Birmingham airport

[tootrueblue]

Has anyone travelled from Birmingham airport in the last few weeks? Were there any delays at check in or security please? I'm just deciding how long to allow for getting through to departures. Thanks

Yes. It was grim. Massive queues moving very slowly. Arrived 2.5 hours before flight and would not have made it if the flight hadn't been delayed. Food and drink places all absolutely rammed as well. Leave plenty of time and take snacks!

Thank you. So 3 hours before the flight wouldn't be such a bad idea then? DP thinks I might be over cautious

I used Birmingham about 3 weeks ago - it was very busy - seemed more crowded than ever (but I suspect this was because people were arriving early) I paid for express security - took me about three mins to get through - it was only a couple of pounds as I remember - booked it via the airline, went for a coffee but still managed to find a seat.

I flew from Birmingham last week. The queues at security were absolutely horrendous, it took an hour to get through. And that was on a weekday.

Flew 2am from Birmingham recently on a Thursday.
Sorry to say it was grim.
Two hour queue to put bags in followed by an hour in security which only ended because they were pulling out people whose flight was within 30 minutes. Ran to gate.

In our situation arriving earlier than three hours before would not help as when we queued to put bags in they were holding us in line where we couldn't go forward but couldn't leave queue.

If you can pay for express pass, do it. People were walking past huge queues and going straight through

I went through on 9th July, and it was a breeze! Probably the best airport experience I've ever had, pre-COVID included. Our fight was with TUI and took off at 06:40

I flew out last Monday and back on Friday with absolutely no issues at all. The express pass was not available when I tried to purchase, not sure if it had sold out or 6am was too early, but I had no need of it in any case.

DD flew out from B'rum on Saturday, once again, no issues.

l had no problems at Birmingham airport on 29 June, mid week 3.30 pm flight, airport was reasonably busy, queues moved quickly, Jet 2 staff very much on the ball, just a 30 min delay. The return flight however was horrendous, airport in Larnica was extremly busy, and l felt quite panicky and claustrophobic trapped in very long winding extremely slow moving queues, flight was delayed 2. 5 hrs, then no gate no that left us wondering if it was going to be delayed again. Really felt for the parents and young children, the toddlers were really struggling with the crowds and noise, this was at 1.30 am. Long wait getting onto plane, and off, no staff on the ground at B' ham to bring over the stairs, and by the time we waited for luggage, (almost 2 hrs after having to get through another set of queues) l felt at wits end, we had been up over 24 hrs at that point with zero sleep. To be honest l won't be in any hurry to fly again anytime soon.

Flew a week ago. No queues for security- straight through to the conveyor belt things - all open - to about 5 people in queue for trays in front of us.
Lounge was v full but found seats
No significant delay on return with passport control.

Hello @tootrueblue,

I have been through BHX twice in the past couple of weeks.
The first time was a 6am flight with Tui.
We dropped our hold bags the night before (only recently learnt of this) and arrived the next morning around 3am. Bypassed the huge queues (and I mean huge queues) for check in and went straight upstairs to security.
Security hadn’t yet opened but when it did, (which was about 3:15) it took us 20 minutes or so to get through and we were in Weatherspoons by 3.30 plenty of seats.
However the place quickly filled up and became very busy within 20 minutes or so.
Second time I passed through was last week when I travelled for work with hand luggage.
Flight was at 8:45 and I arrived at the airport for 6:30. Airport was ridiculously busy and security queue was awful. However, they were calling people to the front by flight time so it was well managed but clearly understaffed. Took me well over 90 minutes to get through.
Depending on how local you are to the airport and if you have hold luggage, I’d try to bag drop the night before if at all possible.
Fast pass was not available both times when I looked but this may have changed.
Hope all goes well and happy travels!

Hmm bit of a mixed bag now! Express security is now suspended according to the airport's website so that's not an option. I think I'll have to get there 3 hours before to be safe

Flew today
Arrived 5:30 am
Check in and security done by 6:15 am

It was busy and the queue for security started downstairs but they seemed well organised.
This was jet 2 so check in area A.
I'll be doing Turkish in 10 days but a bit later in the day, so we'll see how that goes.

What time was your flight?

Flew in and out a few weeks ago. Awful. Worst airport queues I've ever been in. We arrived 3 hours ahead of flight and didn't even have time to run into Boots before we had to board as were queuing constantly since arriving - bags/check in / security etc.

However when we got there 3 hours before the desk number for the flight wasn't on the board yet so we couldn't start queueing straight and had to join everyone waiting around for desk number to appear for bag drop.

@tootrueblue

What time was your flight?

Our flight was 8:30 am we had time for a nice breakfast before going to the gate.

Thank you. Sounds like 3 hours is about right, even if we have to wait around a bit for baggage drop to open

Just to give an update on my return.

We landed at 3:20 am. It was as busy as when we landed at 3:30 pm a month ago. Although in the afternoon there was a mix of nationalities, in the morning almost everyone was going through the gates for passport control.

Thank you very much for the update @marcopront

My next update.
Flying Turkish.
Arrived 7:35 am joined the queue for check in. After about half an hour moved to the bag drop queue. It still took another hour.

However security only took half an hour. Again they seemed well organised.