Birmingham Airport has vowed to ‘look into’ the circumstances around claims passengers missed their flight after they were left behind in ‘huge queues’. Some said they were held up at security for two hours amid the delays.
It is understood around 30 passengers missed Ryanair flights to Dublin and Tenerife as BHX responded to say they had a “busy start” to Sunday, May 1. Two sisters rushed to catch their flight, but passed security to ‘find the gate had closed and the plane was flying off without them’.
Another passenger, who was on the next flight to Dublin, described the experience as “utter chaos” after security hold-ups meant the boarding had closed by the time she arrived. The airport, which made 43 per cent of its staff redundant in the pandemic, stressed that more security officers would be on duty soon.
Read more: Live updates: Birmingham Airport passengers ‘miss flights’ after ‘two hour security queues’
It’s hoped they will be able to assist with the security search function, reducing the recent delays to passengers.
A statement from BHX read: “We had a busy start today (Sunday) with more than 13,000 customers due to fly out of BHX. Queues were long but managed and moving. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding. We will look into the circumstances of anyone who missed their flight.
“As always, our message to departing customers is: Help us help you keep queues moving by removing any liquids, gels, pastes and electrical items from your bags before our security x-ray scanners.”
Passengers heading out for Bank Holiday trips were left frustrated by the security delays – which reportedly backed up all the way to the Frankie and Benny’s restaurant. One woman told how she ran into problems – despite having arrived two and a half hours early for her 8.40am flight.
Named only as Helen, the holiday-maker said: “Boarding had closed and we were only allowed to board due to pilot intervention! Got to airport at 06.10am & whenever we tried to be fast tracked, we were denied/sent back. Utter chaos!”
Another said he was among ’30 people’ who missed flights with Ryanair. He said: “They were closing gates whilst people were waiting in huge queues in security.
“We had arrived 3 hours prior to our flight and couldn’t check in due to technical issues in their systems. It was like hell.”
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