UKC

Queues at Manchester Airport?

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 yorkshire_lad2 19 May 2022

Has anyone had any recent experience of check-in and security queues at Manchester Airport (flying out Sunday morning T2, if it's relevant).  How long did it take you to get through from walking into the terminal to getting through to the departure lounge?  I'm trying to guess how long to allow: I don't mind allowing plenty of time, I just don't particularly want the stress/nailbiter of missing a flight.  There's a little status update on https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/ (screenshot: https://imgur.com/6RXzOvP), and the usual caveat at the bottom ("*We are trialling this new system to provide as much information as we can to our customers. It is based on estimates and may not always be accurate.  Please arrive at the airport in good time. We recommend three hours before your scheduled departure, but you should check with your airline. Waiting times are estimated for security only and do not include check-in.") but would appreciate some recent personal experiences/views. TIA

Post edited at 10:55
 Axel Smeets 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

I'm there as I type this message. Bag drop was 5 minutes. Security was 15 minutes. Bar/food area is busy with quite a few queues (20 min wait for a seat at the main eating/drinking place). Flight is 12:30 and we arrived at 10:00. No issues. 

 jkarran 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

I've been through T1 and T3 in the last few weeks, no real queue either time. It's busy past security and as horrible as it ever was.

Jk

 galpinos 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

Flew out of T2 at Easter during the height of the crisis and out of T1 a fortnight ago, both flights first thing (7am) Saturday. T2 is in a far better state than T1, both had big queues but they were moving.

For the T2 flight we got there 3.5 hrs before and got through fine, those arriving 3 hrs before at T1 didn't get to their gate for 9am (but no one did, so they held the flight).

For the T1 flight I got there 3 hrs before and got through fine.

I would imagine that with both it being Sunday and the fact they may have actually employed some staff, your experience should be better. It's still an awful airport though.

Clauso 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

I've found that first class or business class tickets are helpful in avoiding the rabble... If you squint and hold your nose, then it's almost possible to know that they exist.

 Stichtplate 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

Wife flew out of T2 yesterday morning. Got there 3 hours early and had no issues but Schiphol was a bit of a nightmare for her connecting flight.

I’d bear in mind that Sunday’s are often busier though and Manchester are now charging a fiver to drop off. Robbing b*stards.

In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

Twas a shitshow in March, won't ever go train from Glasgow to MCR again - seem like a better option at the time.

Dirty, disorganised, super grumpy staff. I ended up getting my bag searched and re-scanned 3 times for nothing. (apparently a camera in a bag needs to come out now...) Was probably only 20 mins to get through security but it was just a throuroughly unpleasant experience!

1
 Will Rupp 19 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

We left from Manchester airport 2 weeks ago and it was a shit show. Queue going outside the terminal for check in, security took ages. We got in the queue 3 hours early for our flight and ended up nearly missing it. Was not an enjoyable experience.

In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

Thanks for the updates.  Thought I'd update as I went through early on Sunday morning (T2).  Queues at security didn't seem too bad, I overheard a uniformed person saying 35 minutes.  Checkin to departure lounge was aboutan hour.

What did strike me is the number of passengers that don't seem to be prepared or allow enough time and and therefore have to be "escorted/expedited" by airline staff from coming through security to the gate to get onto the flight.  Yes, there are problems with not enough security staff etc  but the punters themselves could do a lot to help the situation.

There also seemed to be a fairly relaxed attitude to paperwork (covid test, vaccine cert, etc).  Yes, you have to have them, but it was a very cursory check, and it seems the onus is on the airline to ensure compliance, when I arrived in the US, no-one checked any of these documents.

 neilh 23 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

US is only doing random checks. Anyway if you have used VeriFLY and filled in your CDC location form it’s all automated anyway.

In reply to neilh:

Verify (I believe) is BA/AA only.  I was flying with Virgin/KLM and Virgin have their own "FlyReady" document upload (which wouldn't work for me).

 Dave Ferguson 23 May 2022
In reply to yorkshire_lad2:

no problem when we went late March for 4pm flight, got there 3 hours early, straight through so sat twiddling our thumbs and drinking beer. On way back mid April, quickest I've been through any airport. So depends very much on your flight time, they were in the middle of training lots of security staff when we went through so hopefully things should improve.


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...