Manchester Airport boss says huge queues at security have been fixed ahead of busiest weekend of the year

Some 400,000 travellers will fly in and out of Manchester Airport this bank holiday weekend - and those dreaded queues at security have been 'fixed'.

That was the conclusion of Manchester Airport manging director Chris Woodroofe, who was installed last year following the departure of Karen Smart, who quit following a backlash over long passenger queues last summer, staff shortages and calls from city leaders for management to 'get a grip'. The crisis was characterised by cancellations, mammoth flight delays and missing luggage as well as long queues.

Today the airport appears to have fixed the problem - its own figures say 96 per cent of passengers are getting through security in less than 15 minutes and some of those in less than five minutes.

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"That's something I really wanted to get on top of in time for this summer and I think we have," said Mr Woodroofe in an interview with the M.E.N.

Today his staff are braced for the busiest weekend of the year, with 400,000 passengers coming through the three terminals between today (Friday) and Bank Holiday Monday.

The equivalent weekend last year saw 360,000 passengers coming through the airport.

It's the beginning of what airport bosses hope is a post-pandemic renaissance at the airport. By the end of March, 2024, it is anticipated that at least 27.5m people will have used the airport in 12 months - not too far short of the pre-pandemic record in 2019 of around 29m passengers.

This year the most popular destinations for people flying out of Manchester are Palma, Dubai, Dublin, Faro, Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga, Barcelona, Belfast and Antalya in Turkey, which is the fastest growing