The Daily Telegraph

Revealed: UK airports with the longest waits at security

Fliers at Leeds Bradford face slowest processing times while London City carries out fastest checks

- By Benedict Smith

LEEDS BRADFORD has the longest queues of any airport in Britain, with a quarter of passengers waiting at least an hour to get through security.

Average processing times at the airport have more than tripled to 35 minutes since 2019, according to the Which? consumer group, which surveyed 1,300 travellers between February and August.

London City was the airport with the fastest system, taking 12 minutes for a typical security check.

Passengers also faced hour-long queues, albeit less frequently, at nine other airports including Bristol (17 per cent of respondent­s), Birmingham (11 per cent) and Manchester (8 per cent).

Leeds Bradford blamed its performanc­e on the surge in passenger numbers after lockdown was lifted, although waiting times at rival airports increased less dramatical­ly or declined compared with pre-covid levels.

Almost three in 10 passengers were stuck in queues for at least an hour at the Yorkshire airport – more than five times the industry average.

Waits at the airport have tripled since the last Which? report three years ago, when the average queue lasted 10.6 minutes.

Around 7 per cent of those surveyed said they had missed a flight because they were waiting to be processed by security.

Guy Hobbs, of Which? Travel, said: “Your choice of airport shouldn’t make or break your holiday – but for too many travellers this year, that has been the case. We would recommend choosing an airport with a better record on queues and treatment of passengers, even if that involves travelling slightly further from home.”

London City Airport was ranked best by the study, with the average security queue lasting 12 minutes. Half of travellers reported waiting between five and 10 minutes.

It was the only London airport where customers did not endure waits of more than an hour. Average waits were significan­tly shorter than at Gatwick (16 minutes), Stansted (18 minutes), Luton (19 minutes) and Heathrow (20 minutes).

At Belfast City and Glasgow Internatio­nal, a third of respondent­s took less than five minutes to pass through security.

A spokesman for Leeds Bradford said: “Earlier this year, like many airports across the UK, we had periods of long queueing due to the rapid resumption of internatio­nal travel after the lifting of pandemic restrictio­ns.

“We were transparen­t about these difficulti­es at the time and worked hard to address those short-term issues. We have since significan­tly reduced queueing in our terminal.”

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