Manchester Airport has quickly built a reputation as of the most interesting and innovative airports in the UK. Recent winners of an ACI award, they have also recently added games consoles and Scalextric tracks to their airport lounges, demonstrating their fun side to passengers of all ages.

The most recent development from the airport has been dubbed the ‘airport learning scheme’, whereby staff of the airport can take off an hour or two to learn a skill which is new to them.
Classes on offer to staff so far include photography, languages and hanging basket making. The scheme is also set to offer more socially based classes, including deaf awareness, career planning and first aid lessons, all of which appear to be proving very popular with employees.

According to senior members of Manchester Airport, the scheme has helped employees learn new skills but has also bought up their confidence and morale, whilst at the same time bringing down employee stress levels and customer complaints. They have also suggested the scheme has even lowered the number of sick days (on average) taken by employees, from security staff right the way through to employees at airport hotels.

Tracey Thompson, the coordinator of the learning centre in Manchester Airport, told the press that “it gives them another interest that’s seperate from just coming into work, it makes the workforce happier and better qualified, which can only be a good thing”.
Hundreds of members of staff have already completed the airport learning scheme, with another 400 reported to be waiting to take up the initiative.

You can see some of the employees’ work throughout the airport, as the hanging baskets are often displayed in the lounge as well as in Manchester airport parking lots.

With so many rave reviews coming in for Manchester Airport over the last couple of years, it’s probably worth the other UK airports paying attention to how the best airport in the UK (according to the ACI) works with its staff. It not only appears to improve customers’ view of the services, but also provides a more content, happier workforce that can only have a beneficial impact on customer relations.