Birmingham Airport misery continues as passengers face three hour delays
Birmingham Airport has been dealing with construction, changes to liquids rules, and accommodating flights affected by the power outage at Manchester Airport.
Holidaymakers and other travellers making their way to Birmingham Airport have been told to expect delays as the UK’s early summer travel chaos continues.
Passengers have been advised to expect delays at the travel hub due to a litany of reasons including changes to the 100ml liquids rule, travel disruption caused by the power outage at Manchester Airport, and construction at Birmingham Airport.
As a result, people venturing to the airport have been warned to expect delays of between one and three hours to get to and through security.
The Mirror reported that queues have been seen snaking out of Birmingham’s terminal building with special liquid check stations to help passengers prepare for the liquids rules in security.
Speaking to BirminghamLive about the situation facing the airport, its chief executive Nick Barton said: “Turn up in accordance with your airline, go on the website they will tell you exactly when check-in opens.
“Come here, be prepared crucially. So with your cabin bags be prepared, ideally put all liquids into your hold bag and in doing so you will get through in the best possible way and help us as an airport.”
Despite the measures put in place by the airport, passengers are still infuriated. Writing on X, Matthew Edwards said: “Shocking here @bhx/official, unclear signage, poor communication, long queues for security. Be prepared to queue in tents outside #sortitout.”
Birmingham Airport is adapting to the new rules on liquids which now mean passengers can bring capsules as large as two litres on board rather than 100ml. However, as this change can only be applied if an airport has the right type of scanner, not everyone in the UK has them or if they do, they have not yet been set up.
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On Birmingham Airport’s adaptation, Mr Barton said: “That directive that came down on Friday (June 7) is a build on what we are already having to deal with which is a restriction on the new machinery we installed.
"The new machinery, theoretically can cope with two litres in cabin bags, which has been reduced down to 100 ml so very limited volumes. As a consequence of that, throughput rates on those machines, it is slower.
“So we have to now focus on passenger compliance, to make sure that fewer bottles of liquid go through as possible. 100ml or less, that's the limit, but anything above that gets rejected.”
On top of confusion surrounding the 100ml rule, the hub has also been dealing with the aftermath caused by a power outage at Manchester Airport on Sunday morning which saw incoming flights diverted to places like Birmingham Airport which has had to accommodate an unexpected influx of passengers.
