A woman setting off on her holidays has hit out at the “appalling” chaotic state of Leeds Bradford Airport, claiming they were "being treated like second class citizens".
Elaine Sibley has spoken of the “mile long” queue she was faced with and her shock of there being no security to marshal passengers as they entered the airport. The mother of two was there with her two children Isabel, 26, and Matthew, 31, who were just as “bemused” by the scene.
This comes after Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) was named the joint worst airport in the UK. The Sibley family arrived at the Jet2 entrance at 4.40am to board a flight to Palma de Mallorca Airport at 6am on April 28.
Read more: Inside Leeds Bradford Airport 'chaos' with queues like you've 'never seen before'
“The queues were about a mile long,” said Elaine, who’s from Cattal, near Harrogate. “The queues were unbelievable. No one is around to ask. No announcements being made. I did find the airport duty manager and spoke with her.
“Apparently, no security comes on duty in the airport before you go through passport control until 6am which is ridiculous given the amount of people queuing in the early hours waiting in a queue to go through to security.
“Imagine being elderly or having young children just waiting and waiting. No one to ask. Nowhere to sit. Completely unacceptable.”
'Second class citizens'
Elaine said there were others in the queue who were worried they’d miss their flights but she kept calm and spoke to someone to complain about the confusion. Elaine managed to get her family on the fast track queue as they were on such an early flight.
Elaine, who is a former pharmaceutical consultant, said: “People are paying good money to go on holiday after working really hard. It’s unacceptable, people are being treated like second class citizens, basically. It’s just an appalling state of affairs, you don’t expect to go to the airport and nobody gives you any information.”
The family went on to spend a long weekend away in the sunny Spanish island, returning on the following Sunday. Elaine added the service at Palma de Mallorca Airport was exceptional and LBA staff should take note.
“It was just a breeze, they were so organised. They just put us to shame, they really do,” said Elaine.
Vincent Hodder, CEO of Leeds Bradford Airport, said: “I apologise to all passengers recently impacted by queues at LBA and want to assure those looking to travel with us that we’re working hard to overcome these challenges. Staff shortages continue to be an issue for us, as well as other airports across the UK, but we are doing everything we can to get staff into positions that can ease the current pressures. We’re confident that we now have the necessary staff recruited or in the pipeline to operate the airport at its full capacity.
“While we address these issues, we ask passengers to work with us and help us minimise queues. Please arrive to the airport no earlier than three hours before departure, as arriving earlier will exacerbate queuing issues further.
“Once again, I’m sorry for all passengers that have had a negative experience travelling at LBA in recent weeks and want to assure everybody across the region that we have solutions in place to fix these problems as quickly as possible and that we remain committed to making improvements to our airport for the future.”
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