Air travel headaches continue for holidaymakers, as queues were reported stretching all the way outside the airport this morning at Birmingham.
An ITV journalist called the situation “organised chaos”, tweeting a video of a line snaking its way out of the doors and alongside the building.
Raheem Rashid said there were “even longer [queues] inside to get to security,” adding that some passengers with earlier departure times, himself included, had been permitted to skip to the front to avoid missing their flights.
“Made it to the gate with three minutes to go,” he said.
Another passenger at Birmingham said that they had encountered the “worst airlinequeues I’ve ever seen” but praised the “best security experience” and congratulated the airport for a “very good system”.
Jonathon Wright shared a selfie with a backdrop of the queue reaching outside the terminal, with the caption: “Congratulations @bhx_official you now have a queue that folds three lengths of the airport! Second time this week you have failed your #SLAs”.
Elsewhere, lengthy queues were also seen at Manchester airport this morning.
While some passengers said they experienced no issues, others described queues at Terminal 2 as “a shambles”, with lines stretching along the walkway towards Terminal 1.
One passenger told the Manchester Evening News: “No wonder the queues at Manchester are so bad, Tui website down so no checking in online which means every passenger on every flight will need to go to the desk! Absolute shambles.
“Only planned on taking a carry on bag to avoid this mess but what is the point if I am going to have to queue anyway.”
This afternoon, there have been reports of queues building up at Manchester’s arrivals area, too.
One Twitter user tweeted: “Manchester Airport is a shambles at the best of times, but now a huge queue at arrivals for passport scanning. Must be eight plane’s worth of people in this queue. Wtf is going on?!”
However, travellers to Gatwick reported a smooth experience, with travel editor Mark Hodson saying that there were no queues for easyJet bagdrop, a security wait time of just two minutes, and no delays to his flight.
“It’s not all doom and gloom folks,” he tweeted.
Birmingham airport said in a statement: “Many thousands of customers were airborne before 09.00 today (Fri 24 June) after going through our pre-flight security screening. Queues were long this morning but managed and moving. We thank customers for their patience and good humour.
“And, as always, big ‘thank you’ to customers who present compliant baggage at our x-ray scanners - with all liquids, gels, pastes and electrical items removed. That helps keep everyone moving. And it helps our security officers keep everyone safe.”
The Independent has approached Manchester Airports Group for comment.
