Birmingham Airport security queues, advice please.

[MuggedByReality]

Has anyone flown out of Birmingham in the last few weeks, specifically on a weekday lunchtime flight? If so, how long did you have to queue for security? Did the building work cause major delays?

Thanks! 😀

Walked in door at 450am
Baggage drop and through security 503am

You wouldn't be walking from Birmingham International to the airport. You jump on the Maglev link at the top of the stairs which takes you straight to the terminal.
A friend was at BA on 18/4 for an 8.15am flight to Dublin. Total chaos and took her 1.5 hours to get through security. We were there with her the next day for the 6.15am Paris flight and we were through in 10 minutes - would have been quicker had the staff been able to turn the new scanner on !!

Question ✋ Are the fast passes really only £5-£7pp? It seems too cheap and too good to be true. 🤔
Flying from there in a month and really don't want to get caught up in queues.

@WithIcePlease good to hear as this will be us, same day same time in two weeks! Glad everything was ok for you

Oh god I'm flying on Thursday from Birmingham , domestic flight with only carry on luggage. Flight is at 7.30 so what time should i be there for?

Didn't realise there was building works and I've usually pitched up an hour before - should i be getting there earlier?

I'm not a seasoned flyer so this may be a stupid question - if you miss your flight due to queues do you get put on the next one?

That's usually the price. However you can't always buy them (or won't let you use them, ie suspend the fast track queue like at Leeds when we flew on Saturday) as there's always a surge in demand when there's well publicised problems like this.

"The fact you can purchase security fast passes show they are never going to sort the queues out."

Rubbish. Most of the time you're through in minutes regardless. These queues are caused by a security refit which will see the end of the stupid little bags for liquids and having to unpack and pack your hand luggage each time. Worth it.

Looks like there were no queues this morning so it's all good. Thanks for the info about the airlink.

@ADuck12

I can only tell you what happened to us - but the Jet2 check-ins are a bit away from those for other airlines . We went up in the lift next to the Jet2 so approached security from a different direction.

It might be that it's quieter from that direction or it may be that the airport was generally quieter at the time we arrived .

Arrived at airport at 2 pm, sitting down in spoons at 2.30 after picking something up in duty free.

And doing bag drop at Jet2

To be fair to BHX, the delays yesterday were newsworthy and not the norm. I arrived 2h 25mins before the flight which is the earliest I have ever been for a flight.

I flew from Birmingham this morning and it was chaos. Got into the terminal building at 5.15am and finally got through security at 6.30.

The staff were controlling the number of people who could go up the escalator to departures (stairs were blocked off) and as a result the queue snaked from the Jet 2 terminal nearly all the way down to terminal B with staff walking up and down the queue pulling people out whose flights were boarding and fast tracking them. Some people were trying to beat the queue by using the lift and they were being collared by security staff and being made to wait. Some tempers were getting rather frayed at times.

Only 4 scanners in operation which is why it was all so slow.

There were 3 Jet2 flights scheduled around 7am which may be why it seemed so busy.

Does the monorail come out by security?

Thinking of walking from my hotel (Hilton garden inn) to the station just to get the monorail over. Flight is a 0655 and I'll be doing twilight bag drop the night before.

So I can stroll over, it's only about 5 minute walk and zooming over on the monorail and straight through fast track.

Does that sound feasible?

We’re flying from Birmingham on Sunday, I’m just wondering if you can take stairs or an escalator? I’m claustrophobic and usually fine in airports but the thought of being crammed into a very busy lift is making me worry! Someone said there were stairs next to the jet2 desk? Are these open?
Surely you can’t make everyone use a lift if there’s a fire?

Update. I went recently and it was seamless. You do have to get a lift to security but they were not full and no queues. The new machines are fully operational now so you don't have to separate electronic items and there is no liquid limit. They were doing liquid tests on bottles of water though which meant I had to wait for this so don't bring a bottle of water through and you will be fine. If you bring an empty bottle you can fill it at the water fountains just past security. Hope this helps some of you

Just to update- we're sitting in departures now it took around an hour from joining the queue for the lift to getting through security. That was arriving at the airport at 430. Very busy and a bit chaotic on the ground floor but the queue was moving fairly quickly. I did age about 10 years getting the three year old through it though!

It just seems so variable. DH got there 730 on Saturday morning and no queues to get up to security and security queue short