Travellers delayed for hours at Birmingham Airport following 'technical issue' with security lanes

Furious passengers were met with long queues as they attempted to navigate the security lanes at the airport on Monday.

Travellers described the delays as a 'disaster' as they stood in line for over three hours to get past security barriers and onto planes.

The issues were said to have been caused by a 'technical issue' with the security lanes, which Birmingham Airport said "compounded the peak departure schedule" and "hindered our operation".

A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport said: "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."

Birmingham Airport apologised to customers and said the issue was now resolved.

The spokesperson added: "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 10 minutes on top of their security search time.

"I can confirm that the technical issue is now resolved."