Major UK airport hit with travel chaos again days after hand luggage U-turn

Hundreds of fed-up passengers had to queue to get inside Birmingham Airport this morning as it continues to be hit by travel chaos.

Airlines have warned holidaymakers to arrive far in advance of their flights as confusion over the security rules means people have been kept waiting. Birmingham Airport has spent £60million to upgrade its security desks and introduce hi-tech scanners known as Next Generation Security Checkpoints (NGSC).

This morning, people waiting to leave on holiday were already waiting in huge queues outside the doors from 5am. One fed-up person wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Absolute shambles of a trip with Tui/First Choice. After the 3 hour ordeal of bag drop and security at Birmingham Airport at 3am we are now delayed for 90 minutes so far as they hadn’t got any cleaners for the plane. Never again!”

Another added: “Just joined the Birmingham Airport security queue. It’s 5.18am – let’s see how quickly we get through. Don’t have a fast track. I’ll do the job that the @bhx_official comms team don’t. Awful for anybody elderly, with a disability, kids or if it was raining.”

Another joked: “In the departure lounge at Birmingham Airport. I had Fast Track so it wasn’t too bad at 35 minutes for security but for non-Fast Track, the queues are massive all over the car park. When you get inside it is like the Olympics with people running to catch flights. Come on England!”

First Choice Holidays replied to an unhappy passenger: “Birmingham airport are working hard to reduce the wait times to prevent this happening in the future and we can only apologise for the further delay.”

Last week Birmingham Airport CEO Mr Barton implied passengers were to blame for failing to comply with baggage rules. He said: “A non-compliant bag with liquids over 100ml can add up to 20 minutes to each passenger’s journey through security.”

Mr Barton told the BBC: “Since opening our new security area, and despite being one of the first UK airports to comply, we have been limited on the use of our multi-million-pound equipment due to an outstanding regulatory restriction meaning we had to limit liquids to 100ml.

“Despite the 100ml rule still being in place, we continually have non-compliant bags with liquids over the allowance which has led to inefficiencies of our equipment and resulted in extended queuing time for customers. It is now imperative that all customers comply with the nationwide rule to ensure a smoother and simpler transition through the airport.’

Insiders claimed the huge queues may last for months and the airport is “understaffed”, leaving employees “overworked” and “struggling.”