Airport transfer warns ‘to avoid Manchester’ as queues, chaos and disruption to terminals continue

A driver has promised to ‘avoid’ Manchester Airport for personal travel following its latest disruption.

Queues have been seen exiting the terminals on numerous occasions over the past month as the airport grapples with increased travel demand. HUB boss Charlie Cornish previously issued an apology and said that due to staffing shortages they would not be able to provide passengers with “the level of service they deserve” over the next few months, until the numbers have been increased.

Airport transfer driver Mark Witty snapped a photo of a queue stretching out of Terminal 1 yesterday, Tuesday May 2. He shared the image on Facebook as a “warning” to anyone using the terminal and said he would avoid using the airport for people travel.

Read more:Parents ‘disgusted’ at having to raise £50,000 for Stockport school toilets

The 55-year-old, who runs transfers from North Wirral Airport, told the ECHO “I operate a local airport transfer service from the Wirral. My clients and I have very little to say about Manchester Airport these days.

“Honestly, if there is another airport that I can personally use, I will. I am returning to Canada in June and have purposely booked from another airport to avoid Manchester. People can also expect to a longer wait for their luggage on their return, often more than an hour now Oh the joys of travel.

Earlier this week, Liverpool FC supporters who flew to Spain for the Villarreal game compared the airport experience to ‘like hunger matches’. Kristian Walsh, Liverpool fan and sports editor, tweeted about his experience saying: “Manchester Airport is like the Hunger Games here.

According to passengers, the problem seems to be with terminal one, another traveler said: “T1 was a good time for security this morning! Looks like a severe staff shortage.” Another tweeted a photo of the queues and added, “It’s 3am and the queue for baggage drop at @manairport T1 is out! And only one security queue on twelve is open.”

A Manchester Airport spokesperson confirmed that the queues pictured were not for security but rather for check-in. They said security queues on this occasion, Tuesday May 3, were up to 60 minutes but not continuous.

They said: “We are aware that some customers experienced longer wait times than we would like at various stages of their journey at Manchester Airport this morning and we apologize for any inconvenience. We We are still advising passengers that there may be longer queues than would normally be the case as we, together with our partner airlines and handling agents, continue to recover from the pandemic.

“Those traveling through Manchester should arrive three hours before their flight and ensure they know the latest safety rules to avoid unnecessary delays.”