Should you avoid Manchester airport?

This could be anecdotal if Manchester was not the UK's largest regional airport. In 2019, before the Covid pandemic, Manchester welcomed 29.37 million passengers. Twice as many as NiceFrance's leading regional airport. The airport offers flights to around a hundred destinations, including twenty intercontinental destinations.

During Covid, Manchester has closed one of its three terminals in the face of falling traffic levels. In 2020, the airport welcomed 7.03 million passengers. Last year, with 6.08 million passengers, the airport had returned to its traffic levels of the mid-1980s. The collapse in traffic meant that some staff were made redundant.

And that's where the problem lies. The airport did not anticipate the return of traffic and did not rehire staff. At the beginning of January, Charlie Cornish, CEO of Manchester Airports Group Ltd (MAG), announced at the time of the 2021 traffic results that he expected a strong recovery in 2022. In fact, in JanuaryManchester's passenger traffic was back to its 2019 level of 60%, i.e. an increase of 484%. The upturn continued in February, with traffic up 1330% on 2021. For the first time in two years, Manchester passed the one million passenger mark in a single month..

Lack of foresight?

It is therefore surprising that the airport claims to have been taken by surprise. Management acknowledges that it is facing difficulties in recruiting. Interviewed by the BBC, an airport spokesman said: " Our entire sector is currently facing a number of challenges. staff shortages and recruitment difficulties, after two of the most damaging years in its history. The removal of all travel restrictions after two years, coupled with the start of the summer season, has led to a rapid increase in passenger numbers, putting enormous pressure on our operations. "

Airport management told the BBC that it was beginning to integrate 400 new agents from April. The airport also states that it has set up a " six-point plan to be published shortly" . However, a Manchester city councillor indicated that he was unlikely to be fully resolved before the summer and that " to be perfectly honest, we're going to have delays and queues at Easter" . The situation was such that Karen Smart, the airport manager, resigned on 5 April.

The hub has also just reopened Terminal 3. But for the moment, it is only handling arriving passengers. Apparently due to a lack of staff...

Only solution: avoid flying to Manchester. There are alternatives. L'Birmingham airport has numerous international flights and is less than two hours by train and car from Manchester. L'Liverpool airport is the closest to Manchester at 60 km. Manchester can be reached in an hour by car or an hour and a half by train.

Departing from Manchester, Air France and Easyjet serve 5 times a day Paris CDG. There are also numerous flights to Marseille (Ryanair) and Nice (Easyjet). Brussels benefits from two daily flights from Brussels Airlines, while Ryanair offers two daily flights to Brussels-Charleroi. Easyjet serves Geneva up to twice a day.