‘We left at 5am for a 3pm flight’: travellers facing long waits at Manchester airport

theguardian.com:

David and Jasmine Pringle had woken up at 4am to travel to Manchester airport from County Durham after Qatar Airways told them to expect huge delays for their flight to Doha.

“Leaving the house at 5am for a 3pm flight isn’t ideal,” David said. “But it’s been over two years since we last saw Jasmine’s family in the Philippines and we’ve been desperate to make the journey to see her elderly parents. We’ve paid the best part of £3k for the flights. Now we just want to get there.”

“While we’re waiting to hear news of our flight, it’s worrying to see how few people are wearing masks or maintaining a social distance,” he added. “The travel restrictions may have been lifted, but people seem to forget the disease is still very much with us.”

Passengers travelling via Manchester airport are once again having to endure long wait times and uncertainty over their flights – but this time before they have even checked in. Surging passenger numbers, alongside staff sickness and lack of recruitment, have created a standstill at security in recent days.

Just one day after managing director Karen Smart stepped down amid criticism of long security queues and packed terminals, the issue now facing passengers is knowing how much time to allow to get through security – and how much money they should put aside for food, transport and extra Covid tests before they can board the plane.

The airport is implementing measures to get to grips with the chaos it has seen in recent weeks, but many people are now finding that, having been told by airlines to arrive hours in advance for their flight, they are enduring waits of up to eight hours in terminal buildings before they can even be checked in.

Manchester is a major international transport hub, drawing