'We were dreading Birmingham Airport for weeks - but what happened when we arrived surprised us'

I last travelled out of the airport in August last year and haven’t encountered problems queuing before. We live about half an hour away from the airport.

We got to the airport at about 5.10am but didn't join the queue for security until 20 past. My flight to Crete was at 7.55am. My family and I were told by TUI to arrive three hours before our flight, and chose not to arrive any earlier, to avoid adding to the queuing chaos. We had initially booked our taxi from home to arrive at the airport two and a half hours before, but changed it to follow the airline's advice.

My family and I were dreading the queues after weeks of seeing pictures online and hearing horror stories of people waiting in line for three hours plus.

When our taxi first pulled up at Arrivals, we all commented that the queues weren’t as bad as we thought, as they only stretched back as far as one marquee, with two set up at Arrivals.

Feeling somewhat optimistic, we swiftly dropped our luggage off, which was very well-organised, and walked past hundreds of tired passengers stood in snaking queues to join the back of the line outside.

We had even decided to bring toast in tin foil as we were worried we wouldn’t have time for our usual routine of a Pret-a-Manger breakfast and mooch around the shops. I ate cold toast in the queue - what a treat!

My dad, who I was travelling with along with my mum, commented that it was the worst airport queue he had seen in more than 50 years of travelling. Although the queues were long, we were constantly shuffling along - one step closer to our holiday!

It appeared to me that the lifts were the issue, as you have to get the lift to go upstairs for security. There are four lifts to take you up to security - no escalators.

The airport staff were constantly walking around calling people out of the queue around an hour ahead of their flight times. At 5.50am, they were calling out for passengers for flights at 7am or before. Though this was an organised system, my family and I all commented that it would have been helpful for the staff to have a megaphone, as occasionally it was difficult to hear the times they were calling.

I should add I tried to buy fast-track around a week ago, but it had sold out. It took us an hour to make it to security on the first floor - it’s like queueing for the worst ride ever!

The lifts were the only way upstairs, they were sending them up and down constantly but prioritised any express lane people who come. It was well-organised and there were staff around at every stage of the queuing process.

We reached the security scanners an hour and 15 minutes in. At security you now have to go through a slightly different body scanner but the process is the same overall except you can now leave your liquids of 100ml or less in your bag and don’t have to remove them. The staff explained what to do if you were unsure.

We were through - the whole process took exactly one hour and 20 minutes. I was relieved and felt like my holiday could finally begin! We even had time to get a coffee.

Overall the queues were really well-managed, there were plenty of staff around to help if needed and clear sign posting. Around an hour before a flight took off, they went around asking if there were any passengers for the flights and asked them to come forward. It was sometimes however difficult to hear what they were saying so they could do with a megaphone or microphone

The liquid check was absolutely fine, the only difference to the usual experience is you leave your liquids of 100ml or less in your hand luggage rather than removing them. It was all really well-managed.