The best lounge at MAN, for the moment.
I’ve been flying from Manchester since I was a kid, and the Emirates lounge has long been on my list to visit. My last trip to Dubai was just after the pandemic, and Emirates had shut down its lounge network, meaning that its dedicated lounge at MAN was shuttered. This time around, the lounge was well and truly open. Sadly, the T1 lounge won’t be open much longer, as Emirates will soon exit Terminal 1 completely.
A bittersweet lounge visit
With all of the fanfare around Terminal 2, it’s easy to forget that T1 still exists, and equally surprising that Emirates still flies from the ageing terminal. Until the final phase of T2 is completed, it’s the only terminal at Manchester that can host the oversized A380. Emirates uses that aircraft on two or three of its daily flights, so they are tied to T1 until October this year. That’s the planned date for their move.
This is a bittersweet visit because this lounge will disappear soon (replaced by a new dedicated Emirates lounge at Manchester Terminal 2), but it’s tinged with sadness because this will probably be my last flight from T1. I have a lot of history with this terminal. MAN is my home airport and I’ve had flights out of T1 for as long as I can remember, going back to childhood.
Where is the Emirates lounge at Manchester?
The lounge is located on the second floor of the terminal. Once you pass security, you’ll go through an enforced journey through Duty Free. Walking through the bright lights, scents and noises of “World Duty Free” seems to go on forever. It also feels excessive that it’s the only way to get to your plane, but that’s modern airports for you.
Once you’ve escaped, make a left and follow the signs for the premium lounges. Head up the stairs, turn right, and follow the hallway around, past the Aspire lounge and the Escape lounge. It’s around four minutes to get from security to the entrance to the lounge.
The second floor used to host a plethora of lounges, including Manchester’s premium in-house lounge offering, the 1903 Lounge. As the terminal winds down, there are just three left: the Emirates lounge, the third-party Aspire lounge and the self-run Escape lounge.
Who can get into this lounge?
To enter, you have to be flying on an Emirates flight in business class or first class, be a Skywards Gold or Platinum member, or pay for access. The airline is not part of any alliance, so there are no partner airlines that you could leverage to enter.
How much does it cost to pay for access to an Emirates lounge?
Emirates lounge access rates are quoted in US dollars and do not include VAT. For UK lounges, that means an extra 20% on top of the quoted rate. The pricing I quote next is for entry to the Manchester lounge; pricing for the Dubai lounges can be charged at a different rate
- For Emirates Skywards members, the cost to enter the lounge is $125 (approx £93) + VAT.
- For non-Skywards members, the cost is $155 (approx £115) + VAT.
As it’s free to join Skywards, it would make sense to do so before you enter the lounge and save yourself around £20.
When did we visit?
I visited this lounge in August 2025. We were flying to Shanghai via Dubai, with the MAN to DXB leg in First Class, and the second leg in Business Class. Emirates is the only airline to fly from Manchester with a first-class cabin.
We flew out on Friday, just before the August bank holiday. Our flight was at 2:15 pm, and we arrived at the airport at 11:15 am, getting into the lounge at 11:35 am. You can enter this lounge up to four hours before your flight.
The Emirates Lounge at Manchester
Checking into this lounge was speedy and the experience was friendly and warm. Two staff members were at the desk, which is located to the right as you enter the main doors. They checked our boarding passes and pointed us towards the doorway to enter the lounge.
Sometimes the process of entering a lounge can feel a little cold. I remember how negative the entry was at the Qatar First Lounge. Despite that being a stunning lounge, the staff were somewhat joyless. This lounge was the opposite: the staff members were warm and welcoming, they engaged in conversation and were a credit to the airline.
Not only was the entry process great, but the two staff members said goodbye to everyone once the flight was called and passengers departed. Every person working in this lounge was fantastic.
Inside the lounge
This is a long lounge with one wall made entirely of glass that looks out onto the apron. It’s a medium-sized lounge with space for three distinct zones.
As you enter, you’ll see the quiet seating area, which is on the right-hand side of the lounge. Walk to your left and you’ll get to the sit-down food area, which is self-service. Beyond that is another seating area, along with a small nook with more seating. The showers and bathrooms are halfway down the lounge.
The first thing you’ll notice is how bright and open this lounge is. This is not a dingy, dimly lit space. Light floods in from the full-height windows, and the ceiling increases from a generous single height up to a double height. There are smaller windows towards the roofline.
Whilst Emirates is known for its dark woods and gold, and this lounge follows those design cues, the lounge still feels spacious and airy. It is without a doubt the best-looking lounge in Manchester, despite its age.
The sit-down dining space has thirteen tables and a long table that runs the length of the space next to the window. The tables have either two or four seats at them, and they are reasonably spaced out. This was the busiest of the three zones in the lounge. It was three-quarters full when we entered (three hours before the flight) and remained busy up to the boarding call.
As this lounge caters to just Emirates flights, and there are three spaced out evenly throughout the day, they will make an announcement when they are ready to board you. However, the walk from the lounge to the gate is around ten minutes. The Emirates gate is at the far end of the terminal, so by the time we got there they had already started boarding economy.
Food and Drink
The dining area is a self-service space, but both the choice and the quality are well above most lounges. When it comes to food and drink, this is far better than any other lounge at Manchester Airport, and I would say better than most lounges globally.
What’s on offer?
There was an excellent choice of hot and cold options. We were going to dine on the flight, so we just had some snacks in the lounge, but what we had was delicious.
The food was constantly being replenished by the staff. Barely three minutes would go by before someone was either adding more food or at least checking to see if they needed to. Tables were cleaned and dishes taken away very quickly.
There’s a coffee and tea station in the dining area, with a second one in the seating area to the far left of the lounge. Both have fridges with soft drinks underneath them, along with biscuits. In the main dining area, the coffee station also had red velvet cupcakes and infused water.
My only complaint about the food is the selection of desserts. These exist in the cold food area, which is a large, refrigerated oval that also contains the salads and healthier options. The dessert choice wasn’t great. Maybe on another day, there are different options, but nothing really stood out for me, and I am a huge fan of a sweet course.
Alcohol was served in the lounge, with a choice of red and white wine, plus champagne. There are beers avaialble in the fridges.
Facilities in the lounge
This is the only lounge at Manchester Airport that has its own showers. They’re located inside the male and female bathrooms, with two shower rooms in each.
They are functional and reasonably attractive but not luxurious. Inside each shower room is a small bench, a wide shower, a mirror and amenities.
Towels are available on request, and there’s a hairdryer by the sinks back in the main bathroom area, outside of the cubicle.
If you do need a shower, then the Emirates offering will be absolutely fine, but I doubt they see much use. MAN isn’t a transit-heavy airport. I’m unsure if the new lounge in T2 will have showers, but I expect Emirates to retain this facility for those travellers who value it.
The bathrooms in the Emirates lounge are fine. They’re better than the ones in the main terminal, but I wouldn’t describe them as luxurious. They were spottlessly clean.
There are also baby changing facilities in the bathroom area. Back in the lounge, there’s a prayer room. There’s also Wi-Fi, which was giving me just under 50MB/s download speed. There are small signs dotted around the tables that give you the wifi password.
The lounge also had not one but two newspaper and magazine racks. Most lounges have done away with these, and in some, you can download an app to get access to something to read. I love that Emirates allows you to pick up a real newspaper or magazine, and the selection was decent. The magazines included Vogue.
Most, but not all, seats outside of the dining space have access to power.
What’s in store at the new T2 lounge?
Building work is underway on the new Emirates lounge in Terminal 2. This is not expected to open when Emirates moves to that terminal, meaning that there will be a period of a couple of months where Emirates fly from T2, but they have no dedicated lounge. They will have to utilise one of the paid-for lounges.
That will be a tricky period, as the Aspire, 1903 and Escape lounges are already busy. They will get busier when other airlines, like BA, move across. MAG, the owner of Manchester Airport, has also said that the premium 1903 lounge in T2 will be closing although you would hope that this would be delayed until more lounges are opened in the Terminal. The airport has been making some poor decisions recently, so you can’t discount them getting it wrong.
For passengers flying in October, November and potentially December 2025, the Emirates experience at Manchester will not be as premium as the airline would hope.
When the new lounge is complete, it will have something that no other airline at Manchester has: you’ll be able to board the plane direct from the lounge. That is going to elevate Emirates above the competition (Qatar, Etihad), who not only don’t have direct boarding, they don’t even – at the time of writing – have their own lounges. And that’s despite Qatar flying three times per day.
The verdict on the Emirates Lounges
This is the best lounge at Manchester Airport. It is what a lounge should be, and it has what the other lounges at MAN lack: a great team, a light and relaxing space, and good food and drink. That sounds like a simple formula, but so many lounges worldwide get it wrong.
Despite our flight being on the A380, which has 8 First and 76 business class seats, this lounge wasn’t cramped. The dining space was the busiest of the three areas, but it wasn’t awful. The seating areas were fairly quiet until about half an hour before boarding.
The hope is that the new Emirates lounge at T2 is just as good as this lounge, if not better. Emirates can influence the attentiveness of the staff members who’ll work there, and the quality of the food and drink, but they will have to work with the physical space that they are given by the airport. As there’s going to be boarding from the lounge, the assumption is that it will have windows, and therefore good views, and plenty of daylight coming in.
For an outstation, albeit at an airport that has three premium-dense flights every day, Emirates has done an outstanding job with the current lounge.
Manchester Emirates Lounge Rating
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