The long queues at Birmingham Airport continue and will continue all summer

We can all agree that the worst part of a vacation is the airport, right? You can try to get the most out of it with a pint, but it is not good. It’s expensive, stressful, claustrophobic, overwhelming and, like anyone who’s visited Birmingham Airport in recent weeks, he can attest, full of long queues.

A combination of construction work and new safety rules has seen one of Britain’s biggest airports become a center of confusion in recent weeks. Delays were seen through security long queues stretch outside the terminal building – with someone passengers waiting up to three hours even on Monday (June 10).

What’s going on at Birmingham Airport?

It’s a bit unclear as many are playing the blame game. Many said lack of staff was causing the queues. But Birmingham Airport blamed the delays on confusion over the 100 ml liquid vice versa and £60 million security zone cannot be used due to government restrictions.

“This new facility has streamlined and simpler screening equipment to search customers’ bags,” said a Birmingham Airport spokesman. “However, we cannot use the new screening equipment at full capacity at this time due to a partial regulatory restriction. This is beyond our control.

“The airport has continuously planned this transition from our old security area to our new one and considered the impact of construction work, new equipment and unfamiliar waiting areas. We have around one million passengers using our airport every month, most of whom have a good experience despite the ongoing construction work.”

Last month, Birmingham Airport was featured high-tech security scanners known as next-generation security checkpoints (NGSC), which meant that passengers could keep liquids in containers of up to 100ml in hand luggage. On June 1, many airports also increased the liquid limit to two litres, but Birmingham was left to wait due to “overdue regulatory approval”.

Not that it matters much. As of Sunday (June 9), the Department for Transport (DfT) reversed its decision and said that passengers UK airports cannot carry more than 100ml in liquids in the carry-on – which could have led to Monday’s confusion. It is also worth noting that NGSCs are part of a larger £300m upgrade to Birmingham Airport – with construction work still in progress.

Will queues improve?

Talking to andRob Burgess, frequent flyer website editor Head to the pointswarned that Birmingham could take place “summer of chaos”. He claims that “The only change on Sunday was the requirement for liquids to be in plastic bags and removed from hand luggage – something that 90% of passengers, unaware of the new arrangements, would have expected anyway”.

The real culprit behind the long queue at Birmingham Airport is that The upstairs waiting area in the new £50m security room remains closed. With passengers reporting long delays since April, “In reality, the delays are primarily due to major construction work taking place at the airport, coinciding with the first wave of summer holiday traffic.”

So if you’re flying out of Birmingham airport (and you’re a nervous traveler like me), we recommend you show up even earlier. Airports usually suggest arrival two hours before a short-haul flight and three hours before a long-haul flight. So how will it hurt to add a few more hours at the airport?