Manchester Airport passenger arrives 13 hours early for flight after month of 'madness'

A father-of-two says he arrived more than 13 hours early for his flight to avoid the queueing ‘madness’ at Manchester Airport.Tim Samunyai, from Coventry in the West Midlands, arrived for his journey to Zimbabwe at around 5:40am for his 6:55pm flight on Sunday, 10 April.

The 56-year-old said he came so early because of the recent reports which caused him to ‘panic’.

Over the past month, passengers have experienced disruption, delays, long queues and missed flights as the airport experiences a staffing shortage.

Chief executive Charlie Cornish warned last week that peak-time queues of up to 90 minutes are likely to continue until the summer - admitting there is no short-term fix.

Mr Samunyai is one of thousands of travellers who has anticipated the delays, and arrived several hours early for his flight.

Despite having to wait a very long time, Mr Samunyai said he was glad he came early and used it as an opportunity to prepare for the journey he described as a ‘spiritual timeout'.Mr Samunyai said: "I was thinking if I come here nice and early then I won’t have to deal with all that madness over there.“I don’t know if I was panicking because of the news just highlighting the negativity or whatever."But there was no differentiation in the reporting, you saw queues for check-ins at TUI, EasyJet or Jet2 and it was choc-a-block."My problem was not realising that, it's a panic if you’re going to Corfu, Greece or Tenerife because everybody wants to go there, and it’s half-term. But if you’re going Africa, then there’s no issue."

A member of staff told Mr Samunyai that he ‘broke the record’ for the person who has arrived earliest for their flight.He bought four books to read, had some sandwiches and pastries and checked in at 3:30pm.Mr Samunyai said: “13 hours is a bit much, fair enough, but I’d rather be early."