Passengers at Manchester airport least happy with screening

PASSENGERS at Manchester Airport are the unhappiest in the country with the security screening process, according to a new survey.

Six per cent of people travelling through the airport - or roughly one passenger in 17 - said they were dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with screening.

The survey found this was a lower satisfaction level than with any other major airport in the country. Stansted had a score of 5pc, while Heathrow and Luton both had 3pc.

Gatwick had the lowest proportion of passengers who were ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied,’ at 2pc. Manchester Airport has responded by reminding passengers of the £1bn improvement programme currently underway.

The figures come from the government’s annual passenger survey, which questioned 5,053 people about their experiences at Manchester Airport in 2016/17.

A total of 78 per cent said they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with security screening, while the remaining 16 per cent said it was ‘okay.’

The proportion of people saying they were not happy in Manchester has risen sharply – it stood at between 2pc and 4pc between 2008 and 2015. Some 10pc of passengers identified queuing times as the worst aspect of the security process, while 6pc said it was ‘general organisation,’ 5pc the attitude of staff, and 4pc said the screening itself was too slow.

Average perceived queuing time at security in 2017 was above 10 minutes for the second consecutive year, reaching a new high of 11.4 minutes since the survey started in 2009.

Nationally, the average time passengers reported that they spent queuing for security screening was 7.4 minutes, ranging from 3.6 minutes at Gatwick to 11.9 at Stansted. This is slightly higher than in the two preceding years. The majority - 62pc - of passengers surveyed said they queued for five minutes or less, while 18pc queued for more than 10 minutes. ●●Security screening queues (inset) at Manchester Airport where, a survey says, passengers are the unhappiest in the country at the process

The majority of respondents surveyed in 2017 at the five major airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Manchester) 84pc - said they were either very satisfied or satisfied with their experience of security screening, with 52pc saying they were very satisfied.

More passengers were very satisfied at Gatwick compared with other airports.

The proportion of passengers who were very satisfied or satisfied ranged from 77pc at Stansted to 91pc at Gatwick.

In 2017, the five airports surveyed accounted for 193m passengers, more than two thirds of the 285m passengers at all UK airports. A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “While it is pleasing that almost 80pc of passengers are satisfied with the security process, we are committed to delivering the best possible experience while maintaining our focus of keeping passengers safe and secure at all times.

“This is one of the key reasons behind our £1bn transformation programme, which will start to deliver benefits to passengers by the end of the next year. The enlarged terminal delivered through the project will include new security halls, designed to make the process as smooth and stress-free as possible.”