Birmingham Airport

I have travelled through many airports around the world. While I accept that the management is focused on profit maximisation at the expense of customer satisfaction I do wonder why they are unable to get even the basics right - ie the toilets. The gents toilets are without doubt some of the dirtiest and smelliest airport facilities that I have encountered. (Only one airport in Africa (in Angola) and another in a certain Middle Eastern country compare with the BHX experience). Let us hope that the disillusioned management one day come to their senses as BHX does have the potential to be a proper international airport. For the moment though its management are very successful in portraying it as a regional second rate hub through which many people have no choice but to pass.

Over an hour to get through security on 8th April - that's enough to put me off ever using this airport again. Having only two security lanes open at peak time is completely ridiculous. There were plenty of staff around to manage the queue but if half of them had been put to running the scanners there wouldn't have been a queue that needed managing. If you ever do make it to the departure lounge there is a good range of shops and places to eat. They were almost completely empty when I got there (presumably everyone was spending so long waiting for security they then had to go straight to their planes).

Returning to BHX on 19th January having been diverted to Glasgow the previous evening we were whisked through immigration having undergone this process at Glasgow the night before. Baggage was extremely slow coming off the belt the first pieces almost 50 minutes after disembarking the plane. Going through customs we were surprised and more than a little annoyed to see passengers stopped and made to produce passports and undergo scrutiny even though we had all cleared customs in Glasgow. Pretty disgusted at this abuse of power.

Quick passage through security today which makes a nice change. Duty free boasting 40% sale but frankly the prices seemed no different.

I live in Birmingham and have used the airport on dozens of occasions and I have come to loathe it intensely to the point now where I happily travel 45 mins to East Midlands rather than 20 mins to Birmingham. I travel a lot around Europe and the occasional long haul and I can honestly say that Birmingham is one if not the worst airport I have ever had to suffer. The baggage handling is appalling the security staff are borderline rude and utterly obstructive and the worst of all is the endless queues through immigration on returning from any non-EU country. I am not exaggerating when I say I have never managed less than a 20 minute wait to get through immigration and it's particularly galling when each time only 5 desks out of the ten available are ever manned with a queue going way beyond even the endless snake.

Used BHX during past 2 weeks and wish there was some continuity at security. Despite having used the same plastic bag for a number of recent flights it was suddenly too big. When I was given the smaller regulation one all I did was fold over top of mine and put it into smaller one. Thankful I wasn't sent back to machine to purchase the "proper" bags as queue through security was horrendous. Majority of security staff are very helpful. Baggage handling still poor waited over 40 minutes before first bag appeared and flight arrival info not cleared from baggage hall screens when it's obvious all the bags have been collected. If you've got 5-6 flights all arriving between 2300-2330 then it's sensible to have enough baggage handlers to cope.

The experiences of departing and arriving at Birmingham were quite different. Departing was a bit of a nightmare. Even with fast track the queues were slow and security staff picky and pedantic. Belt shoes and so forth removed they seemed to be checking almost all hand luggage which slowed the security process down considerably. We were told this was so that this was so the process looked fair and they could not be accused of picking on certain profile groups and subjects. Snaking through the expensive "Duty Free" area is a pain as it prolongs the journey through to departures. On the other hand we landed about 40 minutes behind schedule but the e-gates were empty and we were through in seconds (lines for the traditional passport control were pretty full). Baggage on the carousel within a couple of minutes and we were on the road about 35 minutes after landing which is pretty good by any standards. My scoring is an average of the low score for departures and an excellent score for arrivals.

Overall good experience. However having to pay for luggage trolleys and bags for holding liquids is just over the top. The route from security check funnels passengers through the middle of a duty free shop. In my opinion the airport owners are just trying their hardest to squeeze every last penny out of the users of the facility.

I wish other travellers would just think about what they bring in to security! I travel thorough Birmingham every three weeks and I have to wait in Security because others have over sized liquids in their bags. Or the I follow the passenger through the metal detector who forgets to take their phone out of their pocket and says sorry! It is too late the queue has built up by then. I like the airport the service and the shops. It is passengers who cause most of the queues.

Another easy departure and arrival at BHX. Got dropped at the railway station and there was no queue at check in. Only slight gripe is that even though BHX operates as one terminal the Flybe / Air France check in desks are still located in the Eurohub building which is separate from the rest of the check in facilities and involved a fair walk past the Arrivals area. On the plus side you can access the new security area from either side of the check in area and the queue from the old Eurohub building is definitely shorter. Departure lounge has a reasonable selection of High Street outlets and some decent restaurants. On arrival I was through immigration and at the railway station within 10 minutes of landing.