“We’ve been dreading Birmingham Airport for weeks but what happened when we arrived surprised us”

And this week, heading off on my own long-awaited family vacation, it’s time to brave the crowds and see for myself the new security protocols I’ve heard so much about.

I left the airport for the last time in August last year and have not encountered any problems in the queue. We live about half an hour away from the airport.

We arrived at the airport around 5.10am but didn’t join the security queue until 8pm. My flight to Crete was at 7.55am. My family and I were told by TUI to arrive three hours before our flight and we chose not to arrive earlier to avoid increasing queue chaos. We had originally booked our taxi from home to get to the airport two and a half hours in advance, but changed it to follow the airline’s advice.

My family and I dreaded the lines after weeks of seeing pictures online and hearing horror stories of people waiting in line for three plus hours.

When our taxi first pulled up at Arrivals we all commented that the queues weren’t as bad as we thought as they only stretched to one marker with two set up at Arrivals.