Stingychips

Massive waits just to get in , flights being cancelled, no food in the restaurants. Avoid it like the plague.

SanNico

Good luck and good advice.

A friend just landed 4 hours late in to Manchester and they were told by the airline that EU261 claims would be invalid as it's the airports fault, not theirs. Has anyone had experience of this in this specific case, i.e. the flight is delayed due to ground staff issues? I know for cancellations they are paying out.

Lynn R

I went back to the UK a couple of weeks ago for a short visit. Having read all the reports about the massive queues at Manchester, I chose to fly to Leeds Bradford instead and travel to Manchester from there. Initially it was fine, no queues at Malaga for anything and when I arrived at Leeds Bradford it took all of 10 minutes to clear the airport after getting off the plane, there was no queue whatsoever at Passport Control and having walked straight through there, the luggage was already on the baggage carousel waiting to be picked up. But then it all went pear shaped. I had to wait 50 minutes not the 20 minutes it should have been for a bus into the city centre (and a taxi would have been no better, the woman behind me in the queue said she'd been told the waiting time for a taxi would be 40 minutes at least). When the bus finally arrived the driver was telling everybody as we boarded that it would be a long journey as the traffic was terrible, which was the reason he was late. He wasn't kidding. After 2.5 hours we had travelled just 5 miles and the 9 mile journey into the city centre took 3 hours altogether - road works with a major accident just to put the icing on the cake. So I missed the connection I had booked and had to pay 24.50 for a new second class train ticket for the 55 minute journey to Manchester.

Coming back my flight from Manchester was at 8.00 pm on Sunday evening so I thought it would be a bit quieter. No problems at the airport, my brother dropped me off at 5pm and I had handed in my bag at the Ryanair desk and got through security (with a fast track pass) by 5.20 pm. The plane was packed, many Rangers fans heading for the match in Seville so the flight was very noisy although they were good natured. After arriving at Malaga at midnight we had to queue for 1 hour 10 minutes at Passport Control, there was just ONE officer to check the passports of everyone in the non EU queue (and only 2 for the EU queue so that one didn't move much faster). Luckily my taxi driver had waited for me.

It hardly seems worth all the hassle at the moment. Anybody who chooses to travel at peak periods (and I took care to avoid them) must be mad.

lindasal

Recent issues aside I have always found Manchester airport to be a very unfriendly place, it reminds me of one of these corporate giants who simply don't care about customers they just want to fleece you for every penny they can, personally I feel they are deliberately running with as few staff as is humanly possible to recoup some of the losses from during the lockdown, but thats just my view.

christmasoompa

They (and all other airports/airlines) are frantically recruiting, trying to get more staff. Trouble is, most of the staff they laid off during the pandemic found other jobs and aren't inclined to go back to work for them………...

Joppa

There are several reasons for airport delay and flight cancellations:
1. Covid-19 and its aftermath. Airlines and airports laid off a lot of staff during lockdowns and now find themselves short-staffed for the surge of new bookings (back to pre-pandemic level), and it takes a while to train new staff for security clearance and many laid-off staff don't want to return as they have found jobs with better pay and conditions.
2. Brexit. Especially for passport queues at EU airports (both for arriving and leaving).
3. Staff shortage for other reasons. Higher absentee rate because of stress, catching Covid.
4. Operational reasons. To utilise available aircraft at full capacity, it has to make half a dozen flights a day or more, and any delay has knock-on effect on later segments and ultimately leads to cancellation. Less chance if you pick the first flight of the day leaving around 6 to 7 am, as aircraft is already at the airport from the night before.

37100

Me, too. Always said that, for me, it's the UK's worst airport. Particularly terminal 3. Massive fail all around. Last trip, I'd decided not to book a taxi and just get a train. First time in years after a previous train journey disaster. The queue at passport control wasn't huge. However, it was enough to just miss my train. Next one was 2 hours later. That was cancelled at the last minute. An hour and a bit later, I saw the York train pull in. No indication that it was going via Preston, but I looked it up online. No one to ask, of course. And yes it was so hopped on it at the last minute rather than wait another for the advertised train.

Stingychips

Also it’s not just Manchester airport. Hearing reports about other airports in the UK and Ireland that are literally telling people at the airport that their holidays are cancelled.

scrubbedexpat142

And at Schiphol, and the US.

Ronnyone

A friend of mine who used to work closely with national security was saying that one of the problems is that as many security staff were laid off during the pandemic there now is a large shortage and apparently it takes quite a long time before personnel are successfully vetted and there is now a huge backlog of those now in system- so that probably explains some of the delays.

spainrico

I was lucky - landed at Edinburgh and departed from Luton a couple of weeks ago - all OK no serious problems.

Took Avanti west train - Edinburgh>Milton Keynes not a bad journey and buffet quite reasonable.

And parked long term at Alicante (off-airport) for a week for 20€ including transfers.

missile

Had no problems when I flew last month.

Mark604

Just read of an incident at Manchester airport whereby the pilot called the police in order to get his passengers off the plane after several hours delay because of a shortage of ground staff.

Stingychips

did you fly during kids holidays ? Another friend of mine had her holiday cancelled this morning. Loads of videos of people stuck at Manchester airport for hours then being told they are not going away.

Lynn R

The UK now has more job vacancies than unemployed people, apparently.

Job vacancies outpace unemployment for first time - BBC News

So where exactly are the Government expecting the travel industry and airports to get the workers they are saying they should have recruited earlier?