Birmingham Airport is still advising passengers to arrive "in line with your airline's check in time", despite thousands of passengers being stuck in queues this morning. Queues stretches out of the doors of Birmingham Airport as around 7,500 people passed through the terminal during the morning peak.
Flights out of Birmingham were delayed by between a few minutes up to an hour earlier this morning, May 9, as passengers waited in long queues for security. Holidaymakers reported "absolute chaos" as queues for security were seen to snake out of the airport doors and along the length of the building, reports Birmingham Live.
Photos and video footage taken by frustrated passengers on Monday (May 9) show hundreds of travellers lined up to get into the airport, with flights delayed by up to an hour. Travellers said "thousands" of people were stuck in a queue reaching up to "one kilometre" in length at its peak.
A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport added: "As always, our message to departing customers is: Help us help you keep queues moving by removing any liquids, gels, pastes and electrical items from your bags before our security x-ray scanners."
It's the latest in a string of problems to hit the staff-cut BHX following weeks of complaints from flyers about long security queues and delays. An airport spokesperson said around 7,500 people were booked to fly during the busy dawn peak, prompting the decision to run security queues outside. They said the lines were "long but managed and moving".
Similar scenes were seen at the city airport this weekend, prompting airline TUI to apologise to travellers passing through the terminal on Saturday.
Last week, airport chief executive Nick Barton admitted the chaos would continue for several weeks. Speaking to BBC Radio WM, he blamed a 12-week "lag" between recruiting new employees and making them operational. He said: "It's still the legacy of the industry being turned back on by the Government's removal of the rules in mid-February."
