Manchester Airport apologises to passengers for huge queues and delays

Manchester Airport have apologised after passengers complained of 'huge queues' stretching back to the car park.

Frustrated travellers have shared pictures which show lengthy queues snaking out of the main doors at Terminal One.

Several people have also reported flights being delayed due to the long waiting times at security.

Sharing an image of the queues, Andy Mitten, from the United We Stand fanzine, tweeted: "Huge queues once again at @manairport. "This is for security at T1. It snakes for 200 metres outside the terminal."

Paul Keegan said it took him two hours to get through security, despite having paid for 'fast-track'.

He tweeted: "Surely Manchester airport is one of the most chaotic in the world. This place is never enjoyable."

Issuing an apology to passengers, the airport put the queues down to a 'combination of factors', including an unexpected number of passengers and a high amount of bags being rejected at security.

They said the longer waiting times were expected to continue and advised people to arrive as early as possible for flights.

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “At times today, security queues in Terminal One have been significantly longer than we would like due to a combination of factors.

"With the rapid recovery of international travel, it has been much more difficult to predict passenger volumes based on the flights that are due to depart.

"Today, we saw more people than we were expecting, which put a considerable strain on our operation.

"This was compounded by up to 60% of customer bags being rejected as they passed through security because they contained restricted items – a much higher rate than we typically experience.

“Our colleagues have worked tirelessly to process passengers as quickly as they can and we would like to thank them for their dedication throughout the day.

"We have deployed staff from other parts of the operation to assist in security and, wherever possible, we have prioritised customers within the queue in order to ensure they make their flights.

“We would like to apologise to those impacted by today’s challenges and assure them we are doing all we can to rectify the situation.

“It is likely waiting times will continue to be longer than we would like for the remainder of this evening, and would urge anyone due to travel through Manchester Airport to arrive at the earliest time recommended by their airline and to ensure they are as prepared as they can be to pass through security.