Manchester T1 Falling Apart

[Vampy]

Flew into Manch T1 earlier today. When we landed was bit cloudy but as we were taxiing in the heavens opened and a deluge of water fell from the sky for about 15mins. After disembarking and walking along the corridors, you couldnt help but notice the water cascading through various parts of the ceiling. Not only that, but the path to baggage reclaim takes you past a window where you can see everyone in duty free. The duty free was flooded, with the poor people working there scurrying around like drowned rats trying to get all their perfumes, cigarettes etc out of floods way! Whats going on with the airport these days?!? If they're not trying to drown passengers, they're trying to bake them alive in the skyways as passengers walk through them (because the moving walkways never work!!) because they're too stingy to turn the air conditioning on!! Any comments? :confused: :mad: :E

[Thomas_Cook_757-300]

Hi,
If BAA bought Manchester out, it would go from being the UKs best airport into a shed! Sounds like a comment about MAN coming from someone who rarely visits! In recent months a Transport Interchange has been completed, they are overhauling all the walk ways and lifts, they have refurbished T1 and T2 and also added a FREE short stay car parks! For the record, the air conditioning is always switched on in the sky link apart from when work is being carried out and it can't be turned on.

Thanks
Thomas_Cook_757-300

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

BAA= bl***y awful airports
I suppose they could always transfer the funds over to pay for Stansted

Golf India Bravo

[spud]

40+ minutes on sunday from blocks to first bag appearing on the carousel in T1. It wasn't a busy period, we were the only flight waiting in reclaim for most of that time.
Does anyone care anymore?

[DW11]

Hand it over to Aer Rianta. They'll shut down T1 and combine all operations in T2. They'll also dig up half the stands and the second runway, but the bar and shopping facilities will be excellent (all be it, a complete rip off).

[eal401]

FREE short stay car parks
Really? Where? Will be useful info for me in a few weeks time.

[Tom the Tenor]

Nice one, DW11, but you forgot the bit about the ILS being decommissioned at the busiest time of the year for months on end! The bars and car parks would be buzzing though from the chink, chink from all the easy money. No need for aeroplanes at all!

[sacktheboard]

Free short stay car park?


It's true

you can park free for the first 10 mins, then you get stung.

[eal401]

you can park free for the first 10 mins
Oh. That's useful!! A whole ten minutes!!

[eal401]

Does anyone care anymore?
Can do better than that, arrived at T2 on Sunday morning and were parked at a stand just away from the building. Unfortunately the ground handlers didn't bother to bring any steps with them, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for something that should already have been there! Then it took them three goes to line the steps up with the door!

[20-17]

Well, it didn't take long for the know it all's to start to blame the handlers at MAN.

This thread is about the airport infastructure and bulding conditions, what has that got to do with the handlers.

And where is the thanks for the baggage lads in the sortation hall who minimise baggage disruption when the 'state of the art' system fails. They bust a gut 2 - 3 times a week to try and get all bags on the aircraft. Yes, its busy at times, like it is with the aircraft which are beginning to take more and more Tech delays, but where are the threads noting this??

Would do some of you special guys good to work in sortation halls, holds of aircraft, check in halls and security at times, and only then would you be in a position to place a responce worth reading.

Getting back to the main point, 'B' pier is looking at bit tired, but after all the rain was very heavy at this time and even heavier at approx 1800L.
There is one way of looking at the bad WX, can't be bad for business!!!

[Scottie Dog]

20-17

At last a post that seems to have some sense of rational to it!

Vuelo

I would not hold your breath for too long with regards to work starting on Pier B this winter!

************************************************************ ***************
Certainly the rain that we had on Monday evening was more than could be expected under normal circumstances, and I do not think that one can necessarily lay so much blame on the airport for the end result. Remember that Pier B and the whole of the departures, and most of the arrivals area of Terminal 1 dates back to 1962 when the building was initially constructed. Modernisation work has taken place, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be undertaken.

As I understand it, there are all sorts of rumours as to the next development that will take place at the airport. I think that all of the airport's employees - from ramp staff to operational managers - are probably of the same opinion, work needs to be done. The question has to be asked as to when the airport’s directors will decide that both remedial repairs and expansion plans must take place if Manchester is remain attractive to airlines and passengers.

Never has Manchester seen so much competition from neighbouring airports. The whole industry has changed over the last 10 years, Liverpool has enjoyed a long overdue growth spurt and now there is also Leeds and Doncaster.

I think I am correct in saying that there is a meeting next month of the board when plans will be discussed. Hopefully, as the Airport Group has just announced a 48pc increase in operating profits - no need for comments about Fat Cats, as I am trying to keep this thread on an even and non-antagonistical keel - the directors will now consider that the time has come to invest in one of their main assets, the facilities themselves.

We all have our wish lists for developments, and they have been aired in many earlier threads. However the one wish that we can hopefully agree on, is that some of the plans of those working at the airport on a day to day basis are listened to and brought to fruition.

Scottie Dog

[Vampy]

Not being funny, but what difference does it make if you experience more rain than usual? My house was built in the 1890s and not a single drop of rainwater seeped through the walls or the roof on Monday night. Point is, Manchester (and don't get me wrong I'm as proud a Mancunian as the next person!) should be up there as one of the best airports, certainly in Europe. Its the biggest, busiest airport north of Heathrow, with direct links to North America, the Far East and the Middle East. Essentially it's an important international airport and yet when it rains, (and lets face it rain is what most people associate with Manchester anyway!:D ) the terminals leak, AC can't be switched on when work is in progress (why exactly?!?:confused: ), and fundamental things like getting passengers off the aeroplane in a decent time and reuniting them with their luggage can't even be achieved!

[eal401]

20-17, the first person I heard to blame the handlers (and I know the example was off tangent but it all forms part of the overall product) was that "know-it-all" sat in the front of the aircraft over the PA to the 120 of us pax down the back. So if you are aggreived at being slagged off take it up with KLM.

Oh and I was complaining about the time taken for steps to arrive and the incompetence displayed driving them up to the a/c, don't see the relevance of you whiffling on about baggage.

[Scottie Dog]

eal401

As you arrived on KLM I presume you were on either a Fokker 100 or a 737 both of which normally have intregal steps.

I am not blaming the flightcrew or even the despatchers at Schiphol, but there is a possibility that the Manchester ground staff had not been pre-warned that the aircraft's own steps were u/s, especially if the aircraft had not been initially planned for a remote stand.

Scottie Dog

[eal401]

Scottie, it was a 737-400. Possibly didn't have the stairs fitted, as I understand it they are not standard on all aircraft, including F-100?