A Which? survey ranking the UK’s 24 best and worst airports for 2023 has rated Liverpool John Lennon as the UK’s best airport according to the nearly 4,000 travellers that were asked to rate their airport experiences.
London City sits in second place on the survey, while Southampton Airport ranks third. Meanwhile, Manchester Airport ranks at the bottom with its Terminal 3 with high security wait times, prices in shops, queues at check-in, bag and drop as well all cited as reasons for its low score. It also only scored one star for seating.
Manchester Airport has been quick to respond with a statement saying that the Which? survey makes criticism that it does not believe represent an accurate reflection of the airport’s operations. The airport highlights that the survey’s section on queue times is based on recollections, rather than data, while the airport collects data based on actually tracking people through queues.
A spokesperson for the airport said: “Our customer service is driven by investment in our people – we have 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. It is also driven by investment in our facilities, especially the £1.3 billion transformation of Terminal 2, through which more than 80% of our passengers will fly by 2025.”
Underlining that the Which? survey creates a deeply flawed and misleading picture of the service provided to customers travelling through the northern gateway this summer, the spokesperson added: “The survey is out of date – covering June 2022-June 2023 and not including the majority of this summer season – and is also based on a tiny and unrepresentative sample of the 25 million passengers who travel through Manchester Airport each year.
Additionally, the airport continually surveys its own passengers revealing that 93% of those passengers rated their overall satisfaction with the service they received as good, very good or excellent.
“Since April this year, we have welcomed more than 10.4 million people through Manchester Airport, who have travelled to more than 180 destinations with nearly 50 different airlines – 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,” the spokesperson concluded.
