Birmingham Airport queues: What it is like flying from the airport pictured with huge queues of passengers - is it still a nightmare, what time should I arrive for my flight?

Birmingham Airport has been hitting the headlines over the past week as pictures showed huge queues snaking outside the building. Some people reported having to wait several hours on Friday (17 May), with one family saying the delay had caused them to miss their flight.

Large queues have been reported at the airport in recent weeks as building works are carried out. On Friday, an airport spokesperson said the decision to have passengers queue outside was due to it being a sunny day and to ease congestion around the construction works for the new security search area. Aimee Francisco told BBC News that she was queuing for security for approximately two hours and that there were people at security just ahead of them whose flights were due to leave 10 minutes later.

I have arrived at Birmingham Airport this morning (Tuesday 21 May) for a flight that I am catching at 9.30am - and for me, it was a breeze. Around me there were some queues at check-ins, although that is to be expected, but there were no queues snaking around the building. My flight is with easyJet and the time advised for passengers to check-in was two hours before. There were grumbles about this around me as fellow passenger’s were nervous about security and missing their flight - due to the pictures that had been circulating on social media of the huge queues.

However, everything was done very smoothly, and in fact a manager of Birmingham Airport was hurrying the easyJet staff along to get people seen to as he didn’t want queues of people in the hallway. For security, it was all very quick and I didn’t have to take any liquids out of my bag or electronics. All I had to take off was my shoes and my belt, and I was through in about 10 minutes if that.

The new security scanners are underway at the airport and from my experience there were no horror queues. Get to the airport three hours before and you should be all set to jet off on your holiday. If you do face disruption or face chaos at the airport this summer email me your experience [email protected]