Manchester Airport named Europe’s third most stressful for passengers

Manchester has been named the third most stressful airport for passengers throughout the whole of Europe.

Last week the airport’s managing director, Karen Smart, stepped down following uproar over long queues facing passengers, some of whom missed flights because of hours-long delays in navigating departure and arrival security checks.

The Digital PR hub at Dublin-based Legacy Communication analysed Europe’s busiest airports, combing through more than 10,000 passenger reviews, 2,500 tweets, and hours of flight data.

Its analysis was based on the annual number of passengers, rate of delays, social media sentiment, and passenger reviews.

London’s Heathrow landed in the top spot, followed by Dublin and Manchester.

However, both Dublin and Manchester, despite their high rankings in the stress league, have significantly fewer passengers compared with Heathrow.

Manchester Airport also ranked a disappointing 24th place in passenger satisfaction reviews for WiFi, check-in, security, and more with a score of just 68%.

Claire O’Grady, of the Digital PR Hub @ Legacy Communications, said: “Our data and Digital PR team spent the last week pulling this data together to reveal that Heathrow Airport was currently Europe’s most stressful airport, followed by Dublin Airport, Manchester, Madrid, Frankfurt, and Charles de Gaulle.

“The fact that Dublin and Manchester Airport were so close to Heathrow in the rankings, in spite of having significantly fewer annual passengers, was a very interesting pattern within the data – especially given that the other airports listed in the top 10 also had significantly higher passenger numbers.”

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “We’ve seen a huge increase in passenger demand at Manchester Airport since travel restrictions eased in February.

“Resource levels are stretched while we meet this surge in travellers, but passengers can be assured we are working tirelessly, along with our airlines and other partners, to get people on their way as safely and quickly as possible.

“At times queues will be inevitable and we urge passengers to arrive at the airport three hours before their flight and ensure they are ready for security.”

He added: “We are recovering from the biggest crisis our industry has ever faced, but as we emerge from the pandemic we will re-establish our position as a key driver of economic value across the region, with world class facilities delivered through our historic £1bn investment.”