It’s time the airport sharpened up its act
ON FRIDAY, March 23, I flew into Terminal One at Manchester Airport with Turkish Airlines from Istanbul.
Passengers were disembarking and found themselves crossing a line of passengers starting to board a Thomas Cook flight at an adjacent gate.
A handful of Thomas Cook passengers had already boarded their plane. A glass door closed preventing further passengers leaving the Turkish flight. Boarding of the Thomas Cook flight was halted. Myself and a handful of passengers were stuck in ‘no man’s land’ unable to go anywhere.
There were a number of airport staff present who seemed as though they didn’t know what to do.
Probably 500 passengers between the two flights were left standing around. Passengers from the disembarking flight banged on the glass door as they didn’t know why they had been stopped.
Clearly that shouldn’t have happened but equally bad was the very poor way in which the staff handled it.
It was as though the passengers weren’t customers of the airport but just a commodity who didn’t warrant an explanation.
On arriving in the baggage reclaim the luggage unloaded to a different carousel to the one flagged on the screen. A passenger wanting a trolley had to borrow change to get one and then it refused to accept the coins.
Many of the staff at the airport could do with customer service training.
Manchester Airport is building a new terminal and sees itself in ‘the Big League’ but I’m afraid staff at other major airports can seem much more competent and customer-friendly.
With charging for baggage trolleys and charging for even the shortest parking drop-off, the airport appears to be putting its profits (which are considerable) before its passengers.
Come on Manchester Airport, sharpen up. David Artingstall, via email