Using Manchester Airport (Questions & Reviews)

[Aviador]

Guys, I made a boob. I inadvertently deleted what was a really good discussion about baggage handling at Manchester airport. I'm still getting used to the admin side of things with the new software. To all those who posted in this thread over the last few days please accept my apologies. To get the thread going again here was what the discussion was about.

Passengers on-board a flight were concerned at how their luggage was being handled.
https://www.lep.co.uk/news/transpor...ow-to-crack-down-on-ground-handlers-1-9360610

Numerous members of the forum agreed that the baggage handler was being rough with the luggage and they thought he should be reprimanded for it.

I offered some insight into working as a baggage handler explaining that the hold of many aircraft are very low with a ceiling of little more than a metre in height and that the distance the bags needed to go on-board the aircraft from the aircraft hold was as much as 8 metres. Most baggage will receive a fair amount of rough and tumble with every journey and the knock shown in this report is nothing in comparison compared with what happens on the aircraft and during the handling process.

Here's the transit of baggage through the average airport terminal.

 

[Aviador]

Manchester Airport CEO responds to video of Swissport baggage handlers
Manchester Airport's CEO has vowed to crack down on ground handlers following an incident yesterday, which showed employees of Swissport, the handler employed by Ryanair, causing damage to passenger belongings.
Andrew Cowan, Manchester Airport CEO, said: "Manchester Airport will not tolerate the kind of behaviour shown yesterday by the employees of the ground handling company Swissport.
“We are clear that it is completely unacceptable for our customers’ belongings to be treated in this way. We would like to reassure passengers that those involved will not be allowed to work on our site again.
“We have sought urgent assurances from Swissport and Ryanair that a full investigation will be carried out and swift and robust action taken.
"We have also asked Swissport to carry out an urgent review of their recruitment and training processes to ensure their employees are clear about the high levels of customer service that are required.
"If we are not satisfied by Swissport’s response to these issues, we will consider what further steps are required to protect passengers’ interests, including the full range of sanctions that are available to us as part of Swissport’s operating licence.”

Manchester Airport

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Does that sound as if there might not be full agreement between the handling company and the airport authorities over the way this issue is being handled?

I would nomally have expected a comment along the lines that the airport is confident in Swissport's ability and intention to deal with the matter robustly.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Remember that the airport response is a few days old as it refers to "yesterday's incident". That makes it about a week old. I understand the airport did hold discussions with Swissport but I'm unaware of the outcome.

 

[Land23R]

And there was an issue fairly recently with Swissport when some passengers were waiting 3 or 4 hours for their bags on arrival in the early hours of a Saturday morning. The airport promised an investigation with the handling company over what went wrong then but I'm not aware what the outcome of that was.

 

[Aviador]

With regards to the baggage handling complaint, as I said previously, It is my opinion that the baggage handler in question has been made a scapegoat. Hold luggage gets thrown about considerably during the day-today check-in process through to the point where the bags are loaded onto the aircraft.

This has been a damage limitation and public relations exercise.

I do feel sorry for the bloke knowing first hand how bags get thrown around during the loading and unloading process, particularly during the parts you don't see as a passenger.

The passengers who filmed their luggage wont have been aware that there belongings will have already been thrown up to eight metres at the top of the luggage conveyor when it was loaded at the overseas airport and again prior to it been unloaded before you see it at the bottom of the conveyor at Manchester.

At the end of the day it was the baggage handlers own fault. He was meaningfully throwing passengers belongings in a "front of house" situation when he didn't need to which was a silly thing to do.

And there was an issue fairly recently with Swissport when some passengers were waiting 3 or 4 hours for their bags on arrival in the early hours of a Saturday morning. The airport promised an investigation with the handling company over what went wrong then but I'm not aware what the outcome of that was.

The delays weren't just caused by Swissport. We know there were huge queues reported at security search locations throughout the airport at various terminals.

It does seem like Manchester airport has some service delivery problems at the moment. There could be a number of reasons for this, such as staffing levels, contractual, financial or regulatory reasons.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

This individual may not be unique in behaving as he did, but he is the one who got caught so he will be punished accordingly. I don't believe that 'loads of other guys do this' would serve as a particularly robust defence on his behalf. He knew that he should not be treating customers' belongings like that, yet he did so. Now he must face the consequences.

The security queues situation is a separate issue. I actually believe that the airport have been making good progress on resolving this. I use the airport frequently - all three terminals - and have noted acceptable queueing times on all but two occasions over the last three years. Of course, we know there are occasions when the system falls down but they're easy to keep track of these days - social media ensures that every episode draws wide attention. June saw a number of delays, but since then things have been much improved with September 11th (T3) being the only true meltdown reported in the meantime. Real effort has been made to resolve the security queues issue - at peak time on the morning of September 4th I entered T1 security and proceeded to a machine with no queue at all. Quite astonishing.

Of course, anyone who doesn't peddle the line that Manchester Airport security queues are persistently dreadful stands accused of supporting MAG to an unreasonable degree. Well, my answer to that is straightforward. The September 11th meltdown which dominated MEN coverage contains two photos of the expansive queue on the day. And I spotted myself - I'm in there! I actually just made my Ryanair flight to DUB, though it did leave some pax behind. It was pretty nerve-wracking at the time ... I was convinced that I'd miss my flight.

So I'm certainly not suggesting 'no problemo'. There is more to be done. But it is important to strike a balance between acknowledging the incidents which do occur whilst also recognising the good work done to ensure they're far less frequent than they used to be. And if standards do slip again, we can be sure of instant blanket-coverage courtesy of the MEN. There is nowhere to hide if the issue isn't addressed.

 

[Land23R]

Quoting Aviador:
"With regards to the baggage handling complaint, as I said previously, It is my opinion that the baggage handler in question has been made a scapegoat. Hold luggage gets thrown about considerably during the day-today check-in process through to the point where the bags are loaded onto the aircraft"

I assume you watched the video. If a couple of cases had fallen off the trolley and his mate had recovered them, I don't think there would be an issue. The guy throwing the cases watched a couple fall off the far side of the truck and then appeared to deliberately throw the next few cases even harder, dislodging cases already on the trolley while his mate continued to watch. The fact it may happen out of sight inside the building is absolutely no excuse.

The Swissport issue with the bags taking hours to get off aircraft in the middle of the night onto the carousels has nothing to do with outbound security. ( I agree security queues are the responsibility of MAN). Swissport is not the victim in these situations; the passengers are.

 

[Aviador]

I assume you watched the video. If a couple of cases had fallen off the trolley and his mate had recovered them, I don't think there would be an issue. The guy throwing the cases watched a couple fall off the far side of the truck and then appeared to deliberately throw the next few cases even harder, dislodging cases already on the trolley while his mate continued to watch. The fact it may happen out of sight inside the building is absolutely no excuse.

I agree there is absolutely no excuse. I was putting into context.

At the end of the day it was the baggage handlers own fault. He was meaningfully throwing passengers belongings in a "front of house" situation when he didn't need to which was a silly thing to do.

 

[Scottie Dog]

I have previously posted (under the MANTP thread of my tour of the T2X construction site and this time my little group were to experience Pier One. However there is currently an embargo on the posting of photos until after the facility opens on Monday 1st April.

We were due to meet with our host at Olympic House at 1.30, but instead we were initially met by OPS3 who is one of the operations managers and taken down to the staff channel within the Terminal 1 baggage hall. Problem one encountered - our passes were not airside ones and so we had to head back over to the security office to get those issued!! It was at this point that we actually met our host. With that overcome we were then taken back through the staff channel and out onto the apron at stand 16 where OPS3 had an Ops car waiting for us. Time to pause as we then had to wait for a Stobart ATR to push off stand.

Off we go again - free-ranging - around the end of Pier B, across to stand 101, down taxiway D and then around onto taxiway NA before going back to D and around the back of Pier One to stand 105 - having past the 5 TUI 737-MAX.

Now it's into Pier One for our first opinions. Okay, there are a number of steps (plainly concrete, that have to be climbed or descended depending on your direction of travel - actually it's only really descent as you would be coming down from the departure level of the PIer to the airbridge, whilst if arriving you get switched to the arrivals corridor as soon as you come off the airbridge. Anyway I am rambling. Once we entered the departure level of the Pier it was immediately striking as to how warm the facility is and this is because of the use of ground level heaters (that look like rubbish bins) but are actually quite functional. There didn't appear to be any artificial lighting on, but there was sufficient natural light and the general feeling was of an airy structure with plenty of space and room. The windows are practically floor to ceiling and, whilst talking of ceilings you can see all the air conditioning through the battens and this is something that I initially was not too happy with, but it also is used throughout the link corridor.

Toilets - There are 2 blocks of toilets and each has the normal set of Ladies, Gents and Disables/Baby Change. I'm reliably informed that the Ladies have 7 cubicles and the Gents 2 adult and 1 child urinal, so you can double up that up number. Apparently there are no toilets on the arrivals level - or at least until you get to immigration, as the airport wants to get people off the Pier as soon as possible.

As has been previously said in forums, there are no catering facilities within the Pier, although there are water fountains by each toilet block and there is a capability to return from the Pier to the Terminal. So at this point let's start as if we were coming down the temporary corridor from Terminal 2. On the left hand side there are glazed windows overlooking the apron with a temporary wall on the right. Once having walked the width of T2X you then come to where stairs can be seen coming down from the airline lounge level of T2X and you then enter the link-connect corridor through to the Pier - this has 2 travellators to cover the distance and a reasonable width of walking space at its side, with smaller windows along its full length. Throughout its full length there are signs giving the walking time to the furthest gate, although we considered that the timings had possibly been set at the walking speed of an rather slow walking passenger (better safe than sorry?)

Back to the start of Pier One with it's superb views of the apron and then down to our transport. Once again we set off along the West Apron taxiways before cutting through D4 and onto Bravo and then down Taxiway Juliet to J2 - how about a Runway Inspection - now who would say no to that silly question? We held at J2 whilst 2 Ryanair aircraft landed and one departed and then we entered 23R ahead of a Flybe E195 and did a full run of the 2 mile runway and exited at A1 before working our way back up the the work on new Taxiway Echo before heading back to Terminal 1.

Once 1st April has gone I will post Pier One photos on the MANTP thread. Unfortunately MAG has a blanket ban on air-side photography therefore, although I have pictures for my personal use, I will not be able to post them on any Social Media sites.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks for that comprehensive and fascinating insight, Scottie.

 

[pholling]

Toilets - There are 2 blocks of toilets and each has the normal set of Ladies, Gents and Disables/Baby Change. I'm reliably informed that the Ladies have 7 cubicles and the Gents 2 adult and 1 child urinal, so you can double up that up number. Apparently there are no toilets on the arrivals level - or at least until you get to immigration, as the airport wants to get people off the Pier as soon as possible.

One question and one comment here.

On the gents that is 3 urinals per block, but how many cubicles?

Also, the pictures that MAN have posted clearly show toilets on the arrivals floor:

Have they closed them off since these were taken?

 

[Scottie Dog]

Many thanks for your couple of questions with regards to toilet facilities in Pier One.

I must be honest and say that the number of cubicles did not register and therefore I, regretfully, can not answer that question. I do however, for the ladies in this forum, recall that the our hostess mentioned there being 6 or 7 cubicles in the ladies facilities.

It was only the other day that I was thinking, and emailing my host, to say that we had not been shown the arrivals level of the pier. You will appreciate therefore that you have posed another question that I'm not in a position to answer - but thanks for providing the first photos that I've seen of that level. At least we now know that toilets exist in the arrivals area, which is contrary to that reported elsewhere.

 

[LS@MAN]

Spent the weekend in Manchester taking in the ever expanding airport and city.
Arrived from AMS on Thursday evening with KLM and what a pleasure it was not having to remove my liquids at security and only using 1 tray...something that will hopefully be adopted in the new T2 next year...
Arrived at T3 at 9.45pm no queues at immigration, I can’t work out where the 5 new e gates will go though? So from touchdown until outside the terminal a very quick 16 mins!
On Friday I noticed still how busy T1 is considering TCX no longer operate. I assume with the large EZY operation and still a handful of LS services, it’s not that much different.

Returning today from T3 with BE, security was ok quite busy but only 4/5 lanes open, only 15 mins though so not bad at all. Queued at gate 50 with about 80 other passengers, organised chaos between the lack of space, people queuing in different directions not allowing others to pass and this new Flybe hand luggage policy causing delays to both boarding and departure.
Apart from that, everything else seemed to work ok. We are lucky to have a local airport with so many services. Looking forward to seeing the new T2 extension open next year. Cheers!

 

[Deleted member 8348]

Just come back to MAN from FAO on FR4051....182 on board and it was on time leaving and arrived 20 mins early, I must say MAN meet & greet was a doddle, passport control a doddle, and the overall experience there better than LBA, my local airport...only had hand luggage and sat on row 3 but came driving out of the airport car park 25 mins after landing after parking on the furthest stand at T3...quickish for such a big airport or maybe I was just lucky but 9/10 experience.

 

[Jamman]

Looking for opinions of this..
I'm going to Book meet and greet parking for T3 for April - just had a look at the maps and it appears they have moved the M&G site for T3 - it looks about the same distance as the new Mid Stay? whats the point of the M&G then! Should I just save a few pennies?

 

[LS@MAN]

Went out from T1/T3 to Heathrow this morning. Arrived at T1 check in at 8.30am, relatively quiet but took about 30 mins to check in due to document checks. Security in T1 was very quiet, 4 lanes open, but 15min wait due to a young lady who obviously didn’t have a clue about the rules and had around 4/5 liquid bottles well over 100ml! Staff friendly and apologetic for the wait. Bag was unfortunately rejected, no reason given, so this was an additional 10min wait, again staff friendly and apologetic for the wait.
It was a 5min walk to T3 airside…very quiet, it was around 9.30am at this point so very few departures…hence I picked a flight around this quiet time (10.40am). Gate 142, which really needs seating, waited 30mins due to late arrival of aircraft from LHR.
On the whole, a good experience. Plenty of customer service staff in both terminals on hand to guide passengers and walking around observing in general. T3 looks refreshed, floors shiny and various areas repainted. It’s certainly not the best of terminals functionally, but good to see it reopen! Over and out!

 

[lfc84]

It was quiet but took almost an hour. Not good enough.

Bag rejected for no reason. Not good enough.

 

[Land23R]

It was quiet but took almost an hour. Not good enough.

Bag rejected for no reason. Not good enough.

I wondered if you'd read LS@MAN's post properly. More time was spent checking in (30 minutes) by the handling agent than the total of 25 minutes for security. He didn't actually say the bag was rejected for no reason. He said no reason was given so presumably he didn't ask. Yes, it would be nice if check-in and security was no more than 30 minutes but given some of the delays in recent times, it didn't strike me as too bad an experience.

 

[lfc84]

I read it properley. I didn't specify anything about security or check in. I simply said almost an hour isn't good enough.