Birmingham Airport

Passengers at Manchester and Birmingham Airports voice fury as security lines snake for 'one kilometre' outside terminal.

“ Another traveller, Andy, shared an image of the queue, saying it went “through the airport, out the door and halfway through the car park”. “It’s just nuts,” a family of four from Liverpool who declined to be named told i as they stood in the queue. Fiona Miller shared a picture of the queue to enter Birmingham Airport which she said took around an hour and a half to get through. Jack Campey said that he’d “never been in a queue quite like it” and estimated it to be around 1km long. There is a shortage of staff in all areas of the sector, from cabin crew to security officers and baggage handlers, with airports and airlines now embarking on a massive recruitment drive.

Thousands of people booked to fly from Birmingham Airport were forced to wait in huge queues snaking outside the airport building after numbers overwhelmed ...

Birmingham Airport said in a statement: “Half of the 15,000 customers flying out of BHX (Birmingham Airport) today were booked to depart in our busy dawn peak, so we took the decision to run security queues outside the terminal to avoid them getting tangled with check-in lines. This has been blamed on a number of factors, including the time it takes for new ground staff to pass security clearance, staff sickness, a lack of Border Force officials and the spike in demand for travel following the end of the UK’s coronavirus restrictions. Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, is introducing a rule to allow new aviation recruits to begin training before passing security checks, to reduce the time it takes for them to start work. It follows scenes last week where 200 people missed their flights from Birmingham thanks to shortages in security staff, and the time required to train new staff. One person said it took her “two hours to get through check-in and security” this morning. "We did this to ensure the security queue didn’t get tangled with the check-in queues."

Passengers have been forced to wait in long queues outside Birmingham Airport for several hours this morning. | ITV News Central.

The key thing [for passengers] is to turn up when their airline says to, not earlier." We are seeing a rapid recovery in aviation, which is a blessing, but it's catching up with the staff to make sure we can get back to our normal very good service levels. Another traveller, Sam, said: "Thousands of people are queueing from inside, all the way outside to the car park. Mr Barton adds: "We got well underway with recruitment in February but, because we need to have them security-cleared, only then can we start training them. "At present, the airport can’t manage the number of flights or passengers, so think it should scale back and reduce what they do until have sorted staffing issues." And very little security checks open."

Thousands of travellers have faced hours of long queues at Birmingham Airport. Passengers described the situation as "absolute chaos" and "manic" as lines ...

In a later statement, a spokesperson said 23 passengers out of 7,500 missed their flights due to the queues. Birmingham Airport said it was expecting 15,000 passengers on Monday, but half of those were booked on flights departing around its "busy dawn peak". A video showing the queues outside the airport was filmed by one of the company's drivers. Birmingham Airport said the decision was taken to run queues for security outside the terminal building to prevent those becoming "tangled" with check-in queues. Passengers described the situation as "absolute chaos" and "manic" as lines snaked outside of the airport terminal. Birmingham Airport said queues were long on Monday morning, but only 23 out of 7,500 passengers missed flights.

It was the latest in a string of problems to hit the staff-cut BHX, following weeks of complaints from flyers about long security queues and delays. An airport ...

— Birmingham Airport Police✈️ (@BHX_Police)— Birmingham Airport Police✈️ (@BHX_Police) @BHX_Policehave deployed #ProjectServatorteams overnight @bhx_official.A very busy night and we've met passengers heading all over the world this morning. The departures lounge and arrivals area is well equipped to cater for any hungry passenger's cravings. We had to be pulled out the queue to make our flight when we were 20 mins from its departure time .. very stressful - I’d say 3hrs for security at least!— karen hughes (@karenhu87388726) May 10, 2022 Please arrive in line with check in opening times, any earlier and you will be unable to drop bags." Hi Gary - We have decided to not take future bookings for our express lane, and we are still honouring the service to those who have already pre-booked. This is to ensure the lane remains optimal. For example, yesterday Monday 9th - Half of the 15,000 customers flying out of BHX were booked to depart in our busy dawn peak. Hi Michael - We are still honouring the express lane service to the customer who has pre-booked the tickets. We advise passengers to arrive at the terminal in line with your airline's check-in times. Hi John - Our busiest time is the morning, with many passengers wanting to get away and make the most of their holiday. An airport spokesperson said yesterday around 7,500 people were booked to fly during the busy dawn peak, prompting the decision to run security queues outside. And today, May 10, looks set to face delays again with holidaymakers this morning reporting the airport being 'rammed'.

The airport has thousands of travellers passing through its terminal every day - but when are they at their busiest?

Birmingham Airport chief executive Nick Barton last week blamed a "lag" between recruiting new employees and making them operational for the ongoing security delays. But airport staff advise against passengers arriving too early as it adds to the congestion of people inside the terminal. But these times can vary from day to day.

Missed flights and queues outside terminals underline aviation sector's struggle with staff shortages.

The airport began looking for new staff back in November and said it expected more security officers to be ready to start work soon. About 15,000 passengers were due to depart on Monday, half of them in the peak early morning hours. One of the ways we’re doing this is by reducing our schedule ahead of time to give our customers certainty and options wherever possible.”

Bristol and Birmingham Airports are enduring the worst of the travel delays this morning, with lengthy lines for security and departure desks having built ...

“We have seen a strong increase in passenger numbers since the end of all Covid-19 restrictions. "Late plane finally gets in, no staff to bloody put the steps up. We constantly review resourcing across all areas and adapt plans to meet demand and build in resilience where possible. "We advise all customers to arrive in the terminal a minimum of two hours before scheduled flight departure time to allow sufficient time to complete all the necessary check-in, bag-drop, security, and boarding processes ahead of their flight.” And Jon Rowe opined: "The queues at Birmingham Airport are worse than the media are reporting! The scenes were variously described as "absolute chaos" and "manic".

Queues started building early this morning following long delays to get through security yesterday.

Yesterday (Monday May 9) Birmingham Airport's security services became so swamped passengers had to queue a significant way outside the terminal building. As early as 4am today the queues for security were snaking a long way back through the departure hall and up escalators, the Mirror reports. Long queues have again been developing at Birmingham Airport following a day of post-lockdown travel chaos.