Passport I have heard can be horrendous. Generally, I arrive in the late evening after work so selfishly this isn't too often a problem. What absolutely infuriates me at security is they have half the booths closed! This and the insistence that each item has its own tray, which just clogs the entire system. Rude staff, shouting staff, staff who make up rules, no logic, no foresight, failing to pay enough staff.
The drop off/pick up charge: tried to use both times, neither time it worked leading to absolute and utter chaos. Not everything to do with motorists is a rip off (well not to me - I live in a high taxation country used to speeding tickets as a % of salary, high parking fines and very high vehicle taxes). But in this example, it's a rip off because it doesn't offer benefit to anybody except the company's bottom line. I use public transport extensively, to every single airport I've used in Europe (including in the UK), across Africa, Asia and the Middle East (except a few cases where the very charitable UN picks me up in a nice Land Cruiser and we skip some jams). But to Manchester, I cannot. I visit my parents about 20/25 miles from MAN, and the railway line to their town runs pretty close to Manchester airport (planes are skimming the roofs at Knutsford) but it takes me over an hour by train and is a bit expensive for the service provided and doesn't start early enough. It takes 1.40 minutes to do Airport - their station. That's 1/3 of the time to get from Heathrow, which is what I'm doing next time. The cheaper ticket offset with a profit the cost of the train for my partner and I. There are no buses. They don't live in a backwater, and just along the road they live on (20 houses) I know of 3 people who commute by plane from MAN, and plenty in the town, not to mention VFR people like me, and it's wealthy so plenty of holidaymakers. At this point, the drop off charge is just a tax for people who dare not to live in central Manchester or on the Pennine route which feeds (occasionally, when they're not cancelled) the airport.