The Smart Marty Sky Dispatch
Manchester Airport passengers miss Ryanair flights in ‘horrendous’ security queues
One passenger described the situation as a 'shambles' and claimed they waited two hours to pass through security
A Manchester Airport passenger described long security queues at Terminal 3 on Tuesday evening, which led to him and others missing their flight to Alicante. Tony Cooke and his wife Keeley were at security about 6:50pm for a 9pm departure.
The couple reported that only one of six security lanes appeared to be operating, and staff were reportedly moved to Terminal 2 due to an incident. Manchester Airport said there wasn’t a situation with only one lane remaining and that staff later returned to Terminal 3 during a surge.
Cooke said late-arriving passengers for earlier flights were called forward, extending waits for those with later departures. The pair reached their gate at 8:50pm with insufficient time to board, and were redirected to the Ryanair desk in Terminal 1.
The airport acknowledged longer-than-normal queues at Terminal 3 Security due to a combination of staff absence and unusual arrival patterns, and noted that a small number of passengers missed their flights as a result. Ryanair attributed the delays to airport staff shortages and disputed reports that as many as 100 passengers missed flights, stating a flight cannot be held for late-arriving passengers.