Security, Immigration & Border Control

[Llandudno]

I am not clear what you want folks to do? Stop posting stuff on the horrendous queues and near breakdown at MAN? Pretend it doesn’t exist? This situation which has been building at MAN is by far the worst I have seen anywhere in the UK for a very long time. I would not be surprised if the CAA stepped in and forced MAN to restrict flight numbers to levels they can cope with - and in fact i suspect that point is fast approaching unless MAN have a load of new security officers ready to go by the Easter rush in a few weeks.

Have a look at the flight departures this afternoon, more or less everything at least an hour late presumably the airlines trying to wait for passengers and yet even then I bet many missed flights. I am sure when there is good news about security and immigration it will be posted in this thread, but for now there isn’t much good news for this thread.

As for what routes people can travel that is already covered in other threads as you note.

Karfa, your missing the point of what I’m trying to say, but what’s worse is that I think your doing so deliberately, so rather than derail the thread further, as well as wasting my time in the process, I’ll leave it there.

 

[A400]

I am not clear what you want folks to do? Stop posting stuff on the horrendous queues and near breakdown at MAN? Pretend it doesn’t exist? This situation which has been building at MAN is by far the worst I have seen anywhere in the UK for a very long time.

It’s the security, border and immigration thread so you are entitled to post your opinions in it as I thought forums were about peoples inputs. But I guess not to some. The tweets speak for themselves that it’s unacceptable and will put customers off in future using it. As I’ve said many times Border force need to do more to recruit. This includes better pay and so on.

 

[Aviador]

Just to point out that Airport Security and UK Border Force are run separately with the latter being run by the government and therefore the airport authority will have little or no influence in the day to day running of UK Border Force operations at the airport.

The discussions featured recently in the forum have been associated with passenger screening which will be carried out by the Airport Security at the airport which will be operated by the airport authority or by a contract company brought in by them.

What we need to remember is that whatever the staffing situation, the airport will have to maintain its mandatory security obligations in compliance with ICAO and NASP. So if the airport is struggling to recruit staff or summer staff haven't yet completed their training there is little else that can be done to avoid this situation.

 

[marni1971]

Local BBC showing queues again for security from this morning snaking around the T1 level 5 drop off.

Managements silence is deafening.

 

[Silvercity]

I booked a flight from Manchester yesterday to get to Kristiansand Norway for May. I not sure how much time I should leave myself to allow passing through the airport.

 

[KARFA]

It has always been clear something was not right with the culture at MAN and the security staff, and clearly the problems now are related to numbers of people who left and who are not joining now. This was an interesting comment from someone claiming to be former staff posted in the MEN which if true does illustrate why we are seeing the problems we are now.

Manchester Airport apologises over queues so long they end in the car park

The airport has put the queues down to an unexpected number of passengers and a high amount of bags being rejected at security.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Unfortunately Manchester airport can't keep hold of security staff. When at the start of COVID they were seeking to make 69 staff redundant. Initially they were looking for volunteers and if they didn't get enough they would make compulsory redundancies. They were overwhelmed, over 70% approx. 650 applied for redundancy. Now what does that tell you about the type of employer Manchester Airport is??

The real problems started when staff were furloughed. They had time on their hands to look for other employment and soon realised they could find jobs with better pay and conditions without the stress and pressure that the airport put on them, like constant monitoring via CCTV, favouritism, bullying, resourcing constantly messing your pay up and treating you like something on the bottom of their shoe! It's toxic!
Other issues like staff failing their yearly NXCT (Nation X-Ray Competency Test) so can't X-ray or search bags. They have a very high sickness level too, which they seem not to able to control.

If the Airport actually treated their staff like human beings then they wouldn't be in this position now.

It's especially sad when the biggest shareholders are Labour run Councils.
Look after your workers and they'll look after you.
Just say, 'thank you'

 

[LS@MAN]

Local BBC showing queues again for security from this morning snaking around the T1 level 5 drop off.

Managements silence is deafening.

Was this definitely from this morning?
I know how the media like to recycle photo's/videos online. I read a quote about it being around 5.30am, but from the BBC video, it looked light outside, so this may have been from yesterday...?

 

[LS@MAN]

I booked a flight from Manchester yesterday to get to Kristiansand Norway for May. I not sure how much time I should leave myself to allow passing through the airport.

Leave now!

I'm flying to Malaga on Tuesday next week from T1...flight is at 6.20am...I'm staying in a hotel the night before and getting over there at 3am!

 

[LS@MAN]

It has always been clear something was not right with the culture at MAN and the security staff, and clearly the problems now are related to numbers of people who left and who are not joining now. This was an interesting comment from someone claiming to be former staff posted in the MEN which if true does illustrate why we are seeing the problems we are now.

Manchester Airport apologises over queues so long they end in the car park

The airport has put the queues down to an unexpected number of passengers and a high amount of bags being rejected at security.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

That quote sums the place up perfectly!

These latest chaotic scenes should be the starting point to actually do something about the management and the toxic culture at MAN/MAG. But I can't see it happening!

How's Stansted coping with the passenger increase? Same company management, but I don't see/read about these type of issues down there! Far from perfect I'm sure, but my god it's always at MAN!!

 

[Aviador]

Having once done the job albeit at a different airport I can confirm the training and NXCT is difficult to maintain. The job requires significant concentration for long periods of time as you are continually assest and tested throughout your working day covertly and overtly.

As a passenger, passing through security it is often the most stressful part of your journey. As an employee working in these conditions, stress levels are high and often maintained at a high level throughout the entire shift.

Unless things have changed, a person should not use an X-ray scanner for more than 20 minutes at a time. During a staffing crisis it is fairly routine to be taken off one scanner to be put straight onto another. I'm not suggesting this is the case in this instance but I doubt that they can maintain the number of security lanes without doing this.

The job frequently entails very early starts with 04:00 as a norm, poor conditions and being overwhelmed with continuous training and testing. If things haven't changed its really no wonder Manchester Airport are struggling but I expect many other airports will be too.

 

[Manchester Exile]

@Llandudno, I think there's an uptick in commentary on the bad news stories because the people on this forum care about Manchester Airport. I know that I do. But I also know that it's just about the worst airport in terms of queuing, quality of infrastructure, passenger experience, etc, that I've ever experienced. And I speak as someone who, until COVID, took dozens of long-haul flights each year to many corners of the globe.

The real shame is that it didn't used to be like this. As recently as the late 1990's the airport was considered one of the best in the world, and in fact I recall it actually won the award for the World's Best Airport circa 1995. Older forum members such as myself have watched the steady decline in the facilities overseen by a management who constantly blame everybody but themselves.

As other contributors have said, all airports have their off-days, but Manchester is consistent in offering a poor experience. That just does not happen at other airports.

And so this forum attracts more posts on negative stories because those of us who care about the airport want to see it fixed. We see a long-term issue that is not being addressed. We want someone to take charge and fix the problems so that Manchester continues to grow and thrive, not suffer from passengers deliberately trying to avoid the place due to the poor experience. And I do have personal friends here in Australia who have flown to Manchester for the first time at my behest, and vowed to never go back again.

I'm going to be flying in to Manchester in May. I'm coming in on the Qatar flight and departing on SAS. I'm keenly looking forward to seeing the passenger experience myself and hoping that it's greatly improved compared to the stories we've seen in recent months.

 

[Llandudno]

Manchester Exile,

thank you for your reply. While I don’t deny your reasoning for posting, I’m afraid i remain unconvinced at some of the others reason for posting, nor their honesty either.

but as said previously, i don’t really want to draw upon it too much now because if people aren’t going to be honest with their intentions, it’s not fair to derail the thread nor waste time dwelling on it.

but thank you for your post.

 

[KARFA]

….I’m afraid i remain unconvinced at some of the others reason for posting, nor their honesty either.

Well, that’s quite some claim to causally throw out there isn’t it

 

[marni1971]

Was this definitely from this morning?
I know how the media like to recycle photo's/videos online. I read a quote about it being around 5.30am, but from the BBC video, it looked light outside, so this may have been from yesterday...?

I was sceptical at first too. They followed it up in the evening and still maintained it was the morning with more footage. Unless the time frame you mentioned was in the BBC article, that would suggest the issues lasted for some amount of time.

 

[louis_walton]

Flying out of Man next week, think £10 fast track feels quiet viable at the moment.

 

[marni1971]

A family friend flew out this morning. They said it was busy, but “normal busy” with no queues like were seen recently.

 

[Land23R]

Was that T1 Marni1971 which seems to have suffered the worst problems? A friend flew out from T1 this morning on a flight to Spain and it arrived there a few minutes early with only a slight delay to departure from MAN.

 

[marni1971]

Was that T1 Marni1971 which seems to have suffered the worst problems? A friend flew out from T1 this morning on a flight to Spain and it arrived there a few minutes early with only a slight delay to departure from MAN.

I believe so.

Not that I condone the recent events. They’re an absolute disgrace. But it’s only fair to offer a balanced view since the media won’t.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Just back from another day return MAN-AGP via T1. Outward flight this morning was an 06:10 departure, so not really surprising that there was no stress going through outbound security at that unearthly hour. But what I must highlight is that the staff were again pleasant and helpful. This prevailing myth that all security staff at MAN are surly and rude needs to be dispelled. There may be the odd individual letting the side down somewhere, but I haven't encountered them. Another good experience this morning, and the departure lounge seemed to be filling up at a brisk pace after I went through, so things must have been flowing well.

My return through UK Border was just under an hour ago as I type. Gate 6; the only queue was derived from passengers alighting from my own flight. Through very quickly. No issues again. Can't fault it. I acknowledge that luck plays a big part. A number of flights were due in shortly after us, but we neatly beat the rush on this occasion.

My next trip will be Tuesday. T2 out, T1 back. I'll report again after that one.

 

[KARFA]

It does seem some work has been done to tackle the worst peaks of security queues at MAN.

Whilst departure times are an imperfect proxy for security delays, they are often related especially when we have seen the 1hr + queues recently.

On Wednesday there were 143 departures
29 flights were delayed by 1 hour or more, 2 flights were delayed by just over 3 hours
Average delay 40 minutes

On Friday there were 178 departures
no 3 hour+ delays, and only one 2hr+ delay
Average delay 24 minutes

It seems they have tackled the very worst peaks to some extent, and slightly improved performance overall. Still not ideal, but at least some signs of improvement at least on the issue of waiting times.