Birmingham Airport: I fear there will be more carnage queues at this UK airport in summer after my recent arrivals experience

I arrived at Birmingham Airport after my weekend trip to Copenhagen on Monday 3 March and was met with huge queues at passport control through Immigration which is ran by Customs and Immigration on behalf of the government. No one knew what was going on and there was no communication from staff.

It seemed that a few flights had landed at once so there was an influx of passengers, but there was no need for the huge queues that built up. Luckily, once we got to the lower floor and neared passport control the queues began to move swiftly. But it was a shambles. When I walked past a member of staff he said: “Sorry about the queues, it’s all gone to pot!”.

Another passenger complained on X about the queues. The user posted: “So Birmingham Airport management, do you think this is acceptable. We have only just got off a flight and we arrive to this. There is no explanation, no announcements and no customer service. It's a bit of a joke. Anyone reading this, avoid BHX.” And indeed it was a joke. You don’t want to be met with huge queues after a long journey. And it makes me very worried for the summertime, as I fear there will be even larger queues at the airport.

Last summer there was chaos at the airport for those who were departing. There were long waits at security checkpoints with some travellers missing their flights as a result. The airport blamed the last-minute decision by the government to change its rules on liquids, which saw an increase in additional bag checking.

The airport has announced it has installed two “state-of-the-art” passenger screening lanes as part of a £5m investment in the airport to reduce the queues for those departing. The new lanes will add allow the airport to screen up to an additional 3,600 passengers per hour in peak times.

But, despite the fact the airport is adding improvements to try and better queues for departing passengers it doesn’t fill me with hope. After I was stuck in a queue arriving into the airport it made me feel disheartened that the airport will be smoothly ran this summer.

I hope that the installations do improve queues for departing passengers, but after being stuck in a queue arriving at the airport and having no communication from staff it seems there is an underlying issue of mismanagement. Passengers at the airport need to be looked after better - and I hope the airport is going to be smoothly running during the peak travel months. Let’s hope the airport proves me wrong this summer and its heavy investments lead to no more pesky queues.