Birmingham Airport

Customer Reviews

No Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 428 reviews
3/10
No Skytrax Rating
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3/10

"appalling level of service"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Generally not a bad airport for checking in, security check or passport control when arriving back. But trying to collect your baggage on arrival is a nightmare. It used to be okay but the last few times I've arrived back to Birmingham, trying to collect your luggage takes between 1-3 hours. Our flight landed from Portugal early and we were out of passport control within 5 minutes. The luggage, however, as usual nowadays took more than 1.5 hours. Most families from the flight had young children (we had a 3 and 5 year old) who get tired and fed up with all the hanging around. We had 2 cars to pick us up whose drivers had to hang around for ages waiting for us. The airport needs to do something about Swissports appalling level of service. This is happening all the time. Whether its due to lack of staff or other reasons, this should get sorted out as soon as possible. Heathrow and Gatwick are busier airports yet I've never had as bad a service on arrival as Birmingham.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"queues for security were unbelievable"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | The queues for security were unbelievable, there were signs saying that the queue after the boarding cards check was only 10 minutes, however the queue before the boarding cards check was over one hour, and probably over one mile as well judging by the quantity of folds on their Lanning system. I'm considering changing to a further away airport as this one keeps on getting worse. On arrival you hardly have any border agency staff working specially on the late flights and again there's huge queues.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitSeptember 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
4/10

"an absolutely awful experience"

(United Kingdom)

Unverified | What on earth is going on with their Swissport partner. This weekend when we arrived back from Naples on Friday night with Thomson Airways at 11.30pm, we had to wait 25 minutes for stairs as we were told there were no busses. Another 10 minute wait and then when we arrived in the baggage hall there was complete mayhem, a disgrace. Bags everywhere, luggage belts blocked up with dozens of bags. No-one manning the swissport desk customers everywhere, an absolutely awful experience and this is the first thing new visitors see when arriving in Birmingham. Simply not good enough.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitSeptember 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
8/10

"security was quick and polite"

(United Kingdom)

Unverified | I fly weekly from either Liverpool or Manchester and to be honest, Birmingham blew them both out of the water! Check in with Jet2 was immediate and security was quick and polite. This is a massive difference when compared to Manchester which has the rudest most aggressive security staff I've experienced. Food and beverage was overpriced, but immigration on return was impressively quick.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitSeptember 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"A complete and utter shambles"

(United Kingdom)

Unverified | Arrived Thursday 30 August from Dublin. Had to disembark from Aer Lingus aircraft onto 2 buses which took 20 mins then a 2 minute journey to terminal. Why couldn't the first bus leave when full? Then took an hour for luggage to arrive on conveyor. My bags had priority stickers on them which made no difference. Why were 4 flights cases put onto 1 conveyor? A complete and utter shambles at BHX, Swissport should hang their heads in shame - a total disgrace. So many complaints about this so why do they still have contract? Why are BHX management doing nothing about improving the service. Your own baggage staff just blaming Swissport and are no help at all. Disgrace!
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"airport is a shambles, a disorganised mess"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | I pre booked parking in car park 4 as this was a ten minute walk to the terminal, once in the terminal I had to walk another 10 minutes to check in as my check in was in the older part of the building. Signage within the airport is poor and assumes you know where you are going, I managed to find my way to security, where I had paid to be fast tracked, this was a waste of money as the only fast track queue was blocked my someone looking in their bag. I got sent back by security as my shoes made the scanner indicate metal, then when I finally got through I was faced by an Ikea style Duty Free Shop, Having walked through that mess I found the departure lounge, with very little in way of seating outside of the restaurants and bar area. The enire lounge was claustrophobic and airless with no external views of the airside activities. Once my plane was called I went to the gate where you could see what was happening airside, however the number of seats available was less than most aircraft can carry. I was so happy to get on the plane having had an appaliing and nerve racking expereince so far. Coming home was fine Zurich was perfect in every way. Gettng off the plane the gate was hot, no air-conditioning, I visited the arrivals toilet, which just reminded me of a shopping centre toilet, that smell of urine you get after a long hot day. I reached Immigration, this use to be passport control but now tech has taken over and, surprisingly refjected 1 in 3 passengers passports, so you had to be questioned by an UKBA officer. Things have changed in air travel in the last 20 years I know, but why do I need to go through immigration if I didn't pass through immigration on the way out? I found my suitcase at ramp 6, I had to walk past many cases that appeared to be stored in that area, who knows they were probably lost from the Air Transat flight a few weeks back. The there is an opportunity to buy anything else you need, perfume, booze etc. before exiting into a stuffy arrivals (and departures area). Past M&S I exited to find myself walking through broken glass that had been there sometime, before walking the 10 minutes back to my car. No wonder American and now United have pulled out. I can't wait to see if any other Airlines will pull out at Birimingham International? The airport is a shambles, a disorganised mess, that needs air cooling, the signage needs improving, Directions to the Car Parks seem ok, but how do you get to the terminal. This airport is nothing more than a regional airport, that has 4 or 5 long haul eastbound flights per day. You soon won't be able to get to the states and you can't get to Canada or Mexico or Africa or the Far East. Yet there is a daily flight to Turkmenistan, a country which only welcomes organised tours.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"A complete shambles"

(United Kingdom)

Unverified | Absolutely appalled by the service today. Flying into Birmingham, it took 1.5 hours from the time we landed until we managed to get out of the place. Had to wait for what seemed like ages onboard for some steps and a shuttle bus to take us to the terminal. It then took us the best part of an hour to get through passport control! The most frustrating part was that there were about 10 non-electronic passport holders who whizzed through their passport control, but hundreds of electronic passport holders who had to wait. Surely it would have been quicker and more efficient to let us electronic holders through the human control point? Never has it taken me so long to get out of an airport. A complete shambles.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"absolutely shambolic"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Absolutely shambolic at Birmingham Airport. Swissport staff are rude but who can blame them when they seem so understaffed and mismanaged. 3 times in last 5 weeks my flight from Birmingham has missed its take off slot due to Swissport not loading the bags in time. Each time we have landed the pilot has apologised because they (Swissport) take forever to bring the stairs for passengers to disembark. Flying with Wizz Air two weeks ago they opened the check in counter 1hr 45 before flight time - when asked what was going on the staff at check in said they had no idea and had literally just been asked to fill in. Today's flight sat in the sweltering heat on runway for 30 mins! The belt and conveyors all broken - according to staff been that way for weeks. I used to enjoy traveling from BHX - I now dread it. It is chaos.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"no other airport is this bad"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Baggage conveyor belts broke down at check in on outward journey to Larnaca causing stress that we might hold up or delay the flight. Lucky we anticipated usual poor Birmingham service and went early. If you can call it luck, flight was delayed by 1 hr for unspecified reasons. Check in staff excellent. On return from Larnaca, stuck on plane for 20 minutes because airbridge not working and the hopeless airport services outfit found it an arduous task to push some steps up. The aircraft staff had to sort it out and were superb otherwise it would have been even longer. 1 hour 10 minutes to get the baggage onto the conveyors. BHX are responsible for the cost cutting imposed on their contractors and the others that they pennypinch to provide airport services so it it is no wonder that their staff and passengers are treated abominably by these people. No other airport is this bad. Appalling really for 2nd city
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
3/10

"A national embarrassment"

(United Kingdom)

Unverified | Grim! A national embarrassment. Dirty, grubby and outdated, not fit for purpose. Scruffy airport, scruffy staff. It reminded me of a recession hit small town shopping centre from the 1990s. Evidently run on a shoestring budget. A truly awful airport.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitAugust 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no