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Since March, Manchester Airport It’s often in the news due to excessive queues and general confusion due to mismanagement and staff shortages at the airport itself and airlines.
No one takes responsibility for these problems; airlines blame airports and governments, airports blame governments, and many politicians blame airports and airlines.
Getting new hires in has proven difficult, and many have come to realize that low wages and irregular non-social hours aren’t all that appealing. Those who do apply have to wait several months for their security clearance, and often find work elsewhere in the meantime.
This appears to be an issue that will take months longer than these companies suggest.
The problem got worse as summer approached, with a combination of half term and an extended Jubilee bank holiday bringing things to a boil.
media alarmist
I admit that I probably contributed to the panic. I originally wrote my Manchester Airport queue times post due to my anxiety about flying from Manchester to Porto.
With all the negative press, I had hoped I could be sure of the possibility that the airport would be too busy when I got there. Unfortunately, nothing I’ve done has provided much groundbreaking insight into the best way to understand how busy it has been or will be.
However, the media is adding fuel to the fire, and when you’re panicking about your flight, you should at least take that into account. I went through security in 5 minutes at the beginning of May and my partner took off from T3 in Manchester at noon yesterday and said check-in and security is a maximum of 80 minutes.
The terminal itself is very busy.
Half term and jubilee flights cancelled
The biggest worry in recent days has been the large number of flight cancellations. TUI was especially bad for it, not only canceling a lot of flights, but giving it a short notice.
TUI has announced that it will cancel six flights a day through the end of June.
EasyJet has cancelled more than 200 flights in the coming weeks, including a large number at Gatwick. In the 10 days as of June 6, 240 flights were canceled voluntarily to warn passengers.
On Wednesday, the question was the biggest Gatwick Airportinstead of check-in and security.
It was supposed to be the busiest week since the pandemic, but airlines are reported to have shed 30,000 employees, not counting those employed at airports.
If your flight is cancelled at the last minute, you will get an alternative or a full refund. Also, if it is less than 14 days before departure, you may be subject to additional compensation.
The minimum compensation for the flight is £125 if it is a short haul flight you have rebooked and the new flight lands two hours later than your original landing time. Compensation up to £600 for long-haul flights with longer delays.
Manned baggage check
If your flight isn’t canceled, the biggest problem seems to be the airline’s limited bag-checking staff. Since this usually opens 3 hours before the flight, it can mean that some travelers have to wait in line for more than an hour to check in and then have to go through security, causing them to miss their flight.
Many travelers didn’t see sympathy from airlines or staff, and people reported being told they should have gotten there earlier, even though that wasn’t possible.
No compensation and possible rebooking fees
If you miss a flight because of a queue, it’s usually classified as your fault (or at least the airport’s fault, not the airline’s). Airlines there are not responsible for compensation or refunds.
You will have the right to rebook your flight if you can prove that you arrived at the airport at least two hours before your scheduled departure time. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic reportedly offer the service free of charge. Affordable airlines like EasyJet and Ryanair will charge a fee. In the case of Ryanair, that’s £100 per person.
This also assumes that you can find a flight with available seats on the day you want to fly out.
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK, but there are not many reports of queue problems.
A spokesman for London’s Heathrow Airport said there were queues but there was a lot of traffic at the airport.
Google Live and Hot Times – not bad at Heathrow
I originally wrote about airport queue times because I thought it would be possible to use google real-time data and its historical popularity times to predict how bad it would be.
Unfortunately, this isn’t all that useful, as the historical data doesn’t correlate well with the current problem. Real-time data will usually just tell you that it’s busier than usual, which is already obvious.
In the case of Heathrow, however, as I write this, real-time data seems to suggest it’s not too busy. Although historical trends suggest that peak business is not reached until 7am.
In contrast, Birmingham And Manchester Airport, which is reportedly busier than usual.
Twitter doesn’t report long lines
Although I’ve grown to hate social media in recent years, you can still rely on it to get real-time information from angry customers.
Currently, if you search for Heathrow Airport, then filter by latest tweets Not many angry Twitter users.
No one seemed to complain about the check-in or security queues. However, there have been some angry tweets about the airport not unloading luggage from incoming planes.
Some travellers have also reported a large queue through customs when you return to Heathrow.
Estimated security wait times at Gatwick Airport
One of the few things Manchester Airport has done right recently is implementing a basic system of reporting estimated safe waiting times.
At 5am Manchester transplanted a 60-minute safe queue time for all terminals, the busiest I’ve ever seen, but Google real-time data only shows it’s more business than normal.
Sadly, it appears that no other airport, including Heathrow, has implemented the system.
General advice
My best advice for Jubilee Week is to assume the absolute worst.
As far as Heathrow is concerned, the biggest problem at the moment seems to be flight cancellations, and there’s not much you can do about it.
It looks like the airline is severely understaffed, so I’ll try to avoid checked bags. We paid for checked bags to Porto, then decided to use hand luggage and accepted that we wasted money paying for checked bags.
Twitter is your best bet for real-time reporting. News sites (my own included) are always behind the actual traveler’s experience.
