CHILDREN have been forced to “pee in plastic bags” in Manchester Airport while being stuck in queues for FIVE hours, holidaymakers said.
Families attempting to get away for the Easter break have faced colossal wait times due to staff shortages.
Now travellers have told of the horrors of the queuing chaos which has seen little ones being “forced to urinate in bags”.
Jack Makin, 32, and his wife Laura Story-Makin, 32, arrived at the airport three and a half hours before their flight on April 1 to Malta to celebrate their anniversary.
But their trip got off to a less than romantic start as they witnessed young children falling ill during the five “intensive” hours it took them to reach their boarding gate.
Jack, a postman and photographer from Winsford in Cheshire told Manchester Evening News: “We were flying out of Terminal 3 but had to go through Terminal 1 to their security, and then across the Terminal 3 to fly as Terminal 3 didn’t have the staff to open security there”
“So we had two terminals worth of people going through one security area. It was mayhem. There were about five staff manning the whole thing and handing out trays for luggage.
“A family in front of us had a child who started being sick due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.
“Kids were having to pee in the plastic bags that you’d usually put liquids in. It was horrific.”
The couple, who arrived at the airport at 4.30pm were still queuing to get through security at 8.15pm – and their flight was due to take off at 8.05pm.
By 9pm they had gotten through – but there were then further delayswhen they had to be checked over by a member of staff.
Jack said: “I said to Laura we should just give up and go home a few times because it was past the time for our flight and we’d obviously missed it. After asking anyone who worked there if our flight had gone, no-one could answer us.
“We had to risk it all in the hopes our pilot hadn’t bailed on us after an intense five-hour battle.”
However, after their “hellish ordeal” when they did eventually reach the boarding gate and their flight took off three hours late at 11.15pm.
But two and a half hours into the flight, a woman collapsed through the toilet door.
Jack explained: “Laura went over to see what was going on. It turns out this poor lady was suffering from low blood pressure and fainted as she entered the toilet. Laura along with the absolutely brilliant Ryanair staff lay her down and elevated her feet. A few minutes later she was feeling better.
“Within 10 minutes an older gentleman walked past our seats and just dropped to the floor with a horrible thud. Laura leapt out of her seat for a second time and ran to the man’s aid. Luckily a surgeon was onboard and they realised he had low blood pressure and monitored him for a while.”
After their “worst experience ever at an airport” the ‘sleep-deprived’ pair finally got to their hotel in Malta at around 5am.
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport apologised for the delays and said that security workers handled the ‘challenging circumstances’ as best they could.
