Long queues at Birmingham Airport with 150,000 set to fly over Easter weekend

Almost half of the airport's staff were made redundant after Covid-19 and travel restrictions hit the industry hard, with shortages of trained security staff impacting on queue times.

One passenger said she had "never seen queues like it", while another, Terry, on his way to Mallorca, reported queues right to the back of the airport and round again.

Once passengers get through boarding, the airport say waiting times are ranging from 15 minutes to just over half an hour.

Another traveller reported it took her half an hour to get through fast-track security, but moved to commend staff for their calmness and patience, and organisation when dealing with hundreds of people.

Yesterday, 14,500 customers flew out of Birmingham Airport, with 82 per cent passing through security in under 20 minutes.

Al Titterington, terminal operations director for Birmingham Airport, said: "We’re expecting more than 150,000 customers to fly in and out of Birmingham Airport over the Easter weekend.

"Our message to departing customers is to arrive at the airport to check in, or drop off baggage, at the time your airline advises and ‘help us help you’ keep queues moving by presenting compliant hand luggage - removing all liquids, gels, pastes and electrical items - at the security x-ray scanners."

The struggles originate from security lay-offs during the pandemic, which saw 43 per cent of Birmingham Airport’s total employees made redundant.

Birmingham Airport is now training its newest recruited security officers who will be on duty soon, to assist with the security search function.

The airport has looked to address this with a recruitment drive since November, however speaking earlier in the month, a spokesman admitted while the current level has helped, they still would like to increase the number of security staff.

Terry Woolgar, 42, was travelling from the airport on his way to Majorca on Good Friday, and reported the long queues which wrapped around the ground floor.

He said: "We’d seen all the news about airport delays and long queues, so much like everyone else we decided to get to the airport earlier than the normal 2 hours.

"We were flying to Majorca at 9am and arrived at approximately 5.45am.

"At that point they were already controlling the queues for security by holding people at the start of the escalator on the ground floor.

"We’d tried checking in with Ryanair at 6am and once we’d got to the self service scanners to check out bags it told us we were too early.

"We went back at 6.30am and we then managed to check luggage so we could head to security.

"By this point the security queue started just past the escalators on the ground floor but heading in the opposite direction right up to the other end of the airport and then back.

"Overall we spent one and a half hours queuing to get to and through security.

"The staff on the ground did a good job of prioritising people on flights within an hour to the front of the queue, so despite the long wait you had some comfort you wouldn’t miss your flight.

"Everyone seemed to be accepting of the circumstances and most people just got on with it and chatting to their queuing neighbours.

"We’d booked the fast track for £4 each once we eventually got to the actual security queue upstairs which made a difference and probably saved us about 15 to 20 minutes over the main queue.

"I’d like to think the worst is out of the way for the UK airports now with most people escaping on the earlier flights.

"The news of long queues probably doesn’t help as it creates panic for people's holidays so the natural reaction is to arrive earlier, creating more congestion at the airports."

Birmingham airport reports its most popular Easter destinations are Dublin, Amsterdam, Dubai, Malaga and Tenerife, with an average 28,000 customers a day are expected to pass through the airport over the Easter fortnight.

A spokesman said: "Another busy start with thousands of customers booked to fly out of BHX today.

"Once people cleared our boarding pass gate, wait times for security this morning ranged from 15 minutes to just over half an hour as queues ebbed and flowed."

"Yesterday, 14,500 customers flew out of BHX. Of those, 82 per cent were through security in under 20 minutes."