Birmingham airport

[Amsx]

Has anyone flown from here recently? We've got an early morning weekend flight and keep seeing articles with 3 hour queues to get through security.

Is it that bad? Thanks

I was caught up in it Sunday afternoon. Utter carnage. 3 hour queue, shoving, people being pushed over, mass panic, 4 people collapsing.
But flew back in yesterday and it was empty.
Due to fly again in 2 weeks and I am nervous.

We flew from Birmingham in late May on a Friday afternoon. We arrived early worried about queues, our whole experience from bag drop through to duty free was about 1.5 hours so not too bad. Not sure if mornings will be worse. You can get fast passes for security and their line was very short. For anyone on last calls they let them go in the fast pass lane too

Oh god. Sounds awful

Friends there today for a 6am flight and they went straight through security.

We flew out and back for may half term - out took us an hour(ish) from bag drop to lounge on a Friday afternoon.
I think it very much depends on which airline, what time of day and which way the queue is being managed. Early morning weekend will be really busy, make sure you know which zone you need to be in to check in/bag drop and then get straight in the queue. Take water with you (you can take it through now!), snacks and layers - the whole airport was absolutely boiling when we travelled

We flew end of last month. Arrived 3am. Was in departure lounge by 4.10am

Interesting.

Joining the queue about 4.30am this morning took best part of an hour

We've booked fast track but it seems that isn't making much difference.

I didn't know you can take water in now, very useful to know thanks.

@Amsx you can take liquid less than 100ml and leave it in your bag to go through the scanner. We took our regular steel water bottles, drank most of it while we queued and the little bit that was left went through the scanner no problem. Check out all the new rules on the website, you take nothing out of bags now pretty much and can keep all your layers on (DH did still have to take off his belt I think)

We went out to Tenerife on a Sunday in March with no real hassle. Less than an hour from parking the car to eating brekky airside.

I think it's early morning in summer that's bad with all the based aircraft and those that have night stopped trying to get away from 06:00 onwards. Less busy in the afternoon as the aircraft returning are better staggered before setting off on their next rotation.

I flew from Birmingham in March and only made it to my flight as they were closing the doors! It was horrific. The problem is that they've removed the escalators to get up to security on the first floor. There are 3 lifts to get hundreds of people upstairs. The staff are woeful... I watched as they stood and let a lift (with a 30 people capacity) go up with 3 people in it when there are people literally queuing 4-deep outside the airport to use the lift!

I flew again in May and it was no better - I just went hours earlier than I needed to so that I had a chance of getting in a lift and through security in 3 hours.

If you can get a fast track pass that will take you to the front of the lift queue... but it's rammed full of people trying to get through security too. So although you take a short cut, it still takes forever as not all lanes are open. No idea why not?!

Whoever managed the building work should be held accountable for the absolute lack of thought for how they would keep the airport functioning properly while work was being done! It's absolute chaos! People missing flights, shouting, pushing... awful.

I have to fly again at the end of this month and am NOT looking forward to it.

We were there last Thursday. I was terrified having read the articles as DH is an anxious traveller and DS has SEN. We were through check in and secuity in 20 minutes!

Thank you, we've got fast track so do we not need to queue outside?

@TobiasForgesContactLense what time was your flight? I'm wondering whether certain times of the day are better than others?

My brother In law works there and says it's a nightmare .

hope you get through okay , guess all you can do is leave yourself with as much time as you can .

We had a 6am Saturday flight 3 weeks ago - Ryanair text to say that they’d be opening check in early so we arrived at 3am.
The security queue was insane - thankfully my 9 month old DD picked a perfect time to get upset and a lovely assistant ushered us through the fast track queue so we were through in about 20 minutes.
Others on our flight commented that it took upwards of an hour just for security.

We flew early morning a couple of weeks ago. Just be prepared to go from one queue to another. Queue to drop luggage, then queue to get to lift, then queue to scan boarding card, then queue to go through security. We spent ages joining long queues but they were moving. Once we got to departures there were no seats anywhere. It was the most depressing experience but I think you just have to resign yourself to the fact that it's going to be shit. I think too many people are arriving early (understandably) which makes the queues worse.

@JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn Flight was 1.10pm. We arrived at 10.50am and had to wait for check in to open at 11.10am. I suspect that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the better days.

It seems to be really variable. I read lots of comments under the articles about how awful it is and so many people say they had no problems at all. Strange.

@Amsx if you have fast track you need to go into the airport via a makeshift 'tunnel' opposite the entrance. That will deliver you to what used to be the main entrance for checking in. When you go through the door you need to turn left and that takes you to the front of the huge queue for the lift. Show your fast track pass and you'll go straight into the lift.

When you come out of the lift, you have to queue again to get into security, but with a fast track pass you stay in the left hand lane and bypass the queue and get into the security area quicker.

Good luck!

I'm flying at 6:45am next Monday with two young children, startling to panic a little now.

I've tried to book a fast track but it's only showing availability from 10am. Is that the time the express lane opens?

Anyone flown out the same day/time that can offer me any hope?

Ds flew from there last Sunday, it was chaos. They arrived at 2.30pm for a 5.05pm flight. If the flight hadn’t been delayed they would have missed it. They checked in online but bag drop off was difficult. They paid for express security but had to queue to get back into the terminal building to take the lift up to security. Only then could they use the express line which was still busy.
If you can bag drop the day before, check in online and then get dropped off at Birmingham International Station, from there take the monorail. The monorail terminal takes you to the same level as security and since you have already checked in you are sent straight through security.
I picked up DS yesterday and there were no queues, however it’s only going to get busier as we approach the summer holidays.

The airport limit the amount of fast track tickets available. They get sold out weeks in advance.
Give yourself 3 hours to get through check in/security.

Thanks. Some people on here are saying they had to queue to get into the building. It sounds a bit of a free for all.

Just to show how hit and miss it is, my husband went through in 3 minutes this morning.