'We don't have the staff for the level of service passengers deserve' - Manchester Airport boss writes apology letter

The chief executive of Manchester Airports Group has written an open apology to passengers, warning that peak-time queues of up to 90 minutes are likely to continue until the summer in a frank admission that there is no short-term fix for the staffing crisis.

Mr Cornish says that passengers should continue to turn up to the airport three hours early, while their short-term inability to staff all security lanes will mean longer queues over the ‘next few months’, with some passengers expected to wait ‘between 60 and 90 minutes’ at peaks times as the hub recovers from the ravages of the pandemic.

“I cannot apologise enough for the disruption people have faced,” he writes in a letter published on Manchester Airport's website.

“The simple fact is that we don’t currently have the number of staff we need to provide the level of service that our passengers deserve,” he admits, adding later: “I also want to be clear that a huge amount of work is going into improving the situation in the short-term. Our focus for the next four weeks is on delivering a more predictable and reliable level of service for passengers.”

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The astonishing statement from chief executive Charlie Cornish comes as passengers continue to experience disruption, delays, staggeringly long queues and missed flights amid a staffing shortage which has led to unprecedented intervention from major shareholder Manchester City Council, and Mayor Andy Burnham and coincided with the resignation of the hub's managing director.

Mr Cornish promises to deploy more staff to help manage queues, with real time information to be published online and in terminals