Birmingham Airport

✅ Verified Review | Never again. Over an hour wait to "clear immigration" when returning home on a flight from Rome. Never experienced anything like this before even when entering USA, Mexico or Middle East countries. Will pay extra and use more efficient Gatwick or other regional airport next time.

✅ Verified Review | I didn't intend to do airport reviews when I started reporting on airlines, however, I have travelled to and from BHX multiple times over the past 4 months and the service I have received has encouraged me to write. BHX is a small, single terminal airport in Solihull. It has a single runway and, I imagine, mainly services the people of the West Midlands Metropolitan Borough. It has everything you would expect from a small airport, standard duty free, generic over priced restaurants, an executive lounge that is anything but, and extortionate car parking. What it lacks, however, is the ability to function dynamically, the ability to handle large numbers of passengers arriving at the same time, and the ability to process baggage expediently. The airports main occupants include European low cost. As a result it attracts large numbers of passengers in the very early morning and at the height of the afternoon. Outside ELC it also services 788s from TCX, PIA, Air India, and Qatar, as well as 2x 77Ws and an A388 courtesy of Emirates. The problems with the airport are as follows: 1) The terminal size/layout makes it impossible to handle large numbers of passengers concurrently. The floor space on the bottom floor is sufficient to accommodate check in desks but has very little space for queuing. As a result you can almost always expect at least a 30 minute wait when checking in at terminal or bag dropping. The size of security is poor, there is a single corridor entrance to the area for domestic flights and a concertina style queing system for international flights. As with check in desks there just isn't the space to accommodate large numbers of passengers. 3 or more high capacity narrow bodies and you're backed up. A 30 minute security wait isn't unusual. 2) The handling of luggage is poor, primarily owing to over stretched handling agents. There are 2 handling agents at BHX to cover daily flights for 50 airlines. It is not uncommon to wait 15/20 minutes for luggage to be retrieved at the belts. The airport isn't fit for purpose, and despite this the management want to increase capacity. I think BHX has the ability to improve, but it requires a major infrastructure rethink and a principal support provider overhaul. Conversations were had regarding a second runway to increase movements, it is my opinion that this shouldn't be considered until the aforementioned infrastructure issues are addressed.

Having just arrived back after a 9 hour flight, I had to wait over an hour in line at immigration whilst non EU members sailed past me. There were so many free lanes not being used which meant my queuing time could've been halved. After collecting my bag, we walked outside the terminal to see that the drop and go car park (which has always been very efficient), had been dug up and replaced with signs to various car parks (which I had no previous knowledge of). So when my father kindly agreed to pick us up, you can imagine the grief I gave some car park attendants. Don't get me wrong, they didn't know what was going on either. I would love to know why you've changed something that was working, another Birmingham mistake adding to the list. Stay away from Birmingham! Awful place.

✅ Verified Review | Main Problem of the Airport are the huge waiting lines for security. This was combined with giving fake information of short waiting time (12 minutes) while the overall waiting time was 45 minutes. Signs were showing the 12 minute waiting in green, giving you the hope that you will have a reasonable quie waiting time. In the small print it was said that this was from Boarding pass check to safety. However, the main queue was 30 minutes until you could scan your Boarding Card. What was even more disturbing was that, once I was at the Boarding Card scanner I was rudely advised by a member of staff not to scan my Boarding Card now although there was space to queue further after the scanning Station. Obviously this was done to keep the official waiting time in the "green" area below 15 minutes. When complaining about this, I was threatened by a further member of staff that I would be not be allowed to go through security. Definitely my worst airport experience.

Flew with Thomas Cook to Dalaman from Birmingham last Friday. Our flight was delayed by more that 30 minutes due to over 40 passengers being delayed at security. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect Birmingham Airport management to have sufficient staff on security to ensure flights leave on time. Many desks were unmanned which is unforgivable as the airport authority know the number, aircraft capacity and times of departure up to a year in advance. In my experience this is definitely the worst UK airport.

Traveled to / from Birmingham airport by train, quick and simple as always. No bags to drop and checked-in online so straight to security. Wasn't the best set-up I've seen, some of the equipment looking a bit old and tired and relatively small. Bit of a queue but nothing too disastrous. The Duty Free layout has changed since my last journey, was a bit disorientating and didn't flow particularly well as these walk-though stores you now often see in airports usually do. Departure lounge in general was adequate with seating and a descent range of shops / restaurants. Went to Boots though all the check-outs were failing with promotions not going through and cash payments only, admittedly not a major fault of the airport I'm sure. Only a short distance to the boarding gates and were out on time. Flight back, straight off the plane with no Passport Control required as only coming from the Republic of Ireland and was back at the train station just 15 or 20 mins after landing. Overall serves it's purpose and will use again for convenience.

Quite simply worst airport I have ever experienced. From check in through security to collecting baggage it was shocking. We will never travel from here again - awful. Prefer to now drive extra hour to another airport as so bad at Birmingham. Complained but they didn't care really.

I have been using this airport for many years and have always been fairly happy with the way things run. My last flight both departure and arrival at Birmingham were problematic. I understand that security has had to be stepped up but the queue was outside in the bar and eating area. On my return, 22.35pm there was a massive queue for passport control. Only one official on the none EU desks and one on the EU desks. All automatic gates were working but still we waited 58 minutes. Just what you need after a long day.

I thought this airport would get better when they modernised the security screening, how wrong I was. This must be one of the worst airports in the UK (along with Luton) for passing through security, it always takes a long time. Passport Control on arrival usually takes an age as well. Thankfully I no longer have to use BHX frequently.

✅ Verified Review | Birmingham airport really doesn't like passengers. I have the misfortune to go through this airport weekly and if an 8am flight then security queue is always huge, probably close to 45 minutes, they have of course put in more pay £5 for fast track machines, so they are aware of the issues but their solution is to charge people and only take 15 minutes through "fast track". Once inside seating has been reduced and replaced with shops and cafes, none of which seem to have trained staff. Natural light is minimum and oppressive. When you come back into the airport be prepared for a 30 minute wait for immigration as the automated machines are rarely working and I don't think I have ever seen them all working. So if you have anybody waiting to pick you up then you are in trouble. I think this is the only airport in the country that charges to drop off, if you are more than a few minutes waiting the charges as astronomical. Birmingham has been very successful in bringing more airlines in but it just ignores the fare paying passenger. It would probably be better to drive further and use Heathrow.