Thousands of Britons have been stuck in queues for hours at Birmingham Airport amid ‘shambolic’ and ‘terrible’ scenes as families fly away on half-term holidays.
Passengers reported having to wait for more than an hour, with some said to have been pulled out of the line because the gate for their flight was closing.
It comes after airport officials insisted travellers would experience a ‘simpler and streamlined experience’ after it rolled out a new security hall on Saturday.
Passengers had also reported big queues in the days before the new security hall opened due to building works, which meant normal queueing routes were changed.
Now, the new search area uses screening machines that mean passengers no longer need to remove liquids that are up to 100ml in size from their hand luggage or have them in separate liquid bags. Electrical items can now also stay in hand luggage.
Bosses expect 221,500 customers to travel out of Birmingham Airport over the nine-day period from May 24 until June 2, which is 15 per cent up on the same period last year. The top destinations are Palma, Dublin, Amsterdam, Dubai and Antalya.
The airport previously insisted it had ‘fully resourced’ their teams with ‘additional colleagues from across the business’ to help passengers get through the terminal.
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But among those stuck in the queueing chaos was Hannah Wright, a mother from Peterborough, who told The Sun: ‘Security is a shambles – anyone can come this far.
‘We’ve been waiting an hour to fly to Majorca. Our son is claustrophobic so it’s hard for him.
‘It’s put a dampener on the start of our holiday. There is nothing in place for children who might struggle in situations like this.’
Phil Adams, from Worcester, added: ‘It’s been terrible. We’ve been queuing over an hour. It’s really tiring and hot.
‘We are flying to Orlando for a holiday of a lifetime so this is not the best start.’
Others posted about the chaos on social media last night, with Isabella Boneham saying: ‘Very busy at Birmingham Airport this evening with queues forming outside for the lifts – and once inside queues for security!
‘May be more busy due to half term and bank holiday but if you’re flying from the airport this evening leave plenty of time.’
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Kieran Parmar added: ‘Birmingham Airport, you’re a joke of an airport, please take some lessons from Heathrow. Ridiculous how you treat people.’
Posting a picture of the queues, he added: ‘The below picture is after waiting almost one hour. Then another hour on top, even your own people were complaining!’
Others described the process as a ‘s*** show’, with one saying: ‘Birmingham Airport queues took 1 hour 20 today for a 16.45 flight!’
And passenger Trevor Bartlett told Birmingham Live yesterday: ‘At 3.30pm this afternoon the queue for the 3 (yes only 3) lifts stretched back as far as M&S shop in snake fashion and wasnt moving very quickly. Hope it is better in the morning.’
It comes after a nationwide issue with Border Force e-gates caused significant disruption at airports across the country on May 7.
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Airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester were impacted by the failure.
Border officials were left to manually process travellers instead, with images and footage shared on social media showing long queues forming at passport control at several airports.
E-gates are automated border gates that use facial recognition to check the identity of a person in order to let them enter the UK without talking to a Border Force officer.
The disruption came after Border Force workers staged a four-day strike at Heathrow in a dispute over working conditions the previous week.
MailOnline has contacted Birmingham Airport for comment.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
