Airport hell as queues ‘stretch 1km’ to car park
More misery for travellers as line snakes out of the terminal
PASSENGERS have again complained of “absolute chaos” at Birmingham Airport. Thousands were forced to queue up outside the terminal building to get through security during the busy dawn peak on Monday as staffing shortages continued.
Frustrated holidaymakers reported wait times of up to two hours to reach the security checkpoint, with some claims the line was “one kilometre” long and reaching the car park.
Photographs shared on social media showed the queue snaking out of the airport doors and along the length of the building earlier on.
Queues had eased significantly by 10.30am.
Flights were delayed from a few minutes up to an hour as passengers reported being called out of the queue by staff to make it in time for their flight.
One passenger Sam, who was travelling for work, claimed that thousands of people were stuck in the queue some time after 6am.
He said: “Thousands of people are queueing – from inside, all the way outside to the car park. There’s only one entry point as well. And very few security checks open.”
He eventually got through security by 8.30am – two and a half hours after he arrived – with 10 minutes to spare until his flight. Another traveller heading for Edinburgh reported a two-hour wait. Matthew Broome said at 8.40am: “We’re waiting to leave now – should have left 8.20am. I think it was a whole two hours queue for security. I had no bags and checked in online and was only going to Edinburgh, so reckon you need three to four hours.
“At present, the airport can’t manage the number of flights or passengers, so I think it should scale back and reduce what it does until it has sorted staffing issues and processes. EasyJet also cancelled my return flight yesterday – so bad service with them. Train home tonight.”
It is the latest in a string of problems to hit the airport following weeks of complaints from flyers about long security queues and delays. Similar scenes were seen at the airport over the weekend, prompting airline TUI to apologise to travellers passing through the terminal on Saturday.
An airport spokesman said: “Half of the 15,000 customers flying out of BHX 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. Queues were long but managed and moving. We thank customers for their patience.”
As a result of travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, 43 per cent of Birmingham Airport’s staff were made redundant.