Is Manchester airport the worst in Europe?

[eversince 76]

Is Manchester airport the worst in Europe?​

I’ve seen many. I haven’t seen even more. So I can tell really. But I can’t say it’s definitely not the best. By far.

 

[RobMCFC]

Moved our Barcelona flights to/from Liverpool. Feel at lot more relaxed about it now. Have to say EasyJet has been fantastic since the pandemic - the number of times we've moved flights, changed destinations, cancelled flights and in most cases with little or no cost, they need to be congratulated for their customer service.

To be fair, looking at Twitter, things seem to be running smoothly at Manchester today, but it feels like a bit of a lottery as to whether you'll get a good day or a bad day at the moment. I can't imagine it will all go smoothly over the Easter holidays. Best of luck to anybody passing through there.

I see that T3 has re-opened ....... but with specific instructions for passengers to go through T1 security before accessing the T3 departure lounge.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Still having to go through T1 security to reach T3 seems to defeat the point of re-opening T3. Maybe they're renovating?

 

[Gabriel]

Piece on Radio4 this morning where chronic understaffing was offered as an excuse for the lengthy delays.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Manchester Airport is easily the worst airport I've had the misfortune of flying from and into. I've never been to any other airport - even in the UK - that is as bad. Even in "Second World" countries, their airports are a joy compared to Manchester.

Dropping off and picking up are horrendous. They are trying to leach every single penny from anyone who has to pass within it's grounds. I feel sorry for the taxi drivers who have to go through it. We don't even offer to drop off or pick up our own families as it's just an absolute pain to do so. Getting taxis to come down is a pain too. However, if you want to use one of the taxis at the airport, you will be rinsed for cash. I know black cabs are more expensive, but the ones at the airport charge double what other black cabs charge. My wife was in one back up to Failsworth and the driver stopped the meter at £60 once. The local firms would drive down and bring you back for £25.

The queues for security and passports are always long. There's never enough security on and I've sometimes queued up over an hour to get through. The biometric gates are useless as well.

Waiting for bags takes ages and they want £1 to be able to get a trolley. Foreign visitors are unlikely to have £1 coins so what does it say about us?

I've always felt that the impression of a country or city starts at it's airport. The impression we give to visitors is that we're obsessed with getting money out of you and we're difficult, slow and scruffy. It is a disgrace to the city that airport. It should be taken off the current owners.

We've tried our best not to fly from there now. Depending on what we are doing, we try to fly from Liverpool or Bradford where possible as it's less stressful to drive to those places than from our "local" airport. Unfortunately, we're flying from there in a few weeks to go on holiday and I'm dreading it reading some of the reports - and I suspect very little will change by the time we get there.

Spot on. It's an unmitigated shithole, with zero focus on the actual passenger experience. The trolley thing is genuinely bonkers; catches me out every single time.

Adds insult to injury after you've just had to spend up to an hour snaking through the glorified cattle market that passes for immigration, with patronising power-hungry twats barking orders at everyone like we've signed up for SAS training.

The whole experience must make foreign visitors wish they'd never bothered.

 

[TINY]

No, not by a country mile. But it is shit

 

[Winchester]

Zante and most other Greek islands are dire

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Zante and most other Greek islands are dire

Shameful memories of being able to slip through a gap in the wall at the end cubicle in Corfu, to be able to smoke out of small gap looking onto the runway.....

 

[bluethrunthru]

Zante and most other Greek islands are dire

spent best part of the night in Iraklion Airport once - that was grim - hot and stuffy - they are designed for people to just go through not wait inside as more join the back of the queue. They had lost two passengers - they were found having got back from airside into the lounge kipping on a conveyor. Closest I have ever been to a lynching lol

 

[Winchester]

Shameful memories of being able to slip through a gap in the wall at the end cubicle in Corfu, to be able to smoke out of small gap looking onto the runway.....

I remember the taxi way at Zante was so long we nearly ended up on the Beach b4 taking off