Birmingham Airport

✅ Trip Verified | After all of the chaotic stories I had been reading in the press about the chaos at Birmingham airport, I was dreading flying from there. So we booked the hotel outside the airport for the day before the flight, went in the night before to see if we could use the night before bag drop, we were told that it now was not running. On the morning of the flight, I went across to the airport to see how bad things were. It looked manic! So I got the kids and partner and we made our way across (03.10am) for our flight at 07.00. When we got in the airport I noticed the queue was so long! So I asked a tui rep if that was the queue for our bag drop and she confirmed it was. She rudely said "do not join the queue! Until 4am at the earliest, go away!" So, like a child who had been told off, I toddled off back to my family (we were not even going to join the queue yet, I wanted coffee! At 4am, with my coffee in hand, we all joined the queue. It was massive but went down very quickly. So I was pleasantly surprised. Then I thought, oh no, what are we going up to upstairs at security. But again, very pleasantly surprised to see there was a queue of around 30 people but it went down within minutes. All in all. It took around 30 minutes from entering the queue at bag drop, to sitting in the airport lounge having breakfast. And this was on the Easter weekend. So apart from one member of staff, we had a great experience, would definitely fly from Birmingham again! But this week we are flying from the pit of hell (Stansted), and with experience there I know it will be nothing like Birmingham.

✅ Trip Verified | I understand that airports are struggling to recruit staff post pandemic but again this airport falls short when it comes to security screening on departure, long queues and only a handful for security checkpoints open, the security staff I did encounter was friendly, professional and considerate given the stress they are under at the moment. Once airside virtually everything is open and staff I encountered was friendly and helpful.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew from Birmingham airport on 28/3 and back in on 4/4. Never seen queues like it for baggage check in or security. The baggage collection was totally mismanaged with 4 planes luggage on each of 2 belts while the remaining belts remained idle. This supposedly international airport is run like a little back woods strip. I keep hearing that there’s a staff shortage yet they’ve still got enough people to serve you in duty free and, miraculously, 4 extra staff appeared at check in when the complaints got loud enough! I would advise anybody to do what we will and avoid this cesspit of a dump like the plague wherever possible!

✅ Trip Verified | Queues everywhere, what should of been the start to a relaxing break turned into a nightmare, I asked what was going on to be told no one wants to work here, no staff, no if you can do better have my job, had no time for shopping had to run for flights, lots of last calls being overheard. Spanish airport was brilliant, got back to England we have been here almost 40 mins pilot told us they have called 5 times and no one is responding no staff to get is off the plane, people look like they are going to collapse, disgusting sort it out, I will pay extra next time to fly from somewhere else.

Not Verified | I arrived at the Departures at 04:25 for a flight leaving at 06:15. The check-in desk had only 3 staff for two flights for Amsterdam and Paris simultaneously. I approached the staff who were marshalling the crowd on a number of occasions to ask if the passengers would be able to fly given the sluggish pace of the check in. After nearly an hour of waiting, I managed to get a boarding pass and dashed upstairs to security. It was at this point that I realised there was no way I was going to clear security and get on my flight (with a view to transiting in Paris). The queues were meandering in all sorts of unimaginable directions only an AI could conjure up. Midway into the queue for security, I tried to grab a member of staff’s attention to ask if I could be fast tracked and to my horror, she said gate had closed! It turned out that, it was the same lady who reassured me during check in that all passengers who had checked in would fly. Suffice to say I did not make the flight and I could not get my luggage because they were flat out busy. I drove back home not knowing when I would visit Birmingham again for my luggage. The whole thing was a joke. The reason I feel the need to write is the appalling level of staffing at this airport. This is a management failure; to fail to plan for a an upsurge in passenger numbers. Every incompetent boss is now hiding behind COVID as an excuse for failure to regulate the demands placed on their commercial interests or business. The attitude of staff is another thing entirely and I want to believe they are not happy and not well remunerated otherwise they would show common decency and professionalism. They take out their frustrations on passengers and are abrupt, irritable and quite sinister about customers motives.

Not Verified | A terrible experience with very long lines at security on departure as only half of the scanners were being used. On return the escalator was not working and the stairs were covered in litter. E gates were OK but several Border Force staff were under-employed and could have called forward some arrivals for processing to ease the line at the e gates. We came back from Las Palmas which was a far more pleasant experience.

Not Verified | I fly through this airport regularly for work. Security channels are the worst I've seen. Normally 1 or 2 channels open ever open. Queues are ridiculous. Quite often there are a number of people doing very little. Very slow bag screening. Such a frustrating experience every time. I wonder why the shops airside don't complain because it really affects the ability to eat, drink or shop there.

Not Verified | Barbados to Birmingham, arrived late in Birmingham. A number of us could not board the bus to the terminal as it was full. Just left outside in the cold and wind waiting for a second bus to appear for around 15/20 minutes. Then directed to carousel 4 and all we found coming off were bags from another flight. No communication or apology from staff at baggage reclaim despite multiple travellers raising queries…we then waited for c1.5 hours for the bags to start appearing.

Not Verified | I waited in a queue for 80 minutes only to find just 2 security lanes were staffed out of a possible 15, I have departed this airport twice in the past month and both times were the same.

✅ Trip Verified | Hated this airport, worst airport I have ever flown from. The security took 1 hour just to queue and when we got to front only 2 lanes were open! When my bag was going through the security man added someone else’s liquids to it, which set of the scanner which then took another 25 minutes to rectify! Security staff were unbelievably rude to me, despite the all faults! The aeroplane was departed an hour late due to lack of stairs and lack of staff and hostesses to check on passengers, final call announcements were made 45 minutes before boarding and continually made. I will never fly from this airport again if it is avoidable, avoid at all costs!