Missed flights and anger after airport work chaos
Shambles amid ‘new normal’ as security hall is built
FURIOUS Birmingham Airport passengers told of long queues and missed flights after being held for hours at security.
It followed a ‘technical issue’ with the security lanes on Monday.
One person was said to have collapsed in scenes branded a “disaster” and an “absolute shambles.”
The airport said the issue at security “compounded the peak departure schedule and hindered their operation”.
One passenger posted: “After queuing for two hours at Birmingham Airport I managed to get the staff to take me through security, only to miss my flight and for Ryanair to leave on time (for once) with a half-empty plan.”
Roger Burton, from Redditch, who missed his flight to Alicante having got to the airport within three hours of his departure, said the experience was an “absolute shambles”.
“I’m nearly 80 and standing in a queue for three hours is no fun,” he said.
“They were keeling over – one guy collapsed.”
Another passenger wrote: “Birmingham Airport queues are so slow we’re now on a plane ten minutes past departure time, waiting for 80 more passengers stuck in queues.”
A different passenger posted: “Absolute shocking incompetence by the airport. They cannot process the number of passengers and yet after security the airport is empty.
“Birmingham Airport is always poor but they’ve managed to take it to a new low level. Disaster. So many will miss flights.”
A Birmingham Airport spokesman told the Post: “We saw a usual busy Monday morning at Birmingham Airport with customers queuing downstairs, which is the new normal, as the upstairs queuing area has been taken out of service as we construct our new security area.
“This morning we encountered a technical issue with our security
lanes, which compounded the peak departure schedule and hindered our operation.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers for the level of service that they received, this is not what we aim to deliver here at Birmingham Airport.
“We wish to remind our customers that existing security restrictions remain in place.
“This can be confusing to our customers and on average 15 per cent of bags are rejected as they are not compliant with current security restrictions.
“For each customer, a non-compliant bag adds ten minutes on top
of their security search time.
“The airport has been a working building site for 18 months, and continues to be, while we build for our future with a new security area.
“Queuing and walking routes are constantly changing, however our colleagues are around for any help and assistance in the terminal. We apologise to our customers for the impact this transition may have from time to time.” London Stansted also had a partial power outage which affected check-in, security and baggage systems.
Last Thursday more misery was witnessed when security eGates failed, causing massive queues at
border control. The nationwide issue was first reported by Edinburgh Airport amongst Birmingham Airport, Manchester Airport, London Heathrow, Gatwick, London Luton and Stansted also faced huge queues.
There are more than 270 eGates (automated electronic gates) at 15 airports and Eurostar terminals across the country.
Birmingham Airport’s “state-ofthe-art” security hall upgrade, a project – costing £60 million after inflationary costs drove up the rebuild by millions of pounds – will see the terminal transformed by June.
The upgrade will get the airport in line with regulations which will end the need to remove liquids and laptops during pre-flight security checks. The new security checkpoint will feature a new x-ray scanner, which will allow passengers to leave their liquids and electronics in their hand luggage.
Absolute shocking incompetence by the airport. They cannot process the passengers and yet after security the airport is empty Traveller