Birmingham Airport noticed huge queues and lengthy waits yesterday, with one traveller estimating a “one kilometre” queue at its peak.
Queues round 5am-8am stretched exterior the terminal, with social media customers posting movies and photographs of snaking traces of holidaymakers ready within the drop-off space.
“The queues at Birmingham Airport are worse than the media are reporting! Give your self a minimum of 5hrs earlier than your flight!” tweeted Jon Rowe shortly earlier than 6am.
Not lengthy after 7am, Lee Griffiths posted a number of photos of the queues, writing: “Whole shambles at @bhx_official this morning. Queueing out the door. Not all baggage traces working.”
“Really, all these zoom conferences weren’t so unhealthy,” quipped Matthew Broome on Twitter at 7.30am.
Birmingham, together with different UK and Eire airports together with Gatwick, Manchester and Dublin, has suffered from hours-long queues as journey bounces again following the pandemic.
An airport spokesperson advised the Birmingham Mail yesterday that 7,500 individuals had been booked to fly throughout the peak daybreak interval of the day, which had knowledgeable the choice to run safety queues exterior. They mentioned the traces had been “lengthy however managed and transferring”.
Nonetheless, one holidaymaker advised the Birmingham Mail that they queue they’d encountered was “one kilometre” lengthy.
In an interview with BBC Radio WM final week, the airport’s chief govt Nick Barton mentioned: “It’s nonetheless the legacy of the business being turned again on by the federal government’s removing of the foundations in mid-February.”
Mr Barton additionally talked about a 12-week “lag” between recruiting new airport workers and getting them working within the terminals.
This morning, social media customers reported smoother-flowing queues at Birmingham, with a number of saying safety was “tremendous quiet” or praising queue occasions of round one hour.
The airport’s social media staff should not advising passengers to indicate up any sooner than their airline’s suggested boarding time, penning this morning: “We advise passengers to reach on the terminal consistent with your airline’s check-in time.”
A Birmingham Airport spokesperson mentioned: “Queues had been managed and steadily transferring this morning as we helped most of the greater than 14,000 prospects booked to fly out of BHX immediately (Tues, Might 10).
“As at all times, we ask prospects to reach on the airport precisely when your airline advises – and to assist us allow you to preserve queues transferring by eradicating any liquids, gels, pastes and electrical objects out of your luggage earlier than our safety x-ray scanners.”
Manchester Airport has additionally suffered mega queues prior to now week, with some passengers lacking flights or being left in tears. A number of passengers mentioned yesterday that they’d “by no means seen it this unhealthy”.
