Birmingham Airport

✅ Verified Review | £70 to park my car for 2 days whilst on a business trip to Ireland. 1 hr 10 minute to get through security and on return 35 minutes to get my bags. Birmingham is about the worst airport in the UK right now and I've changed to fly from Bristol now and I hope the management take note and improve the abysmal service.

Birmingham handling agents appear to be surprised when an aircraft turns up their organisation is poor. It took 20 minutes to find some steps to disembark the aircraft even though there was a set parked in the bay near the aircraft's parking slot. Even the captain was getting embarrassed by the delay. Baggage took 30 minutes to arrive which I suppose for BHX wasn't too bad.

I travel on business a lot in and out of Birmingham only because it is convenient. The same with holidays. Most business travel is with hand luggage but frustrated more times than I can remember when steps not available to disembark or they have brought the wrong size steps. On this occasion, returning from holiday on 30/5/17 from Kefalonia with Thomas Cook Airlines, not only were we forced to join queue for auto passport control when immigration people sat at desks doing nothing, we waited 1.5 hours for our luggage to be delivered to the belt. We always experience long delays at Birmingham for luggage reclaim, why? When travelling out we were encouraged to check in online so as to go to the fast bag drop. There wasn't one. We had to join the queue for all Thomas Cook flights for a conventional check in. Birmingham is the worst airport I have used in the UK. Other airports I use are Manchester, East Midlands, Heathrow Gatwick and Stansted. None are as bad as Birmingham.

✅ Verified Review | We arrived from Cyprus and had to sit on the aircraft because there were no staff available to bring the stairs to unload the passengers from the aircraft. When the stairs arrived some passengers got off, then they had to close the door as the stairs had not been fitted safely. We went to baggage claim where there were no trolleys available, they were all locked up. No staff available to take luggage off aircraft, we had to wait and wait and wait. It made me feel ashamed to be British. I was in a wheelchair, what a disaster, it was total chaos.

✅ Verified Review | I travelled with my mother on Saturday morning for our outward journey. The layout is bad, meaning passengers, after going through security checks (huge and badly managed queues), have to walk long corridors, passing many mostly empty shops and the eating areas, before reaching the departure gates. The eating / drinking areas are claustrophic at best. We stopped at Costa, but queues there were long, and the staff looked hot and tired. Little wonder they were slow serving. This section has no natural daylight either. Security itself is chaotic. Why anyone getting frisked faces away from their valuables being checked I don't know. My mother went through security before me, but whilst her belongings were being checked, her camera and money belt went missing (currently being investigated). I was more fortunate in that the gentleman frisking me apologised for keeping me waiting, but remained professional and friendly whilst he did his stuff. There aren't enough people like him. Having disembarked from our return flight, we boarded a bus that took us round what felt like the back of a warehouse. Our entrance to the airport was through a small door, followed by a narrow staircase (no lift about) and along a long corridor. If I wasn't with my mother, she would have had to rely on other passengers to carry her suitcase up the stairs. I am NOT impressed. We ended up to near where the aircraft had landed. This is not good enough. It was not like Chania airport where we arrived to a lovely, presentable building, instead of a pokey little corridor. Avoid this airport if you can. Geographically it might be placed very centrally, but its management must be improved. Next time I fly, I'll use either East Midlands or Stanstead.

✅ Verified Review | It was quicker to fly from Paris than the wait in queues for U.K. Border. Clearly they made no arrangements for additional traffic of half term holidays. Only half of staff working on border control and no announcements to explain. As you can imagine is chaos!

✅ Verified Review | I use Birmingham Airport on a weekly basis as I work in Germany. I started the job in February but after a few weeks of really long delays going through security I now book express security. The last month the queues for the normal security lane has been growing longer and longer. I noticed that Birmingham Airport quoted that the delays last week were due to unprecedented passenger numbers. This does not wash as the problems have been growing for some time now. On coming back to the UK the passport queues are also a problem. Sometimes I have had to wait 20-30 minutes. I regularly use different airports across Europe and Birmingham is by far the worst I have seen. It doesn't even come close to the other airports. It is a long way behind for service. One word - appalling. They should be ashamed. With regard to facilities it also comes very low. As I have said I regularly visit other European airports and Birmingham is the worst. Lack of food outlets, no seating (regularly see people sitting on the floor). The people who do the planning need a good look at themselves. The security system was only changed a few years ago and is now not fit for purpose. The problem is that they try to push everything through one queue. Other airports split people earlier and have more security so the largest queue is no more than 10-15 people not hundreds as I saw the other day. People then queue up for up to an hour before being split at the last minute. There were airport staff shouting whether anyone was on this flight or that flight but they didn't go down the whole queue. Not surprised people missed their flights.

✅ Verified Review | I regularly use Birmingham Airport but on this occasion had to book special assistance for my Dad. We arrived at the OCS desk on the ground floor and the staff were very rude and asked if my dad really needed assistance (he is in his 80's uses a walking stick and can't walk far). They said there would be a wait but at least 4 people came after us and were taken through. I asked why this was happening and they said we were next, a woman walked up calling a name but I couldn't hear her. I politely said excuse me but she said she was busy and walked off. I said that I thought she'd called my dads name but she just ignored me and kept walking! I spoke to the desk and asked to speak to a manager. I was told there wasn't a manager but I spoke to the supervisor. There was no apology. I asked for the manager to call me and I left my number but over a week later I still haven't had a call. They are an awful outfit and do no favours for the airport. (I have to say that the staff airside going to the plane were great but landside wss awful!).

Have travelled extensively and use this airport regularly since it is convenient to our home. We have experienced slow service over many years but nothing as bad as 23rd May when there were delays exiting the plane and going through passport control. It doesn't help when there are major works on arrival to the airport. When we flew out there was a forty minute delay while they found a connection bar to push us off the standing! They cant even deal locally with complaints about car parking. Dreadful.

✅ Verified Review | Complete chaos on arrival due to drop off area being closed. It took about one hour to go through passport check and security for departure. (this was confirmed in Birmingham mail later in the week due to staff shortages). The return arrival we were taken by bus off the apron to the terminal and then waited 50 minutes for luggage. This airport tries to sell itself as being part of the 'second city' but in reality is second rate by some way comparing it to the likes of manchester airport. it is local to me but I prefer East Midlands for short haul, for long haul it doesn't have too many choices and therefore the choices are between London or Manchester.