After over a year of not using T2, I recently had the pleasure during some quiet periods to use MAN's newest facility...
Arriving on a Wednesday evening on board KLM at 21:55 parking at stand 106. Upon disembarkation, I notice there are nice grey wall panels along the corridor before you enter the next corridor, which in my opinion should have been placed along all of the walls between the pier and immigration. This looks and feels much more modern and cleaner, as the white (mainly plain) walls along the corridor towards immigration are filthy! This would be the ideal time of year to make some changes before the summer season starts and flights are arriving all through the night!
We arrived alone in T2 so immigration was a breeze, hand luggage only for me so I was outside in the car park only 15mins after we docked onto our stand
Departure was a Monday late afternoon, my train arrived late into MAN so it was a bit of a rush to T2, however, I have never seen the check in and security areas so quiet! I arrived in T2 at 15:30 and was having a coffee by 15:40!
The lights were switched on one of the new departures signs in legacy T2 check in, so it looks like there will be two separate entrances to the new security area? When I entered the current check in area, I noticed a lot more self service kiosks, listing various airlines.
I was only 1 of seven passengers in security at the time, however, there were 4 bags rejected in the short time I was there (luckily mine was not one of them!). First time for me using the new scanners in the UK, all very efficient and quick. I noticed the screen above the scanner showed a rejection rate of 17.4%! I don't know how often this figure is updated, but seemed high for the amount of passengers at that time! Would be interesting to have a breakdown of the reasons why bags are being rejected with the new scanners now in place...
I also observed the lane I was using (number 1) had three separate body scanners (although only 1 was in use at this time), didn't notice if this was the case for all lanes, but this must also reduce the queuing time for passengers, so nice to see.
T2 departures was quiet and my gate was soon announced (A5). Upon walking to the A gates located in pier 1, again I couldn't help but notice how dirty and grubby the plain white walls are! Those grey wall panels would have been ideal here too! I do hope some changes are made in due course!
It was nice to observe the 2nd pier in person and in full blown sunshine, which makes it look nicer. Some of the apron areas for pier 2 are quite advanced from what I noticed and I would assume after these areas are complete, the airbridge's will be installed, along with the safedock systems as I imagine this would require a lot more room to manoeuvre than there currently is.
Boarding was on time at 16:15 and we departed the stand on schedule at 16:45, luckily with no stopping during our taxi (roll on the new dual taxiway system!) as aircraft movements were quite limited at that time too. It was a surprising runway 23R departure, this became apparent as we took off and I could see works being done on 23L.
So in conclusion, it was a pleasing experience at both ends and I am looking forward to using T2 twice again later this year when hopefully by then the 2nd pier and T2 legacy are fully operational.
Before that though, next week sees the runway hours extended for the summer schedule and the increase in many services to and from MAN.
We are very lucky and spoilt for choice...here's to the rest of 2025! 🍻🥂
