Airports have criticised a survey by consumer watchdog Which? that ranked UK hubs after surveying 3,842 members of its online panel.
The travellers were quizzed in June about their airport experiences over the previous year, with ratings based on 11 criteria including queue times at check-in, the standard of facilities such as seating and toilets, staff, the range of shops and airport WiFi.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport came out top in the annual survey with a score of 82% but Manchester was deemed the worst, according to Which?.
The survey put Manchester in the lowest two spots with a customer score of 38% for Terminal 3 and 44% for Terminal 1. Terminal 2 was in the bottom five with a score of 50%.
However, a Manchester airport spokesperson said: “We take all customer feedback seriously, but the Which? survey creates a deeply flawed and misleading picture of the service we are providing to our customers this summer.
“The survey is out of date – covering June 2022-June 2023 and not including the majority of this summer season – and is also based on a tiny and unrepresentative sample of the 25 million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.
“Year-by-year the Which? survey becomes less and less relevant as response rates continue to dwindle, with half as many people surveyed this year as were 12 months ago.
“There were only 567 responses relating to Manchester Airport – 0.002% of our annual passenger numbers.”
The airport highlighted how it has recruited more than 3,000 staff members since April 2022 and established a new 100-strong resilience team.
“As part of our commitment to delivering great customer service, we continually survey passengers. In July and August this year, 93% of those passengers rated their overall satisfaction with the service they received as good, very good or excellent,” added the spokesperson.
“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.”
A spokesperson for Birmingham airport said: “The average security wait time for customers at BHX between June 2022 and June 2023 was nine minutes. This fact highlights the potential flaws of relying on anecdotal estimates rather than data.”
A spokesperson for Leeds Bradford Airport also disputed the findings, saying: “We welcome all feedback, as we use it to improve our services moving forwards, especially as we look to modernise our existing terminal. However, we do not recognise these survey results as our own electronic queue management system confirms that the average queue time at LBA was 10 minutes during the period June 2022 to June 2023.”
Heathrow said it is “consistently seeing almost all passengers through security in less than five minutes” while Gatwick said that, on average, 90% of passengers have been getting through security in under 10 minutes.
The second-placed airport is London City airport with a score of 78%. Completing the top five are Southampton (77%) and Bournemouth (75%), with East Midlands and Newcastle tied on 72%.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel said: “Choosing the right airport isn’t often high on travellers’ holiday checklists, but taking the time to think about where you’re flying from can really pay dividends.
“We’d recommend opting for a smaller airport, as our survey shows they generally tend to perform better on queue times and customer service, giving holidaymakers the positive start to their holidays they should expect.”