Birmingham Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Treated like livestock. Felt like livestock. Ghastly, dingy, makeshift corridors with a shuffling mass of people who have no idea what the cause of the problem is or how long it will take. Grim-faced, hostile staff who clearly don’t like their job. Long term improvements may be the justification for the abysmal experience currently provided at Birmingham Airport but that’s an excuse, not the reason. The reason is that you, the customer, are the last consideration and that will not change.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst experience at security check. From my travel experience this airport is the worst I ever met in this area. The staff including the security manger address badly to people, they put their dirty hands in baggage of people, losing your time. Giving unclear instructions and making you feel bad specially they way they speak to people. I prefer to avoid this airport in the future.

✅ Trip Verified | I also travelled in October 2023. Both times check in slow & departure lounge bad. In September no seating at all whilst waiting 40 minutes or more for Air France plane. This trip on 15th March 2024 passport control chaos. E Gates not working. One person manually checking at the only desk. Queue very long to the escalators. Straight into a further queue and more chaos at security. Not enough open (lunchtime breaks I suspect). Again chaotic. Inefficient and badly managed. Whoever is in charge should be fired. They did finally put on more staff probably as the number of people crammed into security area was becoming dangerous. No apologies whatsoever. BHX used to be a great airport. It is our nearest airport but I would rather travel to London than face passport control & security again at Birmingham. Indeed next 2 trips we are flying out of LGW or LHR. I have been told Birmingham have to fit new X-ray machines by June but they should at least show how they are improving their customer experience. Frankly it couldn’t be much worse.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is a shambolic disgrace! The queue for departures snakes around the terminal buiding. You are held at the front of that queue waiting. And waiting. Watching the empty lifts in front of you open and close. No explanation from the staff. No idea what is going on. Eventually you get the nod to cram into one of the lifts to ascend into more chaos. Security is painfully slow and obviously incapable of coping with the number of passengers, which should hardly be a surprise to them. Eventually you get ushered into the fast lane so you don’t miss your flight. Your flight which you arrived in plenty of time for in the expectation that you could relax, get a bite to eat before boarding your flight. Leave plenty of time to find your gate as the signage is appalling. Evidently there is building work ongoing and this is adding the the chaos and sense of despair. But this is NO EXCUSE only bad, incompetent project management. But I understand why the staff don’t care. I couldn’t work here. I certainly won’t ever travel from Birmingham again.

✅ Trip Verified | Boarded our flight 5 minutes before departure although arriving at the airport 3 hours early, the airport staff were very disrespectful while holding our queue to board 3 other flights which had the same departure time, while threatening people with a flight ban for complaining about their lack of organisation. Could not buy fast track service online for the same day. Worst airport and staff I ever saw.

✅ Trip Verified | Our whole flight almost missed our plane due to the absolute shambles of Birmingham Airport. The queues through security are the worst I have ever seen, no exaggeration, there were thousands of people stood huddled together, waiting to go through the security. The gate was due to close at 7.35am and we still hadn't even been through security despite the people on our flight being brought forward. It is honestly the most stressful experience I have encountered when flying, and in the future I am 100% going to avoid using this airport again.

✅ Trip Verified | Truly awful experience. Building work isn’t helping, but the overall feeling is of shambolic security checks with outdated equipment in a claustrophobic area that isn’t fit for purpose. Check in area is awful too. I’ve been using Heathrow more recently because of the poor conditions at BHX and I regret using it this time - all the more frustrating as I only live 20 minutes away.

✅ Trip Verified | Chaotic and disorganized. I'm an elderly person who had to wait in the customs queue for over 2 hours. Absolutely no consideration for families with babies and no priority lane for business class passengers. The trolley pay points didn't work. Very unhelpful and rude staff. Will the passenger complaints ever be addressed, as there's been absolutely no indication of attempts to improve efficiency

✅ Trip Verified | For the second largest city in the UK, this airport is a terrible mess. I recently visited Birmingham (Jun '23) through this airport. I like to rate the atmosphere/ambiance/atmosphere and effectiveness/efficiency separately. My first impression of the airport was as if I had arrived at a small city in a developing country. Nothing fancy about the airport but immigration was okay. There was one big hall with UK/EU lines at one end and immigration at the other. Given the low number of non-EU/UK travelers, the experience went smoothly. I was able to clear immigration but had to wait for my colleague who is a UK national. Going past the immigration reveals a more gloomy room where it took ages for the luggage to arrive. Overall, it was fine in terms of efficiency (given the low number of passengers). The departure was another story altogether. As soon as you enter the airport, it is just chaotic. The Emirates counter was at the farthest end and after checking in my luggage, it was hard to find where the departure is from. Two of the escalators weren't working leaving a long line at the 3rd which was blocked by a staff member for no apparent reason. The signage at the escalator mentions that it is for the train but doesn't say departure. If you climb upstairs, there is a person directing you to departure and to trains. The security line was just a complete mess and took a long time to clear. The passageway to security is narrow and the way they were handling security was quite inefficient. Security itself wasn't very tight to put it lightly. Once you clear security, it is more bearable and signage also improves. Overall, the airport looked congested and disorganized. All lounges were full. The boarding gates have access-controlled seating but remain closed until close to boarding time meaning passengers who arrive more than 30-40 prior to departure have no place to sit. Also, there are no shops close to the gates, so even if you need a cup of tea you will have to walk all the way to the duty-free area with restaurants. I think the ground floor needs a makeover and upgradation and access to security gates can be better organized. Other than that, it is just a basic airport and certainly not one to be excited about.

Not Verified | This must be the worst airport in the entire world. £4 for drop off, no seating in departures, overcrowded. Absolutely disgusting. I have travelled extensively and this airport is the worst ever. Monorail not available at night.