‘Total chaos’ at Manchester Airport as easyJet passengers faced massive queues snaking out of the building

Huge queues formed at Manchester Airport this morning (Tuesday 5 September) with passengers slamming the situation as “an absolute joke”.

People were queueing with their suitcases waiting to check-in outside Terminal 1 where a line built up snaking out of the building and into the drop off zone.

The passengers were travelling with easyJet and took to social media to air their frustration at the huge queues they faced at the airport.

Christina R posted on X, formerly known as Twitter,: "@easyJet what an absolute joke at Manchester this morning. Need to sort your bag drop out and open the desks on time, now everyone rushing for flights!"

Claire Cox also posted on Twitter “Baggage belt failure apparently. Afraid doesn’t get better once inside. Total chaos, no information, lack of staff. Pisa plane being held back waiting for people’s bags. Gates still say closed so go check if make it that far”.

In another tweet Claire Cox said: “How about you adequately staff your check in and bag drop. It is a shambles at T1 and not enough staff to support customers.”

EasyJet was scheduled to have 21 flights leaving Manchester Airport in the first few hours of departures this morning.

It’s understood that while the number of easyJet flights departing the airport this morning is not unusual, a higher number of passengers than expected arrived early for check-in.

This meant the queue for the easyJet desk had to extend beyond the entrance to Terminal 1 while staff dealt with the higher number of passengers arriving.

The situation was managed by the airport’s resilience team and customer services team, and the queue was back to normal by 6.45am.

In a statement easyJet said the huge queues were caused by “a baggage belt failure”.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “EasyJet takes the wellbeing of our passengers very seriously and we worked closely with the airport team and the issue has now been resolved.

“Whilst this was outside of our control we would like to thank passengers for their understanding and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”