Families were forced to endure more long queues at Manchester Airport during another morning of misery.
The airport has experienced major issues over recent weeks, with huge security queues, long baggage delays and crowded check-in halls. The airport apologised to passengers on Monday after bosses warned that passengers could face queues for 'several weeks' due to staff shortages.
This morning Manchester Evening News reporter Lyell Tweed documented the scenes as he attempted to catch a flight from Manchester to Dublin. Lyell photographed very long queues for security.
READ MORE : Manchester Airport queues 'absolute shambles' as Liverpool FC fans head to Lisbon
He posted on social media: "Followed shouts to security B and am now in a very long queue for security, families with young children are trying to keep as calm as they can."
Lyell described the queue as beginning 'outside the main building.'
He posted: "The queue for Security A went out of the building to the extent I couldn’t see the end of it."
Despite the very conditions inside the airport Lyell praised staff who were on shift this morning. He said: "Staff are being very polite and helpful to everyone’s questions in testing circumstances to be fair to them."
Members of the public using the airport this morning also posted content about the long queues.
Andrew Mardon said: "The queue for T2 trying its best to make it all the way back to T1 today. It is a case study in management incompetence and lack of leadership. Its also an embarrassing image of the UK."
Lyell said that his experience improved as he passed with relative ease through security. He said: "Zero issues through security and we are ‘cooking on gas’ as the lovely family behind me in the queue said - we’re both very surprised at the speed here."
Lyell said that he arrived at the airport at around 5.45am and was in a security queue by 6am. However he said that if he had arrived 30 minutes later he would have experienced much longer queues.
Lyell boarded the flight at around 7.30am but the flight only took off at 8.40am, 35 minutes after it was due to fly. Passengers were told that the delay was due to trying to get staff to move the plane.
The captain apologised to passengers and said there was a 'severe lack of staff' at the airport.
Airport bosses have admitted issues with recruitment, warning queues could last until the start of busy summer schedules as international travel slowly begins to return to normal levels following the pandemic.
Yesterday Manchester Airport released a statement which read: "As we continue to recover from the pandemic and passenger numbers grow, security queues may be longer than usual at times. If you're due to travel in the next few weeks, please arrive at the earliest time your airline allows.
"We apologise to our customers for the disruption."
