Manchester Airport was named the best airport in the UK six times on the trot in a prestigious industry awards ceremony a few years ago. Last week, it was awarded a far more dubious accolade: it’s now considered among Britain’s worst – with two of its three terminals named the country’s least pleasant.
Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 finished bottom of the table in Which? magazine’s recent survey of almost 6,000 flyers conducted over 12 months. Terminal 2 finished fourth from the bottom, surpassing only London Luton and its sister buildings.
It’s a remarkable fall from grace that airport bosses are refusing to recognise year on year, even as travellers bemoan its lack of facilities and dismal delays.
The Manchester Airports Group – which also operates London Stansted and East Midlands Airports – has defended the sprawling 1,400-acre facility, the busiest in Britain outside of the capital. It claims the surveys are not representative of the daily experiences of the 23million passengers who use it every single year.
The Which? appraisal covered 11 categories, ranging from the rate of late cancellations to customer service, queues for check-in, bag drop and security and the availability of seats, food and drink and toilets. Manchester’s Terminal 3 – home to its Ryanair flights – received an approval score of 43 per cent; Terminal 1, 47 per cent; and Terminal 2, which was expanded and renovated a few years ago, 53 per cent.
The airport’s one saving grace may be that just over one per cent of flights were cancelled with little notice – within 24 hours of intended departure time – between May 2024 and April 2025 according to the Civil Aviation Authority. This was much lower than other better-ranking airports such as London City, Southampton, Belfast City, Glasgow and London Heathrow.
