As well as record passenger numbers, 2017 saw Manchester Airport bag four of the key travel trade best UK airport awards. These include Travel Weekly, Travel Bulletin, Travel Trade Gazette and Selling Travel.
The first gong was collected in January at Travel Weekly's Globe Awards at Grosvenor House in London. It was the third year running the airport had bagged the accolade and it is now in the running for a fourth win next month at the 2018 ceremony.
Next up was the Travel Bulletin Star Awards held at the Langham Hotel, again in London. Manchester fought off competition from other UK airports including Birmingham, Liverpool and London Heathrow.
A hattrick was confirmed in September when at the Lyceum Theatre, the UK's third largest airport won at the Travel Trade Gazette Awards, which was hosted by funny man Rob Brydon.
The quadruple was achieved earlier this month when Manchester was crowned best UK airport at the Selling Travel Agents Choice Awards.
Patrick Alexander, Manchester Airport's Head of Marketing, said: "To win one best UK airport award is a great achievement, but to receive four is incredibly humbling.
"I would like to thank everyone who voted for us, be they our 27.7m annual passengers, travel agents or the industry.
"As the UK's global gateway in the North, Manchester Airport is going through exciting times as we grow and spend £1bn transforming terminal two, so to have that recognised makes all of us feel incredibly proud."
Manchester Airport is a global gateway and the largest airport outside London with more than 210 destinations served by 70 airlines. This year has seen the airport add direct services to San Francisco, Boston and Muscat. Next year will see Seattle launch.
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Here's why;
Most of their staff manning the x-ray machines are rude, bolshie and full of their own importance. It's as though they're doing US a favour.
When I travelled to Spain a couple of weeks ago, there were possibly up to 500 / 600 passengers waiting to go through the x-ray machines at Terminal 1, but yet only a few of the 15 or so x-ray machines were working, making us wait for up to 1 hour in this massive queue, waiting to go through the machines.
Then someone in authority (if that's the right description) came round the queue and asked for those about to depart very soon to go to the "Fast-Track" queue, which turned out to be the "Slow-Track" queue and we waited even longer than in the original queue we'd just left.
Going through the airport to your gate is also a hassle as they MAKE you go through the duty-free shops because they've planned it that way to maximise revenue, instead of there being a path around the shops to avoid HAVING to go right through the shop centre.
For many years, and on almost every occasion when walking from the train station in the airport to Terminal 1, we find at least one or two travelators / moving walkways not working.
I have personally complained about this and each time the authorities say they're waiting for spare parts to repair them ...... (What ? ... a two year wait was the last time) ??
However, travelling through Frankfurt airport or Malaga airport, as I do very often, it's an absolute joy to be addressed by staff there as they treat all passengers with respect.
So, why do we have to put up with this nonsense and arrogance at Manchester Airport ?