Manchester Airport. How can it be so bad?

Manchester Airport. How can it be so bad?

Author
Discussion

Rushjob

1,851 posts

258 months

Wednesday 16th March 2022
quotequote all
Monkeylegend said:
It is £7 now at Stansted, £25 if you are more than 15 mins, and £10 for up to 30 mins in the short term car park and £18 for an hour.

I remember in the not to distant past when drop off was free along with 30 minutes in the car park.
In comparison, I dropped my father in law off at Paris Orly 3 weeks ago. Parking at the terminal, took him in, got him checked in with the airline and on to the Assisted Boarding area where we booked him in, got a coffee, a bit of a chat then I left him to wait for his flight. About 1 hour 10 mins or thereabouts and 9€ for the parking. Drop off is still free under 10 mins ISTR

Monkeylegend

26,326 posts

231 months

Wednesday 16th March 2022
quotequote all
Rushjob said:
Monkeylegend said:
It is £7 now at Stansted, £25 if you are more than 15 mins, and £10 for up to 30 mins in the short term car park and £18 for an hour.

I remember in the not to distant past when drop off was free along with 30 minutes in the car park.
In comparison, I dropped my father in law off at Paris Orly 3 weeks ago. Parking at the terminal, took him in, got him checked in with the airline and on to the Assisted Boarding area where we booked him in, got a coffee, a bit of a chat then I left him to wait for his flight. About 1 hour 10 mins or thereabouts and 9€ for the parking. Drop off is still free under 10 mins ISTR
Stansted are part of the Manchester Airport Group who bought it in 2013. That's when all these charges started to be introduced, or increased, and have continued to increase ever since.

Shnozz

27,467 posts

271 months

Wednesday 16th March 2022
quotequote all
Just use a third party meet and greet parking service. What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/stranger-lea...

Silverage

2,033 posts

130 months

Wednesday 16th March 2022
quotequote all
Dropped off my daughter at Luton airport a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to be only charged £1 for the privilege. Some special deal they offer for EVs.

greygoose

8,254 posts

195 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
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My dad flew out of Manchester today and it took almost two hours to get through security, ridiculously inefficient.

lrdisco

1,448 posts

87 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
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Fly weekly through Manchester. Fast track and security can still take 40 minutes.
Dublin 80 minutes through Fast Track last week!
Hate flying.

andy43

9,687 posts

254 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Main problem is nobody wants to work there. They have vacancies in every department according to Facebook. Baggage handlers have been supplemented with staff from other areas (the firemen refused iirc) at peak times.
T2 is new, redesigned and not fit for purpose - the new baggage conveyors are constantly breaking down. On the basis of our last T2 experience Jet2 is off our list now, it was just hopeless - in February! August could be fun.
Meet and greet drop off now consists of a bank of computer terminals, one member of staff and total confusion, although to be fair the key collection was easier. Stupid money now though - Uber is infinitely preferable if you’re reasonably local.

Boringvolvodriver

8,907 posts

43 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
lrdisco said:
Fly weekly through Manchester. Fast track and security can still take 40 minutes.
Dublin 80 minutes through Fast Track last week!
Hate flying.
If everyone starts paying for fast track then that queue will get longer I guess!

Didn't have too much trouble when we flew out in January with a 1130 flight _ based on this thread not looking forward to next Friday when we have a 830 am flight.

Aiming to arrive at 6am now

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
andy43 said:
Main problem is nobody wants to work there. They have vacancies in every department according to Facebook. Baggage handlers have been supplemented with staff from other areas (the firemen refused iirc) at peak times.
T2 is new, redesigned and not fit for purpose - the new baggage conveyors are constantly breaking down. On the basis of our last T2 experience Jet2 is off our list now, it was just hopeless - in February! August could be fun.
Meet and greet drop off now consists of a bank of computer terminals, one member of staff and total confusion, although to be fair the key collection was easier. Stupid money now though - Uber is infinitely preferable if you’re reasonably local.
Yup this.

Manchester was always a bit poor but after the mass lay offs during the pandemic, they simply can’t get people in (in multiple roles) now as demand ramps up.

So basically it’s all the same issues pre pandemic but now much worse as the airport infrastructure has become more creaky during low periods of use and now there’s far less employees everywhere.

It’s a massive mess.

Louis Balfour

26,271 posts

222 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
El stovey said:
andy43 said:
Main problem is nobody wants to work there. They have vacancies in every department according to Facebook. Baggage handlers have been supplemented with staff from other areas (the firemen refused iirc) at peak times.
T2 is new, redesigned and not fit for purpose - the new baggage conveyors are constantly breaking down. On the basis of our last T2 experience Jet2 is off our list now, it was just hopeless - in February! August could be fun.
Meet and greet drop off now consists of a bank of computer terminals, one member of staff and total confusion, although to be fair the key collection was easier. Stupid money now though - Uber is infinitely preferable if you’re reasonably local.
Yup this.

Manchester was always a bit poor but after the mass lay offs during the pandemic, they simply can’t get people in (in multiple roles) now as demand ramps up.

So basically it’s all the same issues pre pandemic but now much worse as the airport infrastructure has become more creaky during low periods of use and now there’s far less employees everywhere.

It’s a massive mess.
The pilots need to chip in and help.

I would say roll up your sleeves and help. but you no doubt already wear those horrid short-sleeved numbers with epaulettes, don't you. And you can take off that poncy traffic warden hat with scambled egg on it too. biggrin.




Charlie1986

2,017 posts

135 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
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Belfast international makes Manchester look amazing, 3 hours for bag drop off and security

Ronstein

1,357 posts

37 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Deep Thought said:
paulguitar said:
Deep Thought said:
What bemuses me is all the signs that say you must have all liquids in the one plastic bag and they must be less than 100ml the whole way in, theres signs everywhere, and still there will be a load of Karens who think that didnt actually apply to them who'll then take up a security officers time as she hunts through her bag for spurious liquids.
Absolutely, the fkwittery seen time after time at security makes a bad situation much worse.
Yup. I've seen the conveyors blocked right up so no more people can get through because the security staff are having to search peoples bags for stuff that 95% of the time should have been obvious to have removed / bagged separately.

They even came around and called out to people in advance everything they needed to do to get through smoothly and STILL some people think it doesnt apply to them.

I honestly feel at times like going "sorry, talk me through how that fking big sign there telling you to remove electrical devices and liquids from your bag DIDNT apply to you and your laptop and deodorants?"

Idiots.
Exactly this ^

Countless times I've been stuck behind some gormless tt who's walked past the signs, ignored the announcements, ignored the security staff walking round giving out the message, chatting or on the phone and then arriving at security only to have a 10-minute argument with some poor security officer because she can't take several 1 litre bottles of gunk through and she's left all her electrical items in the bags and then, when she walks though the scanner, it's bleeping fit to bust because she's chandelier with all sort of metal stuff she 'didn't know' she had to put in the trays (which she's used 6 of).

andy43

9,687 posts

254 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
On the flip side I’ve taken two wire oven shelves through inside a case and they didn’t pull it. Far more danger potential than shampoo.

jhiker

108 posts

110 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
And their excuse? How can they not know how many flights/people to expect? And I simply do not believe that 60% of bags are being rejected.

"Today, we saw more people than we were expecting, which put a considerable strain on our operation. This was compounded by up to 60% of customer bags being rejected as they passed through security because they contained restricted items – a much higher rate than we typically experience.“

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/great...

Sheepshanks

32,718 posts

119 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Ronstein said:
Deep Thought said:
paulguitar said:
Deep Thought said:
What bemuses me is all the signs that say you must have all liquids in the one plastic bag and they must be less than 100ml the whole way in, theres signs everywhere, and still there will be a load of Karens who think that didnt actually apply to them who'll then take up a security officers time as she hunts through her bag for spurious liquids.
Absolutely, the fkwittery seen time after time at security makes a bad situation much worse.
Yup. I've seen the conveyors blocked right up so no more people can get through because the security staff are having to search peoples bags for stuff that 95% of the time should have been obvious to have removed / bagged separately.

They even came around and called out to people in advance everything they needed to do to get through smoothly and STILL some people think it doesnt apply to them.

I honestly feel at times like going "sorry, talk me through how that fking big sign there telling you to remove electrical devices and liquids from your bag DIDNT apply to you and your laptop and deodorants?"

Idiots.
Exactly this ^

Countless times I've been stuck behind some gormless tt who's walked past the signs, ignored the announcements, ignored the security staff walking round giving out the message, chatting or on the phone and then arriving at security only to have a 10-minute argument with some poor security officer because she can't take several 1 litre bottles of gunk through and she's left all her electrical items in the bags and then, when she walks though the scanner, it's bleeping fit to bust because she's chandelier with all sort of metal stuff she 'didn't know' she had to put in the trays (which she's used 6 of).
I don't know - whenever I fly the delay always seems to be the scanners themselves, it doesn't really matter how much faffing there is at the input, the staff are still waiting to load trays.

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Louis Balfour said:
The pilots need to chip in and help.

I would say roll up your sleeves and help. but you no doubt already wear those horrid short-sleeved numbers with epaulettes, don't you. And you can take off that poncy traffic warden hat with scambled egg on it too. biggrin.
You’re just jealous because your mrs said pilots are sexy.

surveyor

17,809 posts

184 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
jhiker said:
And their excuse? How can they not know how many flights/people to expect? And I simply do not believe that 60% of bags are being rejected.

"Today, we saw more people than we were expecting, which put a considerable strain on our operation. This was compounded by up to 60% of customer bags being rejected as they passed through security because they contained restricted items – a much higher rate than we typically experience.“

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/great...
How can an airport be surprised by the number of people? Surely they can hook into the ticketing system so that they can know almost exactly how many people to expect.

paulguitar

Original Poster:

23,278 posts

113 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
surveyor said:
How can an airport be surprised by the number of people? Surely they can hook into the ticketing system so that they can know almost exactly how many people to expect.
It's as if they are deliberately trolling.




Deep Thought

35,790 posts

197 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
I don't know - whenever I fly the delay always seems to be the scanners themselves, it doesn't really matter how much faffing there is at the input, the staff are still waiting to load trays.
They tend to not be able to put them on / get them through if they are tailed back at the other side, awaiting manual searching.

I've seen a few rare instances where the person using the scanner was just ridiculously slow but generally its stuff not able to get out the other side of the scanner.

Edited by Deep Thought on Thursday 17th March 20:09

VTECMatt

1,168 posts

238 months

Thursday 17th March 2022
quotequote all
Took 3 hours to check in last month and an hour for security, flight delayed 2 hours due to this.