A mum has shared her 'terrible' experience at Manchester Airport with huge queues, shelves empty of food and even no soap in the toilets.
Stefanie Hopkins flew from the airport to Dusseldorf in Germany on Sunday evening with her family, YorkshireLive reports. She said it took them around two and a half hours to get from check-in to the departure lounge.
She described the queues as 'really terrible' then said most food outlets were either closed or had empty shelves. Stefanie said the family could not get fresh food from anywhere, only water or sweets.
READ MORE: We asked TUI, Jet2 and Swissport to explain why Manchester Airport has been hit with half-term chaos
She added that the airport seemed to have 'run out of everything', even soap in the toilets. Stefanie, who runs her own PR firm based in Brighouse, said: "The security queue was bad - only one of ten machines was open so (there were) very long queues.
"At the other side there were no food outlets open other than a bar, and a Pret which was only selling hot drinks as it had run out of food - and then that shut at 7.30pm."
She added: "And the only other shop - apart from Duty-free - was one WHSmith which had completely empty food shelves. We could only buy water and sweets.
"It took about 2.5 hours from check-in to get to the lounge. They seemed to have run out of everything at the airport, right down to no soap in the toilets.
"There were further delays as the plane had landed but there was no spare gate for it to dock for 45 minutes. Then we sat on the runway for a while. It wasn’t the most pleasant of journeys."
Stefanie said she wasn't able to buy any food for her children. "Unfortunately I hadn’t packed any food as I thought we could buy some once we were through security. There weren’t any crisps left either so all they had was some chocolate, sweets and Lucozade from WHSmith’s. I then spent another 30 minutes queuing to buy a hot chocolate for them from Pret", she said.
In a statement issued yesterday, after a hectic half-term weekend, a Manchester Airport spokesperson said: "We are aware of challenges being faced by a number of airlines and handling agents, which is leading to delays at check-in and baggage reclaim for some passengers.
"Airlines and their ground handlers are responsible for their own check-in and baggage handling services. Passengers are advised to direct any questions or concerns about these issues, or anything relating to their flight, to their airline, who will be best placed to respond.
"However, this is not the experience we want passengers to have at Manchester Airport and we are sorry to hear customers have faced disruption. We are in contact with the senior management teams of the relevant airlines and ground handlers to understand the cause of these issues, and to support their efforts to resolve them as quickly as possible.
"Our colleagues are on hand in the terminal to provide assistance to customers and we are working hard to ensure security waiting times are as quick as possible. It remains our advice that passengers should arrive three hours before their flight and to be as prepared as they can be for their journey through the airport."
The Airport spokesperson accepted there had been delays with some airlines' check-in on Sunday, but said they were not aware of similar delays at security. The spokesperson said certain airlines saw a large number of their flights delayed or cancelled yesterday, which led to higher numbers of passengers in the terminal than they would have expected to see later in the day, which led to some retail units in Terminal Two running short of stock.
Airport staff eased shortages in retail units by bringing in stock from other terminals and the Bridgewater Restaurant was open until 11pm. A spokesman for WHSmith said: "Unfortunately, in line with other retailers operating at Manchester Airport, we experienced a delay with delivery of stock to our store yesterday which we regret impacted on the availability of certain products in store.
"We apologise for any inconvenience this caused to our customers." Pret has also been approached for comment.
