Passengers flying from Manchester Airport's Terminal 3 on Tuesday, October 27, missed their flights in the evening due to long waits at airport security. Among those affected were Tony Cooke and his wife Keeley, who say they were trapped in security for around two hours and missed their 9pm flight to Alicante.
The couple, who are from Manchester but live in Alicante, arrived at security at 6.50pm, ahead of their flight to Spain. Despite arriving in plenty of time, they found themselves caught up in lengthy queues at Terminal 3 Security.
Passenger describes 'horrendous' queue
"The queue at security was just horrendous. We were held back at the barriers where you have your ticket scanned, and then once we were through it was just nose to tail," Mr Cooke said. "There seemed to be only one out of the six security lanes working, it looked like a rostering issue to me. We were told that staff had also been sent to Terminal 2 due to an 'incident'."
It is understood some staff from Terminal 3 had been moved across to Terminal 2 earlier in the evening due to a surge in passenger numbers. The airport has said that there wouldn't be a situation where only one security lane was working and that staff later returned to Terminal 3 when a similar surge happened there.
Passengers with earlier flights called forward
Mr Cooke explained that although they had arrived on time for their flight, other passengers who had arrived later for earlier flights were able to skip the queue, making the wait even longer. He said: "While we were in the queue, staff came along and asked passengers if they were departing for earlier flights and they were called forward, this was frustrating as they had arrived late for their flights."
"We were stuck in the queue until 8.50pm with not enough time to get to our gate. It was an absolute shambles and we had missed our flight. When we eventually arrived at our gate we were told we would have to re-enter the UK at gate 50, and head to the Ryanair ticket desk in Terminal 1."
Airport and Ryanair respond
A Manchester Airport spokesperson said: "Due to a combination of factors including staff absence and unexpected passenger arrival patterns - including passengers arriving less than two hours before their flights - we experienced longer-than-normal queues at security in Terminal 3 yesterday evening and are aware that a small number of passengers missed their flights as a result. We apologise for any inconvenience and are in touch with affected passengers."
Ryanair said the security delays were caused by airport staff shortages and were outside of the airline's control. It added that a 'small number' of passengers did not reach the boarding gate in time for the FR9073 from Manchester to Alicante as a result of these delays and that reports that "around 100 passengers" missed Ryanair flights are incorrect. Ryanair explained a flight cannot be held for passengers who have not reached the boarding gate on time, and that when boarding is closed, a legal report of the manifest is signed and sent to the captain, therefore boarding cannot be re-opened.
