On the surface, Terminal 2 is a success….
…but for BA passengers flying into Manchester, things aren’t that great. In fact, they’re downright strange. Here’s why the experience is so bizarre, and why it might get a little better, but it’s always going to be worse than what it used to be.
A step forward, a step back
In October 2025, British Airways moved from Manchester’s old Terminal 3 to the newer Terminal 2. They were not the only airline to move. Nearly every airline in T3 and T1 has now moved to T2. These moves took place between September and November 2025. Only Ryanair remains in T3, and that terminal is now effectively a low-cost carrier terminal. T1 no longer exists as a named terminal, but some of that building is being used for Terminal 3.
T3 had become slightly miserable. The old BA lounge closed, and the security hall always seemed on the stressful side. The public seating area in the centre of the terminal was often overly busy.
The airport didn’t seem to know what to do with the terminal. As the BA lounge closed, passengers were moved to the nearby Escape lounge. Then the old 1903 lounge was reopened for BA (and other premium) passengers, for what felt like a minute, and then closed again. The old BA lounge became a public seating area. Then the Escape lounge closed.
Flying BA from T3 was a poor experience. Check-in was always slow. Boarding required you to queue in a corridor with barely any seating. You made the best of it. Instead of waiting in the corridor for your time to board, you could walk downstairs to another set of gates. There was a vending machine down there that didn’t work, but it was a quiet place to sit for five minutes. There was also a set of toilets down there.
However, what tends to happen with BA at Manchester Airport is that when a change occurs, it feels like it’s for the better but is often for the worse. You end up reminiscing about what we had before, even though it was sub-par. That’s because what gets delivered is poor, and that is often because Manchester Airport has a habit of accidentally, or on purpose, over-promising and under-delivering.
When good times go bad
The ageing, unloved BA lounge in T3 that closed during the pandemic was, in hindsight, spacious and relaxing, with great views across the airport. You could always get a seat, and whilst the bathrooms had seen better days, they were clean and spacious.
The replacement Escape Lounge (a contract lounge run by the airport, which could be busy and noisy, with toilets that could barely fit three people in) had a decent coffee machine and reasonable food. Looking back, it wasn’t that bad. The staff were always friendly.
When that lounge closed, BA was given a corridor that was turned into a temporary lounge. On the surface, it was a bizarre setup. However, it was seen by many as a decent, quiet space that was dedicated to BA passengers only.
Then the move to Terminal 2 promised a much better experience. It was clear that there would be no dedicated lounge, at least not for a while, but everything else would could be better. A more efficient check-in, a better security process. And a terminal that was modern, with better food and drink options.
The reality isn’t far from that dream, at least when you’re flying out of Manchester with BA. Check-in opens a bit earlier than before. T2 security isn’t perfect, but it’s better. There are two fast-track queues, although one isn’t dedicated. That means it flows into a regular security line, with no prioritisation over non-fast-track passengers.
The main passenger area at T2 is absolutely better than T3, with more shops and eateries. It’s not outstanding or opulent, but it’s more than good enough. It’s better than what it was, and better than both T1 and T3.
So what’s the problem?
Why are people using terms like “pathetic”, “a third world experience”, “comical” and a “farce”.
This is because of what happens when you land back in Manchester. And specifically, a flight coming from another UK airport, which right now means every BA flight.
The airline only operates flights to Heathrow, which are great for connections across the world. There are up to eight flights a day from (and to) the capital.
Depart from MAN with BA, and the experience will be on par, if not better, than the old Terminal 3. It’s when you arrive that things get very strange.
Everyone gets a free bus ride
When you leave Manchester on a BA flight, you’ll board the plane by walking through a jetbridge. Depending on when you board and how busy the flight is, this could take you 60 seconds or a few minutes, but you’ll be dry and fairly warm. It’s a normal way to get onto a plane.
Landing on a BA flight means you’ll exit the plane via a jetbridge, but that won’t take you to the terminal. Instead, you’ll walk down some stairs and get on a bus.
The bus will wait there until it’s full, then head to the main terminal. You’ll be dropped off next to a fire exit, next to a goods yard, and staff members will guide you through what has been described as a building site. That’s because it is, for the moment.
The bus might be late, or take you on a lengthy drive around the airport. It may just sit there for a while, full of passengers, waiting for some notification that it can set off. It is, as you can imagine, a pretty frustrating experience.
Why on earth is this happening?
The reasoning behind this is complex. Flyertalk user KARFA kindly explained the why behind this issue. He’d posted on this issue before, so I reached out to him to ask for a breakdown, and he’s done a fantastic job of explaining this in. The bold text below is from me, to highlight some of the key areas.
“Unlike T3, there just isn’t any internal segregated route from the gates arrivals which domestic flights could use. International arrivals usually need to be separated from the UK and the Common Travel Area (Ireland, Channel Islands, IoM).
For whatever reason, MAN decided not to spend the money creating an internal separate route and have dedicated UK/CTA arrival gates.
What MAN proposed was doing this for UK/CTA arrivals, so as you exit the jetbridge you have biometrics taken, and you then mix and use the same corridor as all other international arrivals.
When you get to passport control there is a channel to the left marked for UK/CTA arrivals, when you use that there is another biometric check to ensure you are the same person who came off the UK/CTA flight. After that, you exit into the baggage hall, so no passport check. This is not a system any other UK airport uses.
There is clearly a bottleneck on exiting the jetbridge with this method, so BA didn’t want to use it as it would slow down de-boarding and the whole turnaround. I think LM do use it, EI did and had technical issues, then swapped to buses, but I think they have moved back to using biometrics.
In order to deal with those flights, MAN’s solution was to have biometrics on arrival. You basically get a photo taken when going through security, and this gets checked on boarding to ensure it is the same person.
As BA didn’t want to use the biometric method, it basically means there is no option to get passengers from the plane to arrivals other than buses.
- The plane parks on a gate with a jetbridge, and you come off using the jetbridge, but you go down the stairs at the end and into a bus.
- The bus then takes you to a separate entry door in T2, which is a separate route from international arrivals, no passport control, and a separate baggage hall.
- They have been using temporary entry doors since BA moved over; the current one is basically at the southern end and around the back, so it’s a lengthy drive since BA uses the low A gates at the northern pier in T2.
There is a permanent UK/CTA bus arrival point which is being constructed near stand 308 (around the centre of T2), but it won’t be ready until the spring. It does mean that bussing for BA arrivals is permanent at T2 – once the new arrivals entry is done, it will be the same process of being bussed from the aircraft.
Other UK airports either have separate segregated routes from certain gates for UK/CTA arrivals (NCL, ABZ, EDI, GLA etc.) or bus from remote stands. T3 had its faults, but it was small and quick to exit once you stepped off the aircraft.”
The curse of the remote stand
To be clear, moving forwards every passenger that lands at MAN on a BA flight from another UK city will have to use a bus. No other UK airport operates like this, and this is all of Manchester’s doing.
If you’ve been flying for a while, you’ve likely been driven to or from a remote stand on a bus. We’ve had this many times when flying from Dublin to Heathrow. It’s annoying, but the issue is caused by a lack of stands being available at LHR.
We had a run of Qatar flights where we had to be bused to and from the plane in Doha. Again, this was down to capacity, and it’s been mostly fixed through airport expansion. At least Qatar roll out a luxurious bus for premium passengers.
The issues at MAN are coming after an expansion. It does require some particularly poor planning to complete a project and end up with an issue like this. Having almost two hundred passengers departing a flight and then having to go through scanners just after the jetbridge was never going to work. An alternative was needed but never considered.
How much of an issue is this, really?
Most passengers landing at Manchester will leave the airport. Connecting to another flight is entirely possible, but it just doesn’t happen that often. This is not Doha or Dubai, where the majority of people will never go through passport control and instead get off a plane just to board another one. Manchester is not even a Heathrow, with a healthy mix of connections and airport exits.
That means that almost everyone getting off a plane at MAN will want to get out of the airport as quickly as possible. A good proportion of BA traffic from London will be inbound from a connecting flight, in many cases a long-haul, or overnight, flight.
People just want to get out as fast as they can. Waiting for a bus, then waiting for the bus to depart, being led through a corridor isn’t great. If it were all perfectly timed and worked well, it would be annoying. Given how hopeless MAN can be, it’s turning into a long process that’s just delaying passengers.
At least, you would hope, your luggage will be on the carousel by the time you get there. One of the worst things about BA into T3 was the lengthy wait for cases to start appearing.
Will this get better?
What we know is that busing will continue unless significant changes are made to the terminal itself. This is very unlikely to happen, given that MAN has just finished their work on it. Whilst BA flies eight times a day, it is not the biggest or most important airline at the airport. BA has sway, but likely not enough to truly fix this.
What is being worked on is that the “building site” that you walk through to get into the terminal will be replaced by a better experience. You’ll still walk off the plane, get on a bus, and be dropped off at the terminal, but the corridor you walk along will look better. It will be marginally quicker, but not significantly as you’ll still need to get on a bus.
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