Manchester Airport announces closure of Terminal 1 after £440m Terminal 2 expansion

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• Blair Waldorf Salad says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:39

  I predict spring 2028. This will greatly devalue the existing on-site airports that now will only be convenient to T3. The new Ibis and HI at T2 really need a pedestrian route into T2. I was looking at them from behind last week. They could have rear exits running into the T2 car park and from there a sign on the ground to the lifts.

• TimM says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:45

  Nobody will miss Terminal 1 in its current state.

  I am however concerned about the extreme walking distances involved in T2 – the price to pay for even more over-priced shops and catering outlets to walk past. I can see how they fit the MAG business but it is not a terminal designed for the convenience of passengers.

  • Nicholas Wood says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:50

    Agreed – several small terminals are much better for local passengers than one monster one. But I think they have ideas about turning it into a hub in its own right.

  • vlcnc says:

    25 Jan25 January 11:27

    MAG is the worst Airport operator group I’ve experienced in any country by far. They’re consistent in their awfulness.

    • Matarredondaaa says:

      26 Jan26 January 09:27

      Agree as hate Stansted which is the same, miles of corridor with so called duty free shops and good outlets before being crammed into a small waiting area.
      Book the Spire lounge to avoid but now various holiday companies such as TUI and On the beach offer admission as part of the deal the bucket and spade brigade get everywhere
      Last Thursday two even picked up 2 bottles of beer to walk through the terminal with to the boarding gate but thankfully were stopped by security before exiting the lounge and nightly cross they were!

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    25 Jan25 January 23:30

    The long distances are more a function of plane wing lengths than anything else. an A320 has a wingspan of 36m for example. Ten side by side gates need 360 m (and that allows no “spare” room between them)

    An A330 has a wingspan of 60m.

    So airports might as well put something in what would otherwise be wall space.

    And of course you can just walk past the shops. And if there were no shops / coffee places people would complain about that too.

    • TimM says:

      26 Jan26 January 14:19

      The geometric solution to this is to have a circular passenger terminal with spokes of it to the planes, much like those at AYT. Then the greater wingspan planes only need to be parked a little further from the centre of the circle. Multiple such hubs, eg. for aircraft of different wingspans, could be connected with light transit.

• Harry T says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:01

  They only need to spend about £400 million of the budget on training their security staff properly.

• Karl says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:03

  Awaiting complaints about security/lack of BA flights……

• Oliver says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:05

  Feel like it is just refurbishing the old part of T2, then reconnect to the new one. Got a gate at the old part last time, they just boarded up the old shops and restaurants.

• AJA says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:08

  Is the £440 million on top of the £1.3 billion or the final part of the total £1.3 billion bill?

  Assuming the airport has spent £900 million so far, that is an awful lot of money, which does not appear to have resulted in much customer satisfaction given the negative opinions so many people seem to have about the MAN experience.

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 11:05

    Included in the £1.3bn.

    You don’t get a lot for £1bn these days though. The new Peninsula hotel at Hyde Park Corner, which is meant to open very soon, has reportedly cost £800 million excluding land costs. Admittedly this includes a number of ‘for sale’ apartments alongside the hotel rooms.

    Simply working airside at an airport seems to double your construction costs overnight, given the need for vetting of all staff, inspection of all supplies and the need to know where every single sharp object (screwdriver etc) is at all times.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    25 Jan25 January 11:14

    To be fair I’ve not heard much about MAN T2 so maybe that is a better experience now. Unfortunately BA still uses T3

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      25 Jan25 January 12:27

      T2 is to be blunt very common. It looked nice when it first opened but the prominent presence of a JD Sports gives you a hint of what’s to come in the food court areas. MAN might have smoothed the customer experience by shifting LCCs to T2 and light refurb of T1 for full service airlines, and allowing for connections.

      • No Longer Entitled says:

        25 Jan25 January 19:48

        Need PremiAir to reopen and then you can avoid the JD Sports crowd.

      • Mike says:

        25 Jan25 January 23:31

        Doesn’t Liverpool have a JD Sports?

        • bafan says:

          26 Jan26 January 02:08

          Well quite.

        • Rob says:

          26 Jan26 January 08:41

          Gatwick South (BA) has a JD Sports.

      • Mikeact says:

        26 Jan26 January 08:41

        J D Sports ? Jeez, I certainly won’t be using Manchester.

        • Mikeact says:

          26 Jan26 January 08:42

          Better avoid Gatwick South as well..

      • Brian Pickles says:

        26 Jan26 January 09:31

        Rather a snobby comment, what’s wrong with JD Sports? I’d rather have that than a terminal full of shops selling £1000 handbags like T5!

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          26 Jan26 January 11:31

          T5 had a JD Sports ow. I nearly choked on my LPGS when I was told about it 😂 Then when I walked past it to the gate it was one of the busier shops.

          A few years ago one opened in T2 (it appeared in the Heathrow Rewards newsletter) and is now in T5. I think it works well if there’s a balance of shops to suit everyone. If the only shops are sports shops and souvenir tat then it would have a downmarket feel but T5 has plenty of high end shops so appealing to a wider audience makes sense

• AlexF says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:20

  And meanwhile BA will probably stay in T3 without their own lounge.

  • Stagger Lee says:

    25 Jan25 January 11:04

    I was in the T3 lounge a couple of weeks ago and looked over to the old BA lounge space which has now been turned in to a regular seating area for anyone to use.

    I understand why they closed it but it was a really nice chilled place to start off a trip

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      25 Jan25 January 12:28

      Especially when AA flew direct from T3 and the security fast track would be quiet compared to T1. Then up to the BA lounge where you could see the AA plane arrive.

    • Londonsteve says:

      25 Jan25 January 13:50

      Why did BA shutter their MAN lounge?

    • NorthernLass says:

      25 Jan25 January 14:05

      It’s still a really nice space as not many people seem to know about it! You can regularly get a full row of seats to yourself there while they’re packed in like sardines downstairs …

      • Stagger Lee says:

        25 Jan25 January 14:55

        Yeah it did look pretty quiet and I’d definitely recommend it for anyone without lounge access.

        • Red Flyer says:

          25 Jan25 January 15:24

          Any news on PremiAir reopening?

      • Scott says:

        25 Jan25 January 18:24

        Either that or the corridor down by 142 and 143 which is empty unless there’s the one FR flight a day from there or BA are using it.
        You could even walk down the stairs by 143 and sit in the little domestic area that is hardly used.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    25 Jan25 January 23:36

    I’ve only arrived in MAN off BA and it’s not a nice experience.

    A single luggage belt then a walk outside mostly in enclosed in all weather to get to whatever terminal is next to it and then another long walk (seeming double backing) to get to the train station.

    • Mike says:

      26 Jan26 January 02:34

      You didn’t double back on yourself to get from T3 to the train station.

• DaveJ says:

  25 Jan25 January 10:35

  Mike Hunt will be pleased

  • Mike Hunt says:

    26 Jan26 January 07:32

    I certainly am

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