A driver has vowed to 'avoid' Manchester airport for personal travel following its latest disruption.
Queues have been spotted winding out of the terminal buildings on numerous occasions over the last month, as the airport struggles with increased travel demand. HUB boss Charlie Cornish previously issued an apology and said that due to staff shortages, they would be unable to give passengers 'the level of service they deserve' over the coming months, until the workforce had been strengthened.
Airport transfer driver, Mark Witty, took a photo of a queue stretching out of terminal 1 building yesterday, on Tuesday, May 2. He shared the image on Facebook as a 'warning' for anyone using the terminal and said he would avoid using the airport for person travel.
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The 55-year-old, who runs North Wirral Airport Transfers, told the ECHO : "I operate a local airport transfer service from the Wirral. Myself and my customers have very little good to say about Manchester Airport these days.
"Honestly, if there is another airport I can use personally, I will. I'm flying home to Canada in June and purposely booked from another airport to avoid Manchester. People can also expect a longer wait for their luggage when they return, frequently over an hour now. Oh the joys of travel."
Earlier this week, Liverpool FC fans jetting off to Spain for the Villarreal match compared the airport experience as 'like the hunger games.' Kristian Walsh, Liverpool fan and senior sport editor, tweeted about his experience, saying: " Manchester Airport is like the Hunger Games here."
According to passengers, the trouble seems to be with terminal one, another traveller said: "T1 was a nice hour for security this morning! Looks like severe staff shortage." Another tweeted a photograph of queues and added: "It’s 3am and the queue for bag drop at @manairport T1 is out of the door! And only one security queue out of twelve is open."
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport confirmed that the queues pictured were not for security but instead for check-in. They said security queues on this occasion, on Tuesday, May 3, were up to 60 minutes but not continuously.
They said: "We are aware some customers faced longer waiting times than we would like at different stages of their journey through Manchester Airport this morning and apologise for any inconvenience. We are still advising passengers there could be longer queues than would normally be the case as we, and our partner airlines and handling agents, continue to recover from the pandemic.
"Those travelling through Manchester should arrive three hours before their flights and ensure they are familiar with the latest security rules to help avoid any unnecessary delays."
