Manchester Airport Hits Back After Being Named Worst In UK

Is Manchester Airport truly the worst in the UK? The airport is challenging this label after a recent survey by Which? ranked it as the least favourable among British airports.

The annual survey by Which? was conducted between June 2022 and June 2023, involving nearly 4,000 participants. Liverpool John Lennon Airport was crowned the best, while Manchester Airport found itself at the bottom of the list, according to Manchester Evening News, Wednesday, August 30.

Survey Method Questioned

Which? invited its members to evaluate airports on 11 different aspects, such as seating, staff behaviour, restroom facilities, and queue lengths at various checkpoints. The survey included 3,842 members sharing their experiences over the past year, but did not consider the most recent summer travel period.

Manchester Airport has criticised the survey as ‘flawed and misleading,’ arguing that it doesn’t reflect the services provided during this summer. The airport also pointed out that the survey relied on people’s memories for queue times, rather than actual data.

Manchester Airport Hits Back

A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said: ‘Manchester Airport is proud to give the people of the North easy and affordable access to a wide range of global destinations. We are committed to providing a great experience to all passengers, and feedback this summer has been really positive, building on the strong Christmas and Easter getaways we delivered.’

Investment In Customer Service

‘Our customer service is driven by investment in our people – we have recruited more than 3,000 colleagues since April 2022 and established a new 100-strong resilience team, trained in a variety of roles so they can respond at short-notice to ensure passengers get a good level of service. It is also driven by investment in our facilities, especially the £1.3bn transformation of Terminal 2, through which more than 80 per cent of our passengers will fly by 2025.’

Survey Results And Scores

In the Which? survey, Manchester Airport received a customer score of 38 per cent for Terminal 3 and 44 per cent for Terminal 1. Terminal 2 scored 50 per cent, still placing it in the bottom five. Terminal 3 was particularly criticised for its seating, shop prices, and long queues, receiving no more than two stars in any category. Terminal 1 fared slightly better, securing three stars for its range of shops, while Terminal 2 received a commendable four-star rating for its check-in queues.

The airport was also criticised for its security wait times, with Terminal 3 averaging 28 minutes, Terminal 2 at 26 minutes, and Terminal 1 at 25 minutes. Only Birmingham Airport had a worse average, clocking in at 29 minutes.

Irrelevant Survey?

The spokesperson added: ‘Year-by-year the Which? survey becomes less and less relevant as response rates continue to dwindle, with half as many people surveyed this year as were 12 months ago. There were only 567 responses relating to Manchester Airport – 0.002 per cent of our annual passenger numbers.’

Positive Feedback and Future Plans

‘Since April this year, we have welcomed more than 10.4m people through Manchester Airport, who have travelled to more than 180 destinations with nearly 50 different airlines – and 95.6 per cent of them have got through security in under 15 minutes. Almost three-quarters got through security in under five minutes and 99.8 per cent in under 30 minutes.’