UK's worst airport slammed as 'joke' by livid passengers in new rankings
Liverpool John Lennon Airport has been named the UK’s best airport while Manchester Airport - just 30 miles down the road - has been named the worst.
A survey of almost 4,000 people by Which? saw the Merseyside travel hub come out on top. Customers praised their experience at the airport as “first class” and gave it five stars for check-in and security queues, praising the airport for providing them with an uncommonly hassle-free experience.
It also scored four stars for staff, with multiple passengers praising them as both “friendly” and “helpful", as well as a four-star score for baggage reclaim and queues at bag drop and passport control. One traveller said it was a “well run, efficient airport”, while another lauded it as their “preferred” airport.
The results were compiled by Which?, a consumer magazine that surveyed almost 4,000 people about their experiences at airports in the last twelve months and invited them to rate the airports across eleven categories, including seating, staff, toilets and queues at check in, bag drop, passport control and security.
Manchester Airport did not do well in the survey (Ioannis Alexopoulos/LNP)A customer score was calculated based on a combination of overall satisfaction and likeliness to recommend. The consumer champion also asked travellers to report how long they spent queueing at security.
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At the other end of the spectrum, Manchester Airport had the unwelcome distinction of taking the lowest two spots in the rankings, with a customer score of just 38 per cent for Terminal 3 and 44 per cent for Terminal 1. Manchester’s Terminal 2 fared marginally better, but still found itself in the bottom five with a score of 50 per cent.
Terminal 3 came in for a bashing, with one traveller complaining of “huge queues” at check-in, branding the situation a “joke”, while others dubbed the airport experience “crowded, noisy, generally stressful” and “dispiriting from start to finish”.
The UK's biggest airport terminals were ranked by thousands of customers (Getty Images)The airport was among the worst performing in the survey for security queues, with an average wait time of 28 minutes reported at Terminal 3, 26 minutes at Terminal 2 and 25 minutes at Terminal 1. Only Birmingham Airport performed worse, with an average reported wait time of 29 minutes.
Also in the bottom five are London Luton and Belfast International, both tied on a score of 49 per cent.
The worst-rated London airport in the survey, Luton received a dismal rating of just one star for queues at check-in and bag drop and received just two stars in the majority of remaining categories, with more than one customer asserting they’d “never fly from Luton again”. Its highest score of three stars was for the range of shops on offer, though one customer complained they had “no time to go near the shops because of all the queues.”
Belfast International meanwhile scored just two stars for seating, staff, range of shops and toilets, and scored three stars for queues through security, which respondents reported lasting 21 minutes on average. One passenger commented that at “every level service or quality is poor”.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “Choosing the right airport isn’t often high on travellers’ holiday checklists, but taking the time to think about where you’re flying from can really pay dividends. We’d recommend opting for a smaller airport, as our survey shows they generally tend to perform better on queue times and customer service, giving holidaymakers the positive start to their holidays they should expect.”
Liverpool John Lennon Airport came out on top (Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)UK airports ranked (customer scores)
- Liverpool John Lennon: 82%
- London City: 78%
- Southampton: 77%
- Bournemouth: 76%
- East Midlands: 72%
- Glasgow International: 62%
- Leeds Bradford: 58%
- London Gatwick North: 57%
- London Heathrow Terminal 4: 57%
- London Heathrow Terminal 5: 57%
- Bristol: 56%
- Aberdeen: 55%
- Edinburgh: 55%
- London Gatwick South: 54%
- London Heathrow Terminal 2: 54%
- London Heathrow Terminal 3: 54%
- Birmingham Airport: 53%
- Manchester Terminal 2: 50%
- Belfast International: 49%
- London Luton Airport: 49%
- Manchester Terminal 1: 44%
- Manchester Terminal 3: 38%
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport noted that it had recruited more than 3,000 colleagues since April 2022 and established a "new 100-strong resilience team trained in a variety of roles so they can respond at short-notice to ensure passengers get a good level of service".
They said that £1.3billion had been invested in Terminal 2 and that more than 80% of passengers would fly from it by 2025. "The Which? survey creates a deeply flawed and misleading picture. Not only is the Which? survey out of date, it is also based on a tiny and unrepresentative sample of the 25 million passengers who travel through Manchester airport every year," the spokesperson said.
"We surveyed 840 passengers in July and August this year, and 94% rated their overall satisfaction with the service they received as either good, very good or excellent. Since April this year, we have welcomed more than 10.4m people through Manchester Airport and 95.6% of them have got through security in under 15 minutes. Almost three quarters got through security in under five minutes and 99.8% in under 30 minutes.”
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Luton Airport said the average queue time for security between June 2022 and June 2023 was 9 minutes, while a spokesperson for Belfast International said that between June 2022 and June 2023 95% of passengers passed through security in under 15 mins. A spokesperson added: "“Which? surveyed just 183 people out of the 15 million who had used London Luton Airport in a 12-month period. Whilst all feedback is important to us, we do not believe the findings accurately represent the views of the majority of our passengers."
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