Manchester Airport bosses blame the PASSENGERS for three-hour queues claiming most bags had to be opened at security and re-checked because they contained restricted items
- Nightmare situation faced tourists desperately trying to catch flights away
- Manchester Airport seemed to be suggesting queues were not its fault
- It said there were more passengers than expected and had restricted luggage
Manchester Airport today was paralysed today – with passengers missing flights stuck in three-hour queues.
Furious customers branded the northern transport hub ‘the most chaotic in the world’ as they suffered in the melee.
But the airport appeared to try and wash its hands of responsibility for the enormous hold ups.
It claimed there had been ‘unexpectedly high passenger numbers’ and 60 per cent of them had been restricted items in their luggage.
Passenger Paul Keegan told BBC North West Tonight: ‘People were screaming, annoyed and frustrated.
It was pandemonium inside the airport where enormous queues were seen waiting to move
Passenger Andy Mitten revealed the appalling delays in a series of Twitter messages
‘I felt quite sorry for the staff because people were being abusive and loud. This place is never enjoyable.’
Extraordinary scenes on Thursday morning showed passengers queuing out into the car par, so bad were the delays.
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: ‘At times today, security queues in Terminal One have been significantly longer than we would like due to a combination of factors.
‘With the rapid recovery of international travel, it has been much more difficult to predict passenger volumes based on the flights that are due to depart.
Passengers at Manchester Airport have complained of ‘huge queues’ stretching back to the car parks
‘Today, we saw more people than we were expecting, which put a considerable strain on our operation.
This was compounded by up to 60% of customer bags being rejected as they passed through security because they contained restricted items – a much higher rate than we typically experience.
‘Our colleagues have worked tirelessly to process passengers as quickly as they can and we would like to thank them for their dedication throughout the day.
‘We have deployed staff from other parts of the operation to assist in security and, wherever possible, we have prioritised customers within the queue in order to ensure they make their flights.
‘We would like to apologise to those impacted by today’s challenges and assure them we are doing all we can to rectify the situation.
‘It is likely waiting times will continue to be longer than we would like for the remainder of this evening, and would urge anyone due to travel through Manchester Airport to arrive at the earliest time recommended by their airline and to ensure they are as prepared as they can be to pass through security.’