A disgruntled father has slammed Manchester Airport as a 'ghastly place to travel from' after his daughter and wife suffered delays while travelling on separate flights from Manchester to Toronto.
Peter Jackson, who lives near Blackpool, said his wife Shannon, along with their 11-year-old son and their 16-year-old daughter were flying to Canada on two separate flights, Air Canada and Air Transat, within ten minutes of each other. Both flights were delayed. He says this meant they missed their connecting flights in Canada and had to stay overnight in Toronto, then get up early the next morning for connecting flights to Regina - where they were headed.
But Peter says the misery did not stop there.
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He says: "When they came back they waited for over an hour for their luggage on the carousel. I had parked my car and was waiting in arrivals for them, I had to go and buy a sandwich. The longer it took the more money it was costing me and the more money was going into Manchester Airport's tills.
"If the luggage is delayed they should be saying have some lunch on us, or we will not charge you for the airport or how about just a sorry - but there is none of it." Describing the relief when luggage finally arrives, he says: "You find yourself feeling grateful for what should just be expected."
Peter, who describes Manchester Airport as a "fiasco" says he also suffered receiving a £25 car parking fine when he went to pick his mother up from the airport. He said: "Last week I stopped outside Terminal three to collect my elderly mother. Because she can only walk slowly, I had to pay £25 for exceeding the 10 minute parking limit. There are no trolleys unless you happen to have a £1 coin as the credit card machine was not working.
"They should not be charging people for dropping people off or picking people up. It is like they just don't respect their customers. They don't look after them. Manchester Airport is just a ghastly place especially if you are flying from terminal one. Terminal One is dirty, with miserable staff, it's awful."
Peter says he does not understand who schedules so many flights at the same time. He says: "There were three Ryanair flights travelling within ten minutes of each other. Suddenly they get 1,000 people and can't cope with them. Where are all the suits when there are a 1,000 people at passport control - I don't see them rolling their sleeves up."
"People come to the airport from all over, from long distances - they are tired when they arrive and his is how we welcome them - 'Welcome to our country'. They are a business and like any other business, if you don't look after your customers they are going to be in trouble and people will start looking for other airports to travel from. I could write a list of Manchester Airport’s inadequacies and will always avoid it if I can."
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport says: “Before we introduced a charge for forecourt drop-off in 2018, some vehicles were circling the site as many as five times in peak periods before being able to drop passengers off. The growth in passenger numbers, coupled with extra security restrictions on forecourt access, led to chronic traffic congestion on our site and we had to take action to tackle this.
“For similar reasons, the great majority of UK airports also now charge for forecourt access and the charges we have introduced are comparable with our competitors.
“We are one of the few UK airports to still offer a free drop-off option, with a five-minute bus transfer from the free drop-off area to the terminal entrance. This approach has significantly reduced congestion on site and ensured more reliable access to the airport for passengers.
“Keeping time limits in place ensures traffic can flow and that is why a £25 penalty is payable for exceeding the 10-minute maximum drop off stay. It is also why we ask customers to use the designated short-stay car parks when they are collecting arriving passengers, rather than using drop-off areas, which are not intended for this purpose.
“Our terminal buildings are regularly cleaned, and we are investing in improvements to the facilities across our site as part of our £1bn transformation programme. Our colleagues have worked exceptionally hard throughout our period of recovery, doing their best to get passengers on their way in unprecedented and sometimes challenging circumstances.
"We take all feedback seriously and are sorry to hear the views of the passenger concerned about our colleagues. We have received a huge amount of positive feedback from customers regarding our colleagues in the operation, we are proud of their dedication and grateful to them for their hard work and dedication.”
A spokesperson for Air Canada said: "The flight was delayed unfortunately because the aircraft inbound from Canada had been delayed." Ryanair and Air Transat were approached for comment.
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