Indeed. Haven't heard much about the airport shambles from the slippery Manchester mayor. Any problems with the local privately operated trains or buses and he's usually cranking up his publicity machine to claim all the problems would go away if brought back under public operation/control

MAG are not under public operation/control either. Ownership, yes, control, no.

You weren’t paying attention when the issues with the security queues were at their peak. Plenty of local press coverage, plus a statement on the mayoral website: Burnham statement on airport problems

The issues with security (which the airport had control over) seem to have quietened down in recent days, with the problems now centred round airlines and their handling agents. Not sure what realistically the airport can do about those, apart from give airline management an earful. Kicking a handling agent off site for poor performance would cause even more problems as a new agent, or another incumbent would need to recruit large numbers of staff at zero notice, leading to more chaos. Kicking an airline out may not even be legal - even if it was has anyone thought through the results of doing it to the 2 airlines that currently seem to have the most issues (TUI and Easyjet). Any other ideas? The obvious one is that all airlines add a £10 surcharge to all tickets with immediate effect so they can pay staff better, and afford increased airport usage charges, which would fix the recruitment problems for airline, agent and airport, but I suspect would go down on here like a bucket of cold sick!

The bus situation in Greater Manchester is a shambles, and I cannot see how it could possibly be any worse under his proposed franchising model. More local control and influence over trains in the region would also likely be a plus. The airport is a completely different beast - and is also less relevant (which is not to say that it is not important) to the daily lives of most people.

It's a bit disingenuous for the airport to blame the handling agents, I've seen first hand the car crash is the baggage system, it simply can not cope with the volume of bags. True, there is a staffing shortage but the reality is this all still stems back to MAG and a woeful underinvestment in the baggage system. They have focused on security as that is visible to the passengers, and more importantly to the media, but the reality is tens of thousands of passengers recently have arrived with no baggage because it's still at the baggage hall in Manchester.

This is not a handling agent issue and this is MAN shirking responsibility and trying to spin the attention away from themselves.

Have BACF finished on the LCY route?

Here’s how it went. Arrived at T1 ground floor check in/bag drop at 03.45 am for a 07.30 flight. All fairly calm but a lot of queuing and shuffling until we cleared security at 05.30. Queued for 20 minutes to get into the Eatery for breakfast which we finished at 06.45 just in time to walk to the gate. Slight delay in boarding so departed late +08m which felt like a major victory…
All in all we got through but not an enjoyable start to our break…

A quick question for you. Since you appear to have arrived 3.45 hours before departure was checkin open for your flight or did you have to kick your heels until the normal opening time of checkin 3 hours prior to departure? Just interested.
Thanks in advance.

I can imagine the baggage system may have an impact, but I think it's a bold claim to suggest that it 'all stems back to MAG' and that it 'is not a handling agent issue' when we're seeing similar issues at other airports across the country, and the handling agents themselves acknowledge the staffing issues.

The entire industry is in collapse . Amsterdam and Dublin barely functioning,
The UK big four plus Birmingham all struggling at peaks
UK arrivals and passport holders causing havoc everywhere because of Brexit and ending of freedom of movement; EVERY lovely “blue” passport being stamped in and out -massive queues where prior there were none ( except perhaps when a Russian charter arrived)
Massive COVID lay offs post the ending of furlough, by airlines, handlers, fuellers, indeed MAG and OTHERS.
SOME continued isolation of positive cases.
Some countries in Far East retaining border entry restrictions.
Shed loads of people redeeming vouchers acquired over the last two years and all at the same time. Others in the millions trying to vanquish the effects of almost hibernation being enticed via stupidly low fares by the usual suspects (all in desperate need of cash flow revenues I might add)
Dreadful wages and a home office incapable of carrying out DBS checks for security critical roles within 8 to 10 week's
And you blame a few baggage handlers😠

It was simply a positioning flight sold for a little revenue.

Currently BACF have no sudo charters from Manchester over the weekend so yes it’s suspended .May back in the winter for the ski season.
BACF weekend flights are operating from Edinburgh, and Southampton not sure if they have any from Birmingham at the moment
Quite a programme from Southampton at that !

Blinmy - no queues, where did you go on your jollies?

The comments were about the baggage system.

Who is responsible for what now? In the olden days, handling agents weren't allowed to touch baggage once it was off the check-in belt and it was down to 'the council' until the baggage was on the a/c - although it was yjer responsibility of the handling agent to make sure it was all there and put in the right place.

What's the split now between MAG and the handling agents?

Prior to B UK passports didn’t need stamping . Today if you are in Palma or like me last week in Lisbon the UK arrivals were stretching the none Eu queues !

This is a B benefit 😉

As for the conveyors well in depends on maintenance and I have no doubt indeed I know for a fact it’s contracted !
Now I’ll agree if MAG haven’t issued a PO to the contractors and maintenance is due then there IS a problem sure.

However it’s it’s bodies at the end of the line either too few to load a container or too few to throw on to/off of a cart that’s the handlers issue !

Aircraft in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast City and Southampton at the weekend operating leisure flights. Plus one in Palma serving Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man.

I only recalled those I knew of and was going to add Glasgow; didn’t know nor do I really care of the Palma sub base to be honest .

My post was just confirmatory of the suspension of the weekly Manchester rotation for the current season

Where did I blame 'a few baggage handlers'? The only point I made was that the current TUI problems appear to be primarily as a result of a lack of staff at their handling agent to meet the required demand. I'm not sure how that is in any way controversial, or blaming the people on the ground actually doing the job.

Does anybody know which TUI flights from Manchester are cancelled today? I found a list of easyjet cancellations from LGW but so far have found nothing for TUI. It's supposedly 6 a day and as we're due to fly out next week I'm curious whether the cancellations are coming more from the big early morning peak or spread across later departures as well?

On reflection, I suppose it's possible TUI may have focused on the later flights for cancellation due back at MAN during the night, which would then give extra hours on the ground before the next day's early departures. It would provide flexibility for delays picked up on the morning departures.

I have been through Manchester on at least five occasions this year. On one, I met someone senior in Security monitoring the situation 'on the ground' and I had a brief chat. Effectively he blamed the crisis on the passengers with too many failed bags and that Manchester is the best airport for cabin bag security in the world.

Well, as a colleague says to me "The best is the enemy of the good". Don't be the best, just do your job. The average passenger going through Manchester, especially at holiday time is a tourist. You can profile. A family with Mum, Dad and kids flying anywhere are less likely to be a risk than a sole passenger, especially someone in their late teens to 20s. They do seem to forget that the customer is very happy to spend money in Departures if only they could get there in plenty of time before the flight leaves. Surely they can afford to pay more to the security staff, which they will get back in increased sales in Departures,

Strange way to run a business...

New government and aviation working group to tackle disruption | Travel Weekly

"As well as Airlines UK and the AOA, the meeting was attended by representatives from airports (Bristol, Birmingham, Gatwick, London City, Luton and Newcastle), airlines (British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Loganair, Tui Airways and Virgin Atlantic), aviation bodies (Civil Aviation Authority and International Air Transportation Association) and ground handlers (DHL Ground Handling and Swissport)."

No MAG Airport representation it would appear. Not invited or chose not to attend?

Probably not invited after all Grant has previous with Bristol in particular (financial I might add) and was implicated in the stupid COVID19 award to that airport as an official point of entry from Red listed countries when none were even remotely connected !

Absence of HAL and MAG Groups says all you need to know about this “working Group” through at least relevant airlines were apparently present .

The AOA are a steering body mainly for the smaller airports and indeed some that have no regular services at all - Its a membership organisation with far to close ties to the government.
Members include those well respected holiday hub airports Farnborough, Biggin Hill, Fairoaks , and even Coventry
Through coincidentally they do donate to the Conservative and Unionists Party . Baroness McGregor- Smith of Mitie FM fame is head and somewhat partisan with other government roles.

I am less than convinced this will achieve anything to be honest other than a few meals and further expense claims sent to the treasury