As much as airports are the first step in a holiday, they’re not necessarily places you want to be stuck in.
Thousands of passengers were asked by Which?, the consumer watchdog, to rate their favourite aviation hub.
Bottom of the list was Manchester Airport, with Which? rather bluntly saying: ‘Avoid if you can.’.
‘Grim security queues, inadequate seating, ‘surly staff’ and overpriced shops and restaurants’ were among the reasons why.
With 5,000 surveyed between April 2023 and April 2024, the airport’s Terminal 3 took the bottom spot with a customer score of only 37%. Even the airport’s newly refurbished Terminal 2 was low down.
‘The only good news is that the dreadful Terminal 1 is scheduled to close next year. It gets one or two stars for everything except toilets. Terminal 2 is better but still only gets two stars for seating and staff,’ Which? said.
The airport told the watchdog that its own passenger surveys suggest people are more positive about using it. It’s ‘proud to give people in all parts of the North easy and affordable access to nearly 200 different destinations across the world’.
Only a 35-minute drive away was the best-rated hub, Liverpool John Lennon, which received an 81% customer satisfaction score.
‘If you have a choice, fly from Liverpool instead of Manchester,’ Which? said.