A stress-free start to a holiday?
Updated on 01 July 2009
Nick Martin gets a preview of the new Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport to find out if airport utopia really is possible.
Queues, delays and lost children: the airport experience has long been fraught with potential pitfalls. But now one of Britain's major airports has been completely redesigned to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.
From preventing terrorism to making the whole experience stress free, the new Terminal 1 at Manchester claims to have it covered.
Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport is jam packed full of holiday makers. They are clutching plane tickets and passports, excitedly chatting about what they are going to do on holiday. Most are either struggling with over packed suitcases or trying to keep the children entertained.
This part of the holiday is rarely fun and is often hideously frustrating, especially if flights are cancelled or the air traffic controllers over the Channel switch off their monitors for five hours.
Manchester Airport is the biggest outside of London and each year between 20 and 22 million passengers pass through. Today, behind the scenes, managing director Andrew Cornish is watching with a critical eye.
Millions of pounds have been spent on this airport in the last few years. He tells me that they have tried to make it as stress free as possible whilst also keeping up with the strains placed upon airports as a result of the increased terror threat.
The threat is still a serious one, of course. Two years ago this week a dark green Jeep Cherokee loaded with propane canisters was driven into the glass doors of the Glasgow International Airport terminal and set ablaze.
It was the first terrorist attack to take place in Scotland since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and the first terrorist attack ever to target Scotland. It changed air travel completely and affected every airport in Britain.
"Our terminal redesigns have had to withstand the test of time with the liquid ban and the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport meaning we had to take them back to the drawing board several times, always putting our customers safety and security at the forefront of our designs," said Mr Cornish.
More than £2m has been spent on scanners which can pick up different types of liquids. An alarm will be set off if anything suspicious is being hidden. Manchester has also been trailing Iris recognition technology for those who are registered with it and it is aimed on cutting down on waiting times.
But some measures are more straightforward - to prevent another Glasgow-style attack there are far more concrete blocks outside the entrances. Not pretty, but essential, according to one porter I spoke to outside.
But behind the concrete blocks and the shiny new floor a more subtle difference. Manchester is the first airport in Britain to be redesigned with the help of psychologists.
For several months they monitored passengers and identified key stress areas; the car park, check-in and security were all seen as the most stressful. Psychologists observed how people moved around the airport terminal and those observations were fed into the architects designs.
The airport says it hopes that from the car park to the plane steps the experience will be less stressful.
I'll be asking passengers if they feel less stressed and you can see their reactions on our programme tonight, at 7pm.
