The start of a vacation ought to set the tone for what’s to observe: a glass of champagne within the departure lounge, a leisurely browse of responsibility free and watching planes jet off into sunny skies earlier than boarding your flight.
However that is usually very removed from the fact when travelling by way of UK airports.
Extended delays in stuffy, overcrowded halls, restricted and overpriced food and drinks choices in addition to disappointing customer support have quickly change into the norm for air journey.
This 12 months’s survey by shopper champion Which? has revealed which airports are the worst offenders for holidaymakers in 2026 – with components comparable to ‘Late cancellations’, ‘Examine-in queues’, ‘Passport management queues’ and ‘Food and drinks shops’ all taken into consideration.
This 12 months, Manchester T3 has been declared the nation’s worst airport, with a 52 per cent buyer rating. The aviation hub scored a paltry two stars in all classes surveyed, together with ‘Cleanliness’ and ‘Seating’.
One buyer declared the airport, which primarily operates Ryanair flights, ‘fairly appalling for a supposedly fashionable airport’, reporting two-hour check-in queues as a result of damaged machines, 20-minute queues for cafes and bathrooms, and likewise complaining that there’s ‘nowhere to sit down’.
Manchester’s Terminal 3 has been awarded the title of the nation’s worst
One other mirrored that the expertise at T3 was outlined by a ‘poor structure’ and a ‘lack of passenger consideration’.
The airport has been criticised notably for its ‘extreme’ strolling distances, as safety and lounges are at present positioned within the former Terminal 1 space, which formally closed final November.
In a press release to Which? following the outcomes of the survey, Manchester Airport instructed the buyer champion there’s a ‘venture ongoing to take away and substitute the previous travelators’ as a part of a multi-million pound refurbishment scheme.
Scoring the poorest of any of London’s airports, Luton Airport was named the second worst airport within the nation, with a buyer rating of solely 57 per cent.
The Bedfordshire spot scored simply two stars in most classes reviewed, managing three stars for under ‘Baggage reclaim wait’ and ‘Cleanliness’.
Third from the underside marked a return up north: Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 acquired a buyer rating of 58 per cent and was awarded solely two stars in all classes barring ‘Cleanliness’, for which three stars have been achieved.
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Which? says that Exeter is the UK’s greatest airport – reaching an 83 per cent buyer rating
Equally poor performers have been London Stansted, with 58 per cent, and Edinburgh Airport, with 61 per cent.
On the opposite finish of the size, Exeter airport was topped the perfect of Britain’s airports, incomes an 83 per cent buyer rating.
The Devon airport scored a full 5 stars in three classes: ‘Examine-in queues’, ‘Airport safety queues’ and ‘Cleanliness’. Its lowest mark was for ‘Food and drinks shops’, for which solely three stars have been awarded.
So happy was one buyer with the expertise at Exeter airport that they referred to as the hub ‘a stunning little place’, admitting they loved their pre-departure expertise.
Liverpool John Lennon took second place, with a 79 per cent buyer rating, whereas London’s Metropolis Airport was awarded third place with 78 per cent, the very best scoring of all six of the main worldwide hubs within the capital.
Certainly, the highest performers demonstrated a pattern throughout the survey, with small-to-medium airports offering a extra seamless journey expertise than their bigger counterparts.
In response to the Which? survey, AirportsUK, the commerce physique for the UK’s airports, asserted that every one airports are pushed to offer the absolute best passenger expertise.
A spokesman for the organisation stated: ‘These outcomes don’t align with our airport members’ personal information on passenger expertise, which reveals that the majority prospects are very proud of the service they obtain.
‘That is seen in complete surveys of hundreds of individuals each single month, whereas Which? has solely requested a tiny and unrepresentative fraction of airport passengers to recall their experiences as much as a 12 months beforehand.’
