A passenger arrived 13 hours early for his flight from Manchester Airport at the weekend after reports of long queues in departures caused him to ‘panic’.

The 56-year-old from Coventry was told by a member of staff he’d broken the record for the earliest person to arrive for a flight.

The Manchester Evening News said Tim Samunyai from Coventry arrived at the airport at around 5:40am for his 6:55pm flight to Zimbabwe on Sunday.

He told the MEN he came early after seeing images of check-in desks ‘chockablock’

Mr Samunyai said: “I was thinking if I come here nice and early then I won’t have to deal with all that madness over there.

“I don’t know if I was panicking because of the news just highlighting the negativity or whatever.

However, he said there was ‘no issue’ with queues on his flight.

“My problem was not realising that, its a panic if you’re going to Corfu, Greece or Tenerife because everybody wants to go there, and it’s half term,” he said.

He added he found a small corner at the bottom floor of terminal two where he had a nap before checking in at around 3:30pm.

“13 hours is a bit much, fair enough, but I’d rather be early,” added Mr Samunyai.