Travellers have been left angered after a video showed the 'disgusting' state of a smoking area at Manchester Airport. Empty cups, overflowing bins and hundreds of cigarette ends were captured on camera in the outdoor zone in Terminal One departures.
The designated smoking areas, which are situated in all three terminals at the airport, are partially outdoors and surrounded by mesh, to allow people jetting off from the airport a chance to go out for a cigarette before they fly.
Railway worker Chris Bentley, who regularly travels for work, said the area looked 'absolutely disgraceful' on Wednesday evening. He added that it was an 'embarrassing' representation of Manchester for international travellers visiting the country.
He said: "It is really bad and just absolutely disgraceful to be honest. It's actually been quite a steady flow at the airport this evening, it's probably the least chaotic I have seen it in a long time.
"This is just such a bad and embarrassing representation of Manchester Airport. All nationalities come through here, from all over the world, and it saddens me that this is the perception they will have and the image they will be left with of Manchester.
"I travel a lot and this is the worst I have ever seen it - at any airport. It looks like it hasn't been cleaned for hours. It is disgusting.
"There are cups everywhere, litter overflowing in the bin and the smoking bin is just full of cigarette ends that clearly haven't been emptied for a long time."
The airport has been among others hitting headlines in recent months after travellers became stuck in huge security queues at security and baggage reclaim, as many airlines also cancelling flights at the last minute, leaving hundreds stranded.
An airport spokesperson told the Manchester Evening News last month that almost 400 new staff had been hired - with a further 500 going through checks at the time. And the airport's new managing director Chris Woodroofe has admitted peak-time queues would continue over the coming months - but vowed to ‘get passengers on their way’ as they head through the holiday season.
Following the emergence of the video clip, the airport has said they will be increasing the amount of checks in the smoking area - which is cleaned twice a day. A spokesperson said: “The airside smoking area is cleaned twice daily but for safety reasons this can only be done whilst the area is clear of passengers. We regularly monitor the area and will now be increasing the frequency of these checks.”
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