Friday was no different in T1 (50 minutes fast track) heaven knows how long for non fast track, as that queue was 30 minutes just to get to get to the scanning machine entrance. The only thing in the shops were tumble weed, virtually all were empty despite thousands of pax passing by, no time for anything. If you bought a lounge visit then hard luck as that is non refundable.
My quick trip to DUS showed a stark contrast. This airport handles similar numbers to MAN. Huge landside areas, with nice cafes for that last minute meeting, before going to security. Peak time wait for that was 10 minutes. Not to mention the skylink monorail from the terminals to multi storey car parks and train station. No drop off fees of course either.
Arrival back to MAN, only 40ish people had checked bags out of the 180 pax, but these were not delivered for one hour after arrival once the aircraft had departed already back to DUS.
Yes, as the MAN spokesman said " sorry for the delay, but it is busy"
Streuth, it's T3 next week for me and I'm not expecting any difference from T1 this week.
I'm already using trains instead of MAN for Domestics and I think where possible, LPL has now got to be in the running.