’t cope? I find security works ok. What doesn’t is food and beverage. At 5.30 it is completely overwhelmed. At 6.45 it’s managing. To measure - watch Starbucks.
So it may well be that an airport can be F for fail and A for great all in the same day.
Do you design an airport facility for peak use or 24 hour mean use.
Thus, a commercial enterprise will work on mean average. That means that a significant number of people like me stand and curse at 5.30am.
More seats would ease my sense that I have morphed into a chicken.
Security much improved this summer V previous summers with plenty of staff to help remind flyers what to put in the boxes; it didn't feel rushed to me, albeit day of week and time of day make a huge difference. I always sit near the gates as quieter and take in food, fill up my water bottle, plus good music and a book, so I don't notice the rest. Same with any airport really. I agree, the walk to the train is a bit annoying but I get picked up 1 station out to avoid the car pick-up charge and the free drop-off bus is ok. I check online for the departure info as it's published before the screens.
I fly only infrequently, but when I do I am with my child who has a hidden disability. He wears a sunflower lanyard when we fly. Perhaps because he is a child, we have found that staff really do recognise the lanyard and are quick to direct us to shorter queues for security and passport control. It makes the journey so much less stressful for our son. When he set off the gate at security, the staff member there took the time to explain what she needed to do and to reassure my son. He was therefore fine with being patted down and having the extra checks. So yes, it feels cramped and dated in there, but there are staff working hard and going above and beyond.
As a person with a disability, I have found Manchester Airport humiliating, in the way I am treated at security, and oblivious as to the atrocious quality of some of the staff, who treat you like cattle.
I have made the same complaint three times since my last visit, and customer services just keep fobbing me off with no replies to the points I raise. They are an uncaring monopoly. To be balanced, some staff have been brilliant, but they are in a minority.
Did Manchester Airport write this article?
Terminal 1 is like the worst example of how to design something for travellers. Security is cramped, on the other side it's 'hunt departure scereens' among the shops and refreshment outlines. The 'gates' are seats on each side of a busy corridor and when, as I experienced, a horde of people for another flight jam the corridor while queuing at a barrier, airline staff have to resort to shouting because there is no public address system.
Most airports now put retail first, but Dublin's Terminal 2 is much easier to navigate. And has gates. As I discovered on a round trip last week.
Manchester airport is overcrowded, full of groups whose main focus is drinking as much as possible before boarding and confused people who don't understand how to check in online. The BA shuttle to London is an unreliable disgrace. I have twice missed onward international flights because of this.
Terminal 3 departures isn’t helped by Ryanair’s cattle herding policies, and cheap fares mean 8am boozing whatever the space. But Costa is bursting at seams all day, and Boots and Smiths in tiny hovels compared with empty acres of duty free and tech shops presumably reflect ‘commercial realities’. Other airports seem to manage all those much better.
My moment of disbelief is always in the arrivals corridor with those huge posters boasting the hi-tech wonders of Manchester and the North West, shortly followed by the perpetually non-functioning walkways. Do they employ someone every few months to take a few covers off and pretend to be fixing them? As a symbol of decay, insouciance and contempt for the old, the lame, people with kids, people with heavy bags, bemused foreigners… they can’t be beat.