Using Manchester Airport (Questions & Reviews)

[jfy1999]

LS959 to Vienna (G-DRTF) - January 8th

Security in T2 was very efficient with staff helpfully directing me to the new machines and able to inform me about why my boarding pass wouldn’t scan (I had arrived too early). Perhaps the fastest I’ve ever been through security? The retail outlets at T2 were well patronised but there was never a shortage of seats.

The only downside was that the landside toilets I found (near Security) were surprisingly very small, with only 2 cubicles. About 3 people including myself had to wait. Fortunately it was a short wait but this was during what appeared to be a very quiet time. Airside toilets weren’t much larger. Hopefully there are more and larger toilets elsewhere, or else I wonder how passengers will cope in peak summer periods.

The boarding area was nice and spacious. My flight was by far the liveliest flight I’ve ever been on, with the cabin crew in good spirits, some passengers travelling for a birthday party and singing “The Sound of Music” - the pilot later congratulated them over the intercom for their “Julie Andrews impressions”!

 

[LS@MAN]

Hello and a happy belated New Year to everyone! I wish you all the best for 2024!

My last trip of 2023 into MAN saw me arrive on 22nd Dec at 20:00hrs with Ryanair into T3...quickly off the aircraft, no queue at passport control, hand luggage only so straight out into arrivals. I do hope MAG increase the size (if possible) of the immigration area and baggage hall in the future, we were the only flight arriving into T3 at that time, but I know from past experiences during the height of the summer months, how busy it can get!

Arrived at MAN on 8th January, again in T3. This time I had a suitcase to drop off with Ryanair. arrived at the airport at 05:00am for a 06:40am departure. I was quite surprised at how busy the check in / drop off baggage area was for the time of year...I weighed my case and placed the tag on in under 2 mins, no queue there. However, I was then waiting 15 mins in a queue whilst one person checked everyone's passport against the luggage tag prior to passengers being allowed to place their suitcase on the belt and press the button for it to transfer into the depths of T3! I can only think it was due to lack of staff / staff sickness from the ground handling agent...
Security was fairly busy and I was through in about 15 mins and without any of my 3 trays being rejected!
By the time I had got to the gate area it was around 05:55am and the gate had already been announced (54) so I went there to wait, we boarded promptly at 06:10am and departed early from stand at 06:30am, flight was around 75% full.

Pretty much standard arrival and departure experience into and out of T3 I think...other than the longer than anticipated wait to drop the luggage off, it was fine.
Given the time of year I wasn't arriving 2hrs + prior to departure, I would rather get through security in a timely manner and head straight for the gate prior to boarding than wait around.

My next trip into MAN sees me arriving again into T3 with Ryanair from Brussels on 2nd Feb.

Happy flying everyone!

 

[TM3]

I flew into MAN from HKG yesterday on CX. I have read about problems with inexperienced crew but I found the service and the product to be excellent. Slightly different more laid back vibe on CX than SQ but the crew are still very attentive, if I'm honest I slightly prefer it on some journeys, although both are excellent.

A few of things surprised me about the experience. There was some work going on at the airport but that wasn't really a big deal, there has clearly been some refurbishment since I last travelled though there and the airport was clean with new paint, even if it wasn't as glitzy as some of the top asian and middle eastern airports.

1. Despite arriving what would have been slightly ahead of the plane was held whilst some other aircraft were allowed to land. The pilot was obvioulsy not impressed with this as he felt his flight had priority.

2. It took an enormous amount of time from touch down for the plane to taxi to the gate. I don't think this is any fault of the crew, I think it is just a long way.

3. When we arrived at the stand the airbridge wasn't working so we had to wait for ground crew to get some stairs and rather than entering a nice warm airport we had to walk across the tarmac and up some stairs to get to the terminal. I was in business class and you can carry more hand luggage in J so there were a few people struggling to get their bags up the stairs. Not a great way to treat your high value customers.

4. I was carry on only and had no delays at immigration, however it still took just over an hour to get from the scheduled touch down time to the airport station. As I had considered an hour to be enough under normal circumstances I missed my train.

5. The airport train service, via Crewe, which is otherwise well connected was on 1 train per hour so I had to wait another hour in the station waiting room before I could leave the airport.

On the whole whilst I didn't encounter any serious difficulty at the airport it still took 2 hours to get from the plane to my train out, even with carry on only.

Having looked at the site on Google Earth I now see that my flight must have been to terminal 2 which are some of the most poorly located gates in the airport, are these the regular gates at MAN for long haul flights as it seems to me that the budget and holiday carriers have the best located gates in the airport for taxi time?

 

[mullion]

The delays on landing are due the large ammount of works on the main taxiway and will continue for a little while yet, it seems to have been handled well large aircraft are the problem and need to run down to the far end of runway whereas smaller aircraft can 180 on runway and exit. the airlines having this situation involves anybody who has an aircraft of 787 and bigger and can add 20 or 25 mins to taxi and happens at all airports at some time

 

[TM3]

The delays on landing are due the large ammount of works on the main taxiway and will continue for a little while yet, it seems to have been handled well large aircraft are the problem and need to run down to the far end of runway whereas smaller aircraft can 180 on runway and exit. the airlines having this situation involves anybody who has an aircraft of 787 and bigger and can add 20 or 25 mins to taxi and happens at all airports at some time

So it's an additional delay, not just down to T2 being the furthest from the runway?

Happy to answer this question put to me via PMs on another forum, I have withheld the name for privacy purposes.

"Why the need to post fake stories about MAN on Forums4airports?

It does not take an hour to walk from T2 gates to the station. The CX flight yesterday arrived on time, the bags arrived at 08:13, god knows what you were doing in the hour you left to miss the train? "

Sorry I was very tired after my journey, I actually arrived on Thursday. The flight I got in on was actually on time until it arrived in MAN airspace when it was bumped down the order for some other inbound services according to the pilot's announcement resulting in a late touchdown, not sure of the time the bags arrived but the flight was definitely late. I do note surprisingly that it is recorded on the Manchester Airport website as arriving on time. Not sure who records these times but the website is clearly wrong. I guess the airport self reports these times.

I accept the plane touched down a bit late but that was no fault of Cathay's, the flight clearly arrived in MAN airspace at the right time to take up their scheduled landing spot.

The airside time did not actually take that long, I literally just followed the signs to the station, I didn't stop to pick up bags or go to the toilet.

The delays were caused by a combination of ATC delays, the long taxi to the stands right at the back of the airport and the lack of a functioning airbridge along with a crew who weren't ready with the steps even though the plane had already beem on the ground for at least 15 minutes.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Well, I have just watched the playback of CPA219's approach into MAN on Thursday morning. All three holds are active when B-LRU enters the ROSUN hold in turn. The next two aircraft arriving at the stacks are 9H-VUC (from the South to DAYNE) and G-UZLR (from the West to MIRSI). A number of other aircraft are already holding when B-LRU takes up the pattern; all of these are vectored for 23R ahead of CPA219 (which is standard procedure). ATC endeavour to bring inbounds off the hold in the same order in which they enter the hold. If you watch back, you will see that the two aircraft following B-LRU in the sequence to land are 9H-VUC and G-UZLR in that order, followed in turn by those aircraft which took up the hold subsequent to these.

In short, CPA219 did not get "bumped down the order" by Manchester Approach. It was vectored in exactly in accordance with it's position in the sequence - just as one would expect. As were all the other aircraft in the system at the time. ATC are not in the habit of playing favourites - it is too difficult to organise anyway! The Cathay was not disadvantaged by them; it landed in the correct order. If in doubt, you can watch it back for yourself on FR24.

 

[TM3]

What do you have to say about the MAN airport website listing that flight as landing on time, when it clearly didn't? Why post these "massaged" numbers?

 

[KARFA]

Pretty much all airports show flights as "arrived" based on when they land. I am not sure this is the MAN conspiracy you are looking for tbh.

In any case, it was obviously unfortunate there was a delay in landing and it then took you around 30-35 minutes to get to the stand, but that is due to the temporary issue already mentioned up thread. It isn't normal for MAN.

As for the broken jetbridge, again it isn't actually typical for MAN, but these things do happen sometimes.

I think you are trying to turn something which wasn't perhaps the best experience, in to something well beyond that.

 

[TM3]

Well, I have just watched the playback of CPA219's approach into MAN on Thursday morning. All three holds are active when B-LRU enters the ROSUN hold in turn. The next two aircraft arriving at the stacks are 9H-VUC (from the South to DAYNE) and G-UZLR (from the West to MIRSI). A number of other aircraft are already holding when B-LRU takes up the pattern; all of these are vectored for 23R ahead of CPA219 (which is standard procedure). ATC endeavour to bring inbounds off the hold in the same order in which they enter the hold. If you watch back, you will see that the two aircraft following B-LRU in the sequence to land are 9H-VUC and G-UZLR in that order, followed in turn by those aircraft which took up the hold subsequent to these.

In short, CPA219 did not get "bumped down the order" by Manchester Approach. It was vectored in exactly in accordance with it's position in the sequence - just as one would expect. As were all the other aircraft in the system at the time. ATC are not in the habit of playing favourites - it is too difficult to organise anyway! The Cathay was not disadvantaged by them; it landed in the correct order. If in doubt, you can watch it back for yourself on FR24.

Having watched this back myself this is clearly a misleading post.

I can see that CX219 arrives in the area well before VS110 from ATL, which is not due to land until 8.30, but it is still allowed to land before CX219 due to land at 7.55am. Also there are a series of other aircraft approaching from the north east that are allowed to land before CX219, for example:

BA1370 which is scheduled for 8.20 and the MAN website states landed at 8.15.
There are also a couple of Loganair flights due to land 7.55 and after that turn up and land straight away.

Pretty much all airports show flights as "arrived" based on when they land. I am not sure this is the MAN conspiracy you are looking for tbh.

This is what I expect, so why did the MAN website show this flight as landing on time when it was actually landed at 8.11?

You might seek to excuse it but one hour from scheduled arrival to get out of the airport is pretty poor when you arrive in business class with virtually no immigration queue and carry on only.

Like you say my experience was OK but it must have been much worse for passengers seated at the back of economy.

Due to Ukraine etc HKG to MAN is now 13 1/2 hrs plus and that is an exhausting journey if you are in economy and it is hardly considerate for the airport to extend that with an unnecessarly long hold pattern and a broken gate at the far end of the airport.

 

[KARFA]

This is what I expect, so why did the MAN website show this flight as landing on time when it was actually landed at 8.11?

even if we accept your claims - why do you think? also why do you think the approach controllers would pick on your CX flight and deliberately kept it in the hold it whilst sequencing later arrivals in before you?

unfortunately i can't see what the airport website said at the time, but obviously you think it is some kind of wild airport conspiracy if we are to believe you.

BA1370 was in the hold already whilst your flight was only passing pole hill. VR110 landed right in front of you - approaching from a different hold point it might have been more advantageous to sequence them just in front of you. VR110 did

You might seek to excuse it but one hour from scheduled arrival to get out of the airport is pretty poor when you arrive in business class with virtually no immigration queue and carry on only.

Like you say my experience was OK but it must have been much worse for passengers seated at the back of economy.

Due to Ukraine etc HKG to MAN is now 13 1/2 hrs plus and that is an exhausting journey if you are in economy and it is hardly considerate for the airport to extend that with an unnecessarly long hold pattern and a broken gate at the far end of the airport.

not sure what the cabin has to do with anything (unless mention is just for willy waving purposes), as if being in business class means you shouldn't be subject to delays or an unfortunately broken jetbridge?

 

[TM3]

not sure what the cabin has to do with anything (unless mention is just for willy waving purposes), as if being in business class means you shouldn't be subject to delays or an unfortunately broken jetbridge?

I'm saying it because it means I am one of the first off the plane and as such is means I had one of the quicker if not the quickest transits through the airport of any passenger.

If you travel in asia though no-one involved with the airport or the airline would give you a hard time for travelling in business class they would treat you as a valued customer.

It seams odd to me that MAN gives the best gates to Ryanair and Jet2 passengers who are flying short distances when they expect passengers on Cathay who have been on the plane for 14hrs plus to carry their own luggage across the tarmac and up the stairs, particularly when a lot of them are elderly.

even if we accept your claims - why do you think? also why do you think the approach controllers would pick on your CX flight and deliberately kept it in the hold it whilst sequencing later arrivals in before you?

unfortunately i can't see what the airport website said at the time, but obviously you think it is some kind of wild airport conspiracy if we are to believe you.

BA1370 was in the hold already whilst your flight was only passing pole hill. VR110 landed right in front of you - approaching from a different hold point it might have been more advantageous to sequence them just in front of you. VR110 did

Why do my experiences have to be "approved" by you? It's not a singular comment about my flight it's true for 200+ passengers.

Don't try and gaslight me here, it says on the airport website now the flight was on time:

https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/flight-information/historic/arrivals/

You can also see that BA1370 was scheduled to land later. I have watched the video and CX219, having approached from the SE was placed in a very poor hold position for the airport that allowed a series of other aircraft from other airports to land first, many without being in any apparent hold.

 

[KARFA]

thanks for the link. where does it say "on time"?

the rest of what you are writing is frankly ignorant nonsense i am afraid.

EDIT: i will add that arrival is entirely normal for the CX flight, or indeed any flight coming from the east. i would have been surprised if it hadn't been on that arrival and held to the north at ROSUN

 

[TM3]

I was on the site 5 minutes ago and it said "on time" , someone has obviously seen this thread and changed it.

Nevertheless the time is still wrong, actually this is the around the time passengers started to de-plane.

Regardless, I'm happy to accept the plane landed at 8.37am if you are.

If this is the actual time you still have to accept that nearly an hour in a hold pattern is a kick in the teeth for the 200+ passengers sitting in economy for 14 hrs particularly when you watch the video and see a Loganair flight from the Isle of Man which would have been in the air for less time with no more than 50 passengers that and was scheduled to land later got priority.

 

[KARFA]

I was on the site 5 minutes ago and it said "on time" , someone has obviously seen this thread and changed it.

the bas*****!!! i knew it, they are watching us!

Nevertheless the time is still wrong, actually this is the around the time passengers started to de-plane.

Regardless, I'm happy to accept the plane landed at 8.37am if you are.

If this is the actual time you still have to accept that nearly an hour in a hold pattern is a kick in the teeth for the 200+ passengers sitting in economy for 14 hrs particularly when you watch the video and see a Loganair flight from the Isle of Man which would have been in the air for less time with no more than 50 passengers that and was scheduled to land later got priority.

i can see your point. and they don't even have highly valued business class passengers onboard, like your good self

 

[TM3]

the bas*****!!! i knew it, they are watching us!



i can see your point. and they don't even have highly valued business class passengers onboard, like your good self

I know you would like to frame it as me being entitled, like I said my experience was Ok but not amazing. If MAN doesn't welcome business class passengers I'm happy to fly through another airport that does.

If Manchester Airport isn't comfortable with giving business class passengers the experience they have paid for maybe the routes team should be pursuing Scoot and Air Asia rather than SQ and CX.

Really I wouldn't have taken it so seriously if you guys weren't so keen to cover it up, call me a liar, BS about flight radar data etc.

I think you've got to have a bit of compassion for the 200+ economy passengers who have had a very long a tiring 14+ hrs on the plane who get held for 30 minutes whilst a lot of other time sensitive services come in with smaller passenger loads. Then to add insult to injury they get a broken gate at the a**e end of the airport with some gate staff who are too slow on the uptake to get that they need to bring the steps up.


In the interest of keeping the forum a friendly we need to avoid the use of words that are provocative. It might also be a good idea if everyone can read the forum guidelines with particular reference to paragraph 2.1
Moderator & Administrator team

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Having watched this back myself this is clearly a misleading post.

I can see that CX219 arrives in the area well before VS110 from ATL, which is not due to land until 8.30, but it is still allowed to land before CX219 due to land at 7.55am. Also there are a series of other aircraft approaching from the north east that are allowed to land before CX219, for example:

BA1370 which is scheduled for 8.20 and the MAN website states landed at 8.15.
There are also a couple of Loganair flights due to land 7.55 and after that turn up and land straight away.



This is what I expect, so why did the MAN website show this flight as landing on time when it was actually landed at 8.11?

You might seek to excuse it but one hour from scheduled arrival to get out of the airport is pretty poor when you arrive in business class with virtually no immigration queue and carry on only.

Like you say my experience was OK but it must have been much worse for passengers seated at the back of economy.

Due to Ukraine etc HKG to MAN is now 13 1/2 hrs plus and that is an exhausting journey if you are in economy and it is hardly considerate for the airport to extend that with an unnecessarly long hold pattern and a broken gate at the far end of the airport.

Oh deary me. Where do I start? Now I can see why you have misunderstood the situation so comprehensively. One makes allowances for those outside the industry, but the notion that ATC would vector aircraft according to some STA (scheduled time of arrival) published in a timetable is hilarious. That would mean that an aircraft arriving at the stack an hour behind schedule would somehow have to be (safely) descended through all other holding traffic to be pushed to the front of the queue. Hopelessly impractical. And, of course, ATC work from dynamic data based upon where aircraft actually are in the real world. They don't even keep a timetable in the ops room!!!

As for VIR110 not being in the area, it is to the west of CPA219 because it is established in the MIRSI hold which is located well to the west of ROSUN (sufficient to ensure safe lateral separation between aircraft holding at the same level in the two adjacent stacks). But it is in the holding pattern appropriate to it's inbound route from the west, and it does leave the stack in accordance with it's correct position in the traffic sequence. Take note of the vertical levels too, not just lateral differentials. Look again also at those three Loganair flights "that turn up and land straight away". All three are established in the ROSUN or MIRSI holds (as appropriate) before CPA219 reaches ROSUN. They are holding at levels below CPA219 too (this is how vertical separation is assured). Aircraft enter the hold at a higher level than those already established in the stack, then get laddered down incrementally as earlier aircraft are peeled off the base of the stack to make their approach. Their position in the sequence has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with any published timetable. It is determined purely by the time at which they enter the hold based upon their flight progress in the real world on the day. Even if it were desirable to descend a later inbound flight through their levels to make it number one in the sequence (as occasionally happens for emergency traffic), it is immensely challenging to organise for one aircraft, let alone several. Nobody would do that for fun.

I'm sorry, but it is abundantly clear that you have zero understanding of how approach control works. Your impressions and assumptions are entirely wrong. Do you even know where Manchester's holding stacks are located and how they are used? In the absence of this, just take my word for it that CPA219 landed at the appropriate position in the sequence based upon when it entered the ROSUN hold. Nobody disadvantaged CPA219 - and why would they even want to? Do you really suppose that Manchester ATC would wish to pursue some vendetta against a prestige long-haul carrier? Why the heck would they want to do that???

And by the way, exactly the same system is used by Birmingham Approach, and other units across the country. These are generic standard procedures taught to all budding ATCO's as part of their basic training for the profession. A typical training course will include students bound for several different approach units. They all have to pass the same ratings exams before they can undertake local training for a specific airport.

I suggest that you stick to subjects that you know about. No doubt you possess some skills which lay-observers in other professions would not readily understand.

 

[TM3]

Sorry, it's not clear what facts you are disputing here, remember this is the "experience thread", it's not about approach rules.

Here are the facts.

CX219 arrived in time to land at the scheduled time.
CX219 had to wait whilst aircraft scheduled to land before it landed.
CX219 was given a gate without a working jetbridge and passengers, including some who were elderly had to carry their bags ip the stairs.
Most passengers, expecially those in economy will have been in their seats for 14+ hours.
It took me >2 hours from the scheduled landing time to leave the airport due to 1p/h train frequency and the time it took me to leave the airport.

Do you feel like any of this could have been improved upon?

Nobody disadvantaged CPA219 - and why would they even want to? Do you really suppose that Manchester ATC would wish to pursue some vendetta against a prestige long-haul carrier? Why the heck would they want to do that.

This clearly isn't true, CX219 was disadvantaged both by the ATC decisions and by the allocation of a poorly located gate with a broken jetbridge on a cold wet morning.

I think describing it as a vendetta is more than a bit melodramatic. With one service per day CX is obvioulsy going to have less clout than the likes of Emirates or Jet2 who have more rotations and passengers and generate a lot more in fees.

 

[David_itl]

Can you stop referring everything to the scheduled landing time and use the actual landing time or disembarking time instead. This way we can gauge exactly how long it took to go through the airport rather than having to take up anything from 16 mins to 42 minutes off your "bad experience".

Once you exit security and/or baggage reclaim any delay leaving the airport is yours and yours alone. There were 8 trains that left the airport and 1 rail replacement bus nor forgetting the tram service which is set for 12 minutes frequencies. All bar 1 would take you to Manchester, If you don't believe me for the trains then take a look here https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/simple/gb-nr:MIA/2024-02-22/0930

I would never ever decide that as the scheduled arrival time is 7.55 to unilaterally plan subsequent journeys to commence in 1 hour later given there could be myriad reasons for delays.

As for the gate, it may be that gate is the one that CX has specified they want to use. Or it was the only free gate capable of handling that aircraft. It's not unheard of for that to happen. Emirates normally used gate 12 on T1, Delta used 212 on T2. If something isn't working correctly on it so be it. Virtually all long-haul airlines tended use to T1 and/or T2 T2 being perceived as the more modern terminal , most of these airlines ended up there.

Lastly, using your rules there was a Virgin flight to Heathrow that was coming in an hour early today therefore to be fair to the other aircraft that were scheduled to land before it, they would be required to hold until such time that they could land in sequence at the scheduled time. If you were a passenger on that aircraft getting that delay, would you be happy?

 

[Land23R]

KARFA and EGCC_MAN, I'm sure you are aware that TM3 is the guy who recently had a long exchange of posts on the BHX forum essentially claiming why BHX should get various long haul routes rather than MAN. As then, he completely ignores the valid points made by others and just keeps re-iterating his own.
So your respective fair comments and explanations about delays caused by the taxiway work which requires back-tracking of landing aircraft, and in particular ATC procedures for flights entering the 3 stacks are not getting the relevance they deserve. He/she still implies ATC were at fault.
I would be interested in knowing whether CX docked on the new Pier 1 or one of the old gates. I'm assuming air bridges are still in use on stands 202/204/206. If it'was on Pier 1 as I would expect, it's unfortunate if there was a technical issue on a new air bridge or lack of staff to deal with the situation if that is what TM3 is suggesting.
EGCC_MAN will correct me if I've got it wrong, but arrivals seem to be vectored onto approach in batches of 3, with extended spacing in some cases, to allow for the time taken for back-tracking in coordination with departures, especially if on SRO. It does mean that a/c no 7 into the stack for example could have an extended hold.

 

[Aviador]

I am sorry but I haven't had time to read through the entire thread yet so I don't want to jump to any conclusions.

Can I just remind everyone that this thread is for:

Manchester Airport Experience (Questions & Reviews)

As such it would be entirely appropriate for questions relating to a recent flight from Manchester airport. Responses should be regarded as answers to the authors questions.

If everyone could read through their posts and amend them accordingly. Some self moderation would be appreciated as our moderators are volunteers and can't be here all of the time.