“My wife and I have used APH at Manchester on numerous previous occasions, extending back over 15 years, (and also at other airports) and have received outstanding service but on this occasion the level of service fell far below what would be expected. It may well be that the problems stemmed from the unrelenting works at Manchester Airport where the authority appears to put passenger convenience and comfort well down the list of priorities and has done continuously for many years. An airport now to be avoided when it used to be applauded as the best in Europe.
On this occasion the works have resulted in APH having to temporarily use bus stop K which is several hundred yards away from Terminal 2 entrance. We had not been notified in advance of this . My wife is disabled and, without a wheelchair, it took nearly 20 minutes to get to the check-in desk. Totally unacceptable. It was even worse on the late evening return trip as further parts of the airport had been closed and further temporary routing meant a long and painful walk to Bus Stop K.
That stop was substantially obstructed by many abandoned luggage trolleys which blocked the pavement and stop itself but I managed to move these away and tidy up the area so that my wife could at least wait in safety. There are no seats available at this Stop so she had to stand for almost 20 minutes before the bus arrived - only to find that the bus was completely full with passengers standing up as far as the driver's position. We could see that the driver was frustrated by the situation and he assisted with the luggage but my wife had to stand for the complete journey at the front of the bus, whilst the disabled seats remained occupied by younger travellers and, in any case, inaccessible due to the number of other passengers standing. If the bus had had to stop suddenly I am certain that my wife would have fallen and hurt herself.
I mentioned the problem to the APH staff and I'm sure they accepted that what we experienced was massively below what APH offers to its clients. But that was the situation. Not up to standard and, after over 15 years of using APH for our airport transfers we feel we should now review our arrangements, especially with Manchester Airport continuing to be such a deplorable passenger experience.
Full marks to your driver for his sympathy and his assistance with our luggage.”
