UK. Liverpool John Lennon Airport has been named the best travel hub in Which?’s annual survey, which rates 24 leading UK international airport terminals.
Meanwhile, its near-neighbour Manchester Airport – which, along with several other airports, has mounted a strong defence denouncing the survey’s veracity – saw its Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 come bottom of the list.
Which? – the well-known UK ‘consumer champion’ publication – surveyed almost 4,000 people about their experiences at airports in the last 12 months and invited them to rate the airports across 11 categories. These included percentage of cancellations, queues (with separate ratings for check-in, bag drop, security and passport control), baggage reclaim, seating, staff, prices in shops, airport wifi and toilets.
The customer score is based on a combination of overall satisfaction with these elements and how likely respondents are to recommend the airport terminal.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport, with a customer score of 82%, earned itself Which? Recommended Provider status for the second consecutive year.
Close behind with a score of 78% was London City Airport, with the top five completed by Southampton (77%) and Bournemouth (75%), the only other airports to be named Which? Recommended Providers, and East Midlands and Newcastle, which tied on 72%.
At the other end of the spectrum, Manchester Airport had the unwelcome distinction of taking the lowest two spots in the rankings, with a customer score of just 38% for Terminal 3 and 44% for Terminal 1. Manchester’s Terminal 2 fared marginally better, but still found itself in the bottom five with a score of 50%.
A Manchester Airport spokesperson shared this defence of the airport’s result with The Moodie Davitt Report: “The survey is out of date – covering June 2022-June 2023 and not including the majority of this summer season – and is also based on a tiny and unrepresentative sample of the 25 million passengers who travel through Manchester Airport each year.
“Year-by-year the Which? survey becomes less and less relevant as response rates continue to dwindle, with half as many people surveyed this year as were 12 months ago. There were only 567 responses relating to Manchester Airport – 0.002% of our annual passenger numbers.
“As part of our commitment to delivering great customer service, we continually survey passengers. In July and August this year, 93% of those passengers rated their overall satisfaction with the service they received as good, very good or excellent.”
A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport, which was placed 18th of the 24 terminals in the survey and got a one star out of five rating for its security queue performance, said: “The average security wait time for customers at BHX between June 2022 and June 2023 was nine minutes. This fact highlights the potential flaws of relying on anecdotal estimates rather than data.
“Our performance in this area matters to our customers, which is why we measure it precisely every day. We are currently investing £40 million in a new security hall, which, once operational in June 2024, will further improve customers’ experience.”
A spokesperson for eighth-placed Leeds Bradford Airport also questioned the methodology of the Which? survey: “We welcome all feedback, as we use it to improve our services moving forwards, especially as we look to modernise our existing terminal. However, we do not recognise these survey results as our own electronic queue management system confirms that the average queue time at LBA was ten minutes during the period June 2022 to June 2023.” 
