BHX departures: Chaos at Birmingham Airport ahead of October half term as holidaymakers stuck in long queues

I arrived at the airport this morning (Friday) only to be greeted with huge queues of people queueing to get into lifts to get into security. It was deja vu.

I saw this many times throughout the summer as I travelled through Birmingham Airport - and I thought the chaos would be over with by now. I checked in at the easyJet desk and they allowed me to just put my bag on the belt and go up to security, without checking my passport which I guess was to save time.

As I went to go up to security I had to go right to the back of the queue which snaked far from the three lifts which people were frantically trying to squeeze into. Staff were shouting flights that were due to leave imminently with some running past so they could make it up to security quicker and not miss their flights.

There were groans all around me as we all waiting in a huge queue to get into lifts to take us up to security. Nothing has changed at the airport, it is still the same as it was during the summer and for most it is not even half term yet. Half term for many across the UK starts next week, so it is not looking good if you are flying from Birmingham Airport this half term for your holiday.

Once I was crammed into a lift like cattle and the doors opened to security, I was greeted once again to even more queues. Once at the gates to scan my boarding pass, staff were telling passengers not to scan their passes and wait until the queue the other side had gone down a bit more. It was quite amusing when one of the staff said to those ready to scan their boarding pass to “get in position!”. One man joked: “Ready, set, go!”.

However there was no straight walk to security on the other side. Just - you guessed it - more queues. I have flown from London Gatwick recently as well as Heathrow and it hasn’t been anything like this at Birmingham Airport. Maybe I was lucky at the London airports, but these long queues at Birmingham Airport do not seem to be getting any better and it is ridiculous having to still queue in snaking long lines.

It is a mess and something needs to be done in order to relieve the queues because at the moment even the long lines to get into three lifts are insane. With October half term and Christmas nearing I highly doubt there will be any respite for passengers travelling through Birmingham Airport.

NationalWorld has contacted Birmingham Airport for comment.