Huge queues at airport

If you are travelling from Wales to fly from Birmingham Airport this is what we know:

• A huge queue snaked outside of BHX’s front doors this morning
• Passengers reported nearly missing or missing their flights
• Holidaymakers said they were stuck in the security queue for two hours
• BHX bosses said they made the decision to queue passengers outside due to the “sunny” weather to “ease congestion”
• Ryanair advised passengers to arrive at the airport three hours before departure
• A new security area is currently being built at the airport, which is having a knock on effect
• BHX said it could not provide us with an exact timeline on when the new security area will be finished

A Ryanair spokesperson has said: “Due to the increased number of passengers travelling over the summer period, and expected congestion at security control, we advise all passengers to arrive three hours prior to departure and proceed through security control as soon as possible.

“The Ryanair check-in counters will be open from three hours prior to your departure time. Please prepare your hand baggage in accordance with the advice found here before arriving at security as failure to do so may cause delays for yourself and other passengers.

“We also advise all passengers to monitor the Ryanair App for the latest information on your flight.”

If you are travelling to the airport by train from south Wales there are some delays to report.

A fault with the signalling system at Severn Tunnel Junction means fewer trains are able to run on all lines. As a result, trains running between Newport and Gloucester / Bristol may be cancelled, delayed by up to 40 minutes or diverted via Lydney.

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson has said:

Due to our on-going constructions works to build our new security search area, customers will find themselves queuing in unfamiliar areas. With the sunny morning we experienced today, we took the decision to queue our customers outside to ease congestion around the construction works.

Whilst this looks unusual to our customers, and for this we apologise, we do make operational decisions daily to ensure the flow of customers through security.”

Passenger Charlotte Deakin said she was stuck in the huge queue outside the airport despite arriving two and a half hours before her flight.

She wrote on social media platform X: “What a joke. Probably going to miss our flight.”

A passenger has claimed other holidaymakers were stuck at security 10 minutes before their flight was due to depart.

Aimee Franciso, whose flight is at 8.25am, told Birmingham Live: “We arrived just before 6am. We were queuing at security for approx two hours.

“There were people at security just ahead of us whose flights were due to leave 10 minutes later.”

Birmingham Airport says it is currently ‘building for its future’ by creating a new security search area that will be ‘streamlined, speedier and simpler’. However, staff admit that the transition can be ‘confusing for customers‘ with ‘queuing and walking routes changing’.

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson told BirminghamLive: “Birmingham Airport has invested £60m in a new security hall and scanning equipment. This major construction project, which has been ongoing for 18 months, is building for our future with the construction of a new simpler and streamlined security area for our customers.

“The building works within the terminal mean we have lost areas where customers would previously have queued for security, mainly our upstairs space. This means that the majority of our security queuing area is now downstairs.”

The Home Office, which oversees Border Force, confirmed that there was a ‘nationwide issue due to a problem with the passport eGates last night (May 7), according to a BBC report. eGates are automated gates that use facial recognition to check a person’s identity and allow them to enter the country without talking to a Border Force officer.

Across the 15 air and rail ports in the UK, there are more than 270 of e-gates in place, according to the government’s website, which also says they are supposed to ‘enable quicker travel into the UK’. Yesterday, staff were left to manually process passengers through security due to the national outage. Due to their outage, staff were left manually processing passengers instead.

This is from Birmingham Airport

The queue starts outside the entrance to the airport.

People are urging other on social media to make sure they turn up early.

One said: “FYI if you’re going to Birmingham airport anytime soon, make sure you’re there at least 2 hours before, even if you’re not checking luggage in.”

Another said: “Queue for security snaking out of the building this morning. Absolute shambles of an airport.”