Well, I flew into Manchester for the first time in several years yesterday and the arrivals process was pretty smooth. I was on the EK17 flight, which had around 400 pax. I was seated in row 88 at the very back of the bus, so was among the last off. It took about 20 minutes of queuing to clear the border, then a 5 minute wait for my bag. So all good from that perspective.
What wasn't good was the state of the infrastructure in T1. We all know that Pier B is well past its due-by date, but the most noticeable thing about it for me was the thick layers of dust and grime in the venting grids along the whole length of the pier. The rest of T1 was dark, depressing and shabby. The toilets at the baggage claim were dirty, with no soap in the dispensers and broken locks on the doors. These things are so simple to fix, yet their neglect leaves a very negative impression in the minds of passengers. Send out a bloke with a screwdriver to mend the locks, get the cleaners to clean the sinks and fill the soap dispensers, and get a cleaning crew to get rid of the dust and dirt in pier B. It really isn't rocket science.
Tomorrow I'm departing T1 on the lunchtime SAS flight to Oslo. Will be interesting to see how that goes.