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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2/10

"baggage collection was a nightmare"

(United Kingdom)

We landed early on our flight from Zakynthos and cleared customs quite quickly. However, the baggage collection was a nightmare. 1 hour after landing and we still did not have any bags. This has to be the slowest bag handling anywhere. I will not use this airport again.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitSeptember 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
no
6/10

"Disappointing experience"

(United Kingdom)

Arrived at Birmingham Airport tonight, absolutely chaos. Arrivals queueing on staircases, only 2 staff processing documents in passport control causing a severe backlog, the queue was full of children desperate for the toilet but alas none available. Airport staff incorrectly directing children under 12 to e-passport queue. Not what you expect from an international airport. Disappointing experience.
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitSeptember 2016
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
7/10

"our baggage arrived promptly"

(United Kingdom)

We were flying to Kuala Lumpur via Dubai. There were no problems at all with departure or arrivals times. The queuing was fine and our baggage arrived promptly. The airport is quite small so we expected quick times anyway. The only issue was having to pay £1 for a trolley. This should be reviewed.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"we just waited and waited"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Arrived at Birmingham Airport on Friday 26 August on Ryanair flight from Palma Majorca. The flight had been perfect and was a bit early. We got through customs quite quickly and entered the baggage reclaim area. The screen showed that the flight had landed at 19.20 which was about right. We waited for our bags, and waited and waited and waited. There were no staff present to talk to: no information on tannoys and no any explanation on the screens. We just waited and waited. My bags came out at 20.35, a delay of 1 hour 15 minutes. It took 2 hours to fly all the way from Majorca, and 1 hour 15 minutes for the bags to travel a few hundred metres. The service by the baggage handlers, was dreadful. The service provided by the airport (lack of information and lack of staff) was appalling. There was limited seating, the ventilation/air con was struggling with the volume of people in the room for so long, and the toilets were messy. No food/drink facilities at all, I only live a few minutes from the airport, and having landed at 19.20 I should have been home by 8, but instead it was gone 9. Not to mention the exorbitant cost of our lift parking in the "short stay" drop off zone waiting for us. Its so much easier to drive to East Midlands airport where everything is so much easier and better.
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"better management and staff are required"

(United Kingdom)

After visiting 3 other airports in Malaysia for a 2 week holiday, absolutely appalled and embarrassed by Birmingham airport. Taking 1 hour to collect luggage, facilities worse than 3rd world countries, and children being allowed to climb on conveyer belts and sit on top of luggage stacked high on trollies shocked me. Toilets were to a poor standard of cleanliness, and immigration should be better designed for British passport holders. Better management and staff are required and money needs to be put back into making the airport more efficient and up to date.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple 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
9/10

"pretty impressed with the airport"

(South Korea)

I was pretty impressed with the airport and few, if any, of the complaints I'd recently read about were problems I experienced. We breezed through immigration very quickly - arrived just after midday so it wasn't a completely deserted time of the day - and the queuing arrangements for this seemed well organised. There were staff around to get you in the correct queue and we were filtered out of the electronic gates line, having a child in our group who couldn't use those. At the front of the queue there were other staff directing people to the next available counters - all pretty efficient, I thought. Baggage collection was faultless too - the carousel for our flight was clearly announced and our bags came through after a fairly short wait. I was slightly amused to see "complimentary strollers" that seemed not to be complimentary as they required money to release them. This is on a par with most UK airports these days, though. And I would say to BHX's credit that at least baggage trolleys are still free to use. On our departure from BHX there wasn't too much of a wait for security - it probably took us about 10 minutes. There are information screens before security advising how long it's currently likely to take to clear security - a great idea and the estimate of 12 minutes for us was accurate - slightly less, if anything. There was a minor issue with one item we were taking through security but it was professionally and courteously dealt with. We didn't have much interaction with many airport staff beyond the bare minimum but the ones we did encounter seemed pleasant enough and the claims of other reviewers of miserable staff not justified in our experience. I once used BHX in the 1990s, had a dreadful experience and deliberately avoided it for many years after. Recent reviews suggested I would be in for more of the same. But fortunately that wasn't the case at all. A couple of other people I met on our UK trip also said their recent experiences of using BHX were similar to mine. I'll definitely consider flying to and from Birmingham on my next UK trip.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"embarrassed at the incompetence2

(United Kingdom)

I arrived at Birmingham Airport at 3am to find that there were no steps to get off the plane (even the pilot commented on the lack of efficiency) and after 20 minutes we managed to disembark. Although we got on a bus from the plane, many passengers were left standing as the buses were full. I wonder if the airport has access to information regarding the number of passengers on a particular plane so that they can estimate how many buses they need? We then had to wait 45 minutes for our luggage to appear. When questioned about the baggage delay the unhelpful staff said "Well, it's holiday time". I wonder also whether August is an unusual time for a holiday period or could possibly be planned for? I am embarrassed at the incompetence and the couldn't care less attitude of this airport and their staff. Disgraceful.
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
4/10

"old fashioned and untidy"

(United Kingdom)

Came back from Copenhagen via Brussels and the first impression of the BHX airport is old fashioned and untidy with all those ugly carpets. The second worst thing is to pay for those trollies,never seen this in at any airports I've been to even trollies are bulky and old fashioned compare to the ones you get at Copenhagen or Brussels. Less staff at arrivals , long queues - overall experience BAD.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2016
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
1/10

"terrible baggage handling"

(United Kingdom)

Terrible baggage handling and extortionate parking. Took 75 minutes to unload baggage at 7am on a Tuesday morning after long-haul flight. No updates or information throughout. Because of the delay my friend who was collecting me had to transfer from the highly extortionate drop-off parking at a cost of £12 for just over 30 minutes to the slightly less but still highly extortionate medium stay car park at a cost of £9 for just over 60 minutes. I travel frequently (once per month) and BHX is easily one of the worst airports in Europe.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
3/10

"embarrassing at how bad it was"

(United Kingdom)

Leaving from Birmingham was ok and plenty of staff, however returning is completely different. Long delay before we got off the plaine in comparison to Palma airport which was very quick. Very slow through passport control, only 3 people manning this area for our flight and 2 others. Luggage collection was a joke, no initial indication of which carousel to collect from, eventually someone said it was on 6, after a long wait we found that this was also another flights luggage. We were indicated to go to 5 then back to 6 then 5 then back again to 6, this process of confusing messaging with no person to tell us what was going on went on for over an hour. Really terrible customer service. It's embarrassing at how bad it was, if I was a tourist I would really have struggled. My young children who are luckily very good were ok with the delay, but we were very tired, if we had a choice I would use another airport. It's always the same and takes the shine off a holiday. Taxi driver that was booked to collect us had a nightmare waiting for us, this must have cost him money, luckily he had the sense not to enter the pick up zone that charges £2 for he first 10 minutes then jumps up to silly money. Also noticed lots of luggage lying around which looked messy and makes one wonder if these are all lost.
Experience At AirportArrival Only
Date VisitAugust 2016
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