Manchester Airport: Passengers swapping flights to avoid delays

Travellers at Manchester Airport have faced long queues for check-in and security over the past month

Passengers say they are trying to swap flights to avoid the ongoing "chaos" and long queues at Manchester Airport.

Raj Singh, who is due to travel in two weeks, changed his flights to depart from Luton after a recent delay left him with "zero confidence".

Frequent flyer Ashlee Mew, 24, said the airport was "one of the worst" she had experienced and has rearranged future flights to depart from Liverpool.

Manchester Airport said the situation had improved on Monday.

It said queues for security were mostly taking under an hour.

Travellers at the airport have faced long queues for check-in and security over the past month, with some missing flights at the start of the Easter school holidays.

Mr Singh, 59, from Lowton, said he was delayed in security for an hour and a half when he travelled from Manchester to Malaga in February

"I always raved about Manchester Airport but now I have absolute zero confidence. These latest delays are destroying it," he said.

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Mr Singh is due to travel to Portugal in two weeks to celebrate his 60th birthday with family but said he was "not prepared to risk" using Manchester Airport.

Despite living 20 minutes from the airport, he has paid an extra £50 per person for the flights and arranged to drive the three and a half hour car journey to Luton.

"It seems a long way, but I don't want any delays," he said.

"I don't want to be thinking what are the queues going to be like. It would just ruin the excitement of looking forward to a holiday."

Ashlee Mew said Manchester Airport was "one of the worst" she had experienced

Ms Mew, who is originally from Australia, travels regularly with her job in the agriculture industry.

She said the thought of travelling through Manchester Airport in the near future made her "nervous".

Ms Mew described a recent experience on a return trip from Vienna as "stressful", with lots of people "pushing and shoving" at queues to get through security on arrival.

"We were warned by the airline in advance that there were queues but the whole experience was very stressful. I don't want to go through that again," she said.

"I already had a lower expectation of Manchester Airport compared with other airports, but it now has to be one of the worst I have experienced in the world.

"Disorganised is the main way I would describe it."

Unite regional officer John O'Neill said "a number of factors" were causing recruitment problems after "thousands" of airport staff found new jobs when they were furloughed or made redundant.

"The aviation sector was badly and immediately affected when lockdown was imposed in March 2020," he said.

"At the time, the government promised a comprehensive support package for the industry which the sector is still waiting for two years later.

"There are currently not enough staff to deliver all the complex services, such as security, you expect at an international airport."

He said the union was working "very closely with the management" at the airport "to seek a resolution to the recruitment issues".

Manchester Airport has apologised and admitted passengers' experiences have fallen "below the standard we aim to provide".

Local councillor Pat Karney recently blamed a "failure of management", saying the airport should have prepared for a "very quick" rise in travel demand.

A spokesperson for the airport, which is part-owned by the region's councils, said: "We are doing all we can to recruit the staff we need to meet this demand, but this is taking time due to the lengthy vetting and training processes involved.

"Our whole industry is facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges at present, after the most damaging two years in its history."

The airport said it would also "continue to support" baggage handling agents, who are facing similar challenges.

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