Birmingham-8
More of the same
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...ngers-29229704
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...ngers-29229704
Birmingham Airport has issued a statement over queue 'carnage' reports this morning.
It really is a ghastly and totally unacceptable mess. The management has questions to answer and issuing glib press releases about "fully resourcing" is simply inadequate.
Re my post yesterday I arrived 23 May at 14:25 busy but the e-gates were all open and we had no problem going through quickly. I can confirm again that passengers for the station have a dedicated lift which is taped off and manned by stewards, so it was easy and without delay to the Air-Rail but yes again this was busy too.
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EZY Jersey
Just been on the EZY app and dates (but not prices) have been loaded for BHX-JER throughout the winter, up to 3 times a week, plus the route continues next summer. App glitch (given the low fares even in July and Aug) or EZY playing the long game and hoping to capitalise on Blue Islands current reliability issues?
easyjet
Just been on the EZY app and dates (but not prices) have been loaded for BHX-JER throughout the winter, up to 3 times a week, plus the route continues next summer. App glitch (given the low fares even in July and Aug) or EZY playing the long game and hoping to capitalise on Blue Islands current reliability issues?
More depressing queues (youngest daughter was in it yesterday and said it was chaos) and plenty of social media rants over the weekend, apparently up to six weeks for the construction work to finish is the rumour.
Pete
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...48Xh3bMw%3D%3D
Birmingham Airport was heavily criticised today after admitting it was "unable to predict queue times" amid a chaotic morning. A huge queue snaked outside BHX's front door today - leaving holidaymakers furious.
Queues
Without answers it just looks like another overrun build with the airport refusing either to invoke penalties enforcing the contractors to throw labour at the problem or even worse there isn't a penalty clause. The PR has been pathetic to say the least and all they can say is that BHX is one of few airports to get the new machines in place. Well boo hoo, great having the machines in place but passengers queuing back to Sheldon.
Most building contracts overrun but that is not a proper excuse and it would be good to know why although no doubt it will be blamed on a shortage of materials or weather (although the majority of the build was inside).
When I travelled at the end of April on a 6am flight on a busy Sunday morning, I arrived by monorail with hand luggage and sailed through security albeit in fast track but what is BHX's solution to this nice and easy process - make people arriving by rail go downstairs and queue for the lifts as it is not fair on those with checked baggage - seriously this is what In have been told - what small minded, petty, jobs-worths running this airport.
I am still waiting for their reply about the policy of not being able to have the right to use a staircase to go to the first floor without assistance (so much for diversity and choice) - who do they think they are, no escalators and a staircase hidden from view requiring an escort from a member of staff and all just to help them solve their problem of not being able to control passenger flow.
I am willing to cut them some slack if the build is completed shortly, there will be no queuing outside and I can the luxury of walking up a flight of stairs rather than being forced into a lift or waiting in the special assistance area - I am a fairly fit sixty year old that can manage walking up 6 floors at work but BHX want to send me to special assistance to go up one flight of stairs - BHX you are embarrassing and pathetic.
Pete
OltonPete
Remember when we moved from the old terminal to the new, and how disappointed we all were regarding facilities, both landside and airside?
BHX has a long-held record of being run by folk who have/had no idea as to how an airport should operate. As far as forward planning and development are concerned, BHX is still trying to play catch-up with the mistakes made (Too numerous to mention) regarding the new site.
Nobody has reacted to previous mistakes made with regard to future planning! National publicity regarding today's woes pay testament to that. They always appear to have the 'sticking plaster to cover a gapping wound' attitude.
Remember when we moved from the old terminal to the new, and how disappointed we all were regarding facilities, both landside and airside?
BHX has a long-held record of being run by folk who have/had no idea as to how an airport should operate. As far as forward planning and development are concerned, BHX is still trying to play catch-up with the mistakes made (Too numerous to mention) regarding the new site.
Nobody has reacted to previous mistakes made with regard to future planning! National publicity regarding today's woes pay testament to that. They always appear to have the 'sticking plaster to cover a gapping wound' attitude.
Last edited by jethro15; 6th Jun 2024 at 23:08. Reason: Spelling
I dont think there was ever a 'we will have completed the works' by 1st June announcement, so im not sure its fair to say things are running late. The only public position i recall was that the new security area would be up and running by 1st June, which it was. Its still a building site, with the associated access difficulties meaning that there is no space to store anyone trying to join the queues.
I travelled through on Monday 3rd at 8am, took an hour from arriving at the airport to completing security - including bag drop. Probably about 45 minutes security though i noticed that as we got to the front of the security queue the queue was no longer beyond the e-gates (i.e. was very short, not even reaching the lifts, meaning many will pass through in <5 minutes). I arrived back yesterday at 3pm. There was a big queue to access the lifts, and the routing of it meant that those trying to access the train station (like me) had to go outside, 'cross' the queue and come in via the old departures doors to access the specific lift for the Air Rail link. It took about 15 minutes longer than normal to get from Arrivals to the Air-Rail link.
What isnt helping, in any way, is all those travellers arriving very early for their flights. There are plenty arriving 3-4 hours prior so that they can get through the queue, which exacerbates the queue at the earlier time. Not saying that there would be no queue if everyone turned up 2 hours before their flight, but the peak flows would be better. Also, there were lots of people who arrived at security panicking that they were going to miss their flight, and were escorted to the front - I hear that there are many using that as a technique to avoid the queues i.e. deliberately arriving late. It also seems that the fastpass line has its own scanner, which therefore sits underutilised when there arent any fastpass customers. In my opinion it would be better to get the fastpass holders to join the main queue a short distance (~15m) from the front of the line (and hence be able to access all scanners).
More generally, there are clearly many armchair 'experts' in the queue who, apparently, know how to run an operational airport security environment. The vast majority dont work in airport operations, understand airport design, have any involvement in construction (either at an airport or generally). Cant get away from that with the social media age, but it struck me that many people worked themselves up in a fury when waiting patiently and smiling a bit might've helped. More specifically, realising that it is still an active construction site with another several weeks of works to do rather than screaming to high heaven that its terrible and everyone involved should be sacked. Thats not to say its perfect, by any means, but to expect it to work perfectly smoothly during active construction is silly, particularly when there are busy periods to manage during that. As it happens, our flight was full on the way out, so there cant be that many missing flights!
Once the work is complete in a month or so, i'll be the first to moan if it keeps falling over. But not before.
Having said all of this, the airport could've helped by a more proactive 'we are a building site, there will be delays, we will do our best to get you through as fast as possible, bear with us' etc., rather than the rose tinted/wall of silence approach that has mostly happened to date. It really doesnt help when people see fancy messages about new security and then arrive to find a building site and massive queues.
I travelled through on Monday 3rd at 8am, took an hour from arriving at the airport to completing security - including bag drop. Probably about 45 minutes security though i noticed that as we got to the front of the security queue the queue was no longer beyond the e-gates (i.e. was very short, not even reaching the lifts, meaning many will pass through in <5 minutes). I arrived back yesterday at 3pm. There was a big queue to access the lifts, and the routing of it meant that those trying to access the train station (like me) had to go outside, 'cross' the queue and come in via the old departures doors to access the specific lift for the Air Rail link. It took about 15 minutes longer than normal to get from Arrivals to the Air-Rail link.
What isnt helping, in any way, is all those travellers arriving very early for their flights. There are plenty arriving 3-4 hours prior so that they can get through the queue, which exacerbates the queue at the earlier time. Not saying that there would be no queue if everyone turned up 2 hours before their flight, but the peak flows would be better. Also, there were lots of people who arrived at security panicking that they were going to miss their flight, and were escorted to the front - I hear that there are many using that as a technique to avoid the queues i.e. deliberately arriving late. It also seems that the fastpass line has its own scanner, which therefore sits underutilised when there arent any fastpass customers. In my opinion it would be better to get the fastpass holders to join the main queue a short distance (~15m) from the front of the line (and hence be able to access all scanners).
More generally, there are clearly many armchair 'experts' in the queue who, apparently, know how to run an operational airport security environment. The vast majority dont work in airport operations, understand airport design, have any involvement in construction (either at an airport or generally). Cant get away from that with the social media age, but it struck me that many people worked themselves up in a fury when waiting patiently and smiling a bit might've helped. More specifically, realising that it is still an active construction site with another several weeks of works to do rather than screaming to high heaven that its terrible and everyone involved should be sacked. Thats not to say its perfect, by any means, but to expect it to work perfectly smoothly during active construction is silly, particularly when there are busy periods to manage during that. As it happens, our flight was full on the way out, so there cant be that many missing flights!
Once the work is complete in a month or so, i'll be the first to moan if it keeps falling over. But not before.
Having said all of this, the airport could've helped by a more proactive 'we are a building site, there will be delays, we will do our best to get you through as fast as possible, bear with us' etc., rather than the rose tinted/wall of silence approach that has mostly happened to date. It really doesnt help when people see fancy messages about new security and then arrive to find a building site and massive queues.
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Building work
I dont think there was ever a 'we will have completed the works' by 1st June announcement, so im not sure its fair to say things are running late. The only public position i recall was that the new security area would be up and running by 1st June, which it was. Its still a building site, with the associated access difficulties meaning that there is no space to store anyone trying to join the queues.
I travelled through on Monday 3rd at 8am, took an hour from arriving at the airport to completing security - including bag drop. Probably about 45 minutes security though i noticed that as we got to the front of the security queue the queue was no longer beyond the e-gates (i.e. was very short, not even reaching the lifts, meaning many will pass through in <5 minutes). I arrived back yesterday at 3pm. There was a big queue to access the lifts, and the routing of it meant that those trying to access the train station (like me) had to go outside, 'cross' the queue and come in via the old departures doors to access the specific lift for the Air Rail link. It took about 15 minutes longer than normal to get from Arrivals to the Air-Rail link.
Once the work is complete in a month or so, i'll be the first to moan if it keeps falling over. But not before.
Having said all of this, the airport could've helped by a more proactive 'we are a building site, there will be delays, we will do our best to get you through as fast as possible, bear with us' etc., rather than the rose tinted/wall of silence approach that has mostly happened to date. It really doesnt help when people see fancy messages about new security and then arrive to find a building site and massive queues.
I travelled through on Monday 3rd at 8am, took an hour from arriving at the airport to completing security - including bag drop. Probably about 45 minutes security though i noticed that as we got to the front of the security queue the queue was no longer beyond the e-gates (i.e. was very short, not even reaching the lifts, meaning many will pass through in <5 minutes). I arrived back yesterday at 3pm. There was a big queue to access the lifts, and the routing of it meant that those trying to access the train station (like me) had to go outside, 'cross' the queue and come in via the old departures doors to access the specific lift for the Air Rail link. It took about 15 minutes longer than normal to get from Arrivals to the Air-Rail link.
Once the work is complete in a month or so, i'll be the first to moan if it keeps falling over. But not before.
Having said all of this, the airport could've helped by a more proactive 'we are a building site, there will be delays, we will do our best to get you through as fast as possible, bear with us' etc., rather than the rose tinted/wall of silence approach that has mostly happened to date. It really doesnt help when people see fancy messages about new security and then arrive to find a building site and massive queues.
As I mentioned earlier I too am willing to cut them some slack if it all turns out fine once completed but can't help thinking the PR aspect could have been handled better.
I posted earlier but it seems to have got lost somewhere but my main issue originally was H&S a few months ago with staircases blocked by barriers on the first floor by lifts (I witnessed this) and I wondered with this obsession of sending passengers to the lifts had distracted the airport from proper H&S procedures? Although I have a preference (or obsession
with using stairs due to my own phobias) I still think BHX has brought a lot of this on themselves the way the build was managed and their attitude to it all in the press is disgraceful.Jethro - The visit in early 1984 prior to the terminal opening was jaw-dropping and even as a wet behind the ears 20 year old with no business sense, it was clear the build was based on 1975 not 1995 and the fact 4 bars were built and no cellar sums up the closer working involved encompassing all relevant parties. I can't comment on other builds such as T2 as I left by 1986 but as a passenger the baggage reclaim and previous security hall improvements have been totally underwhelming but no point going into that now.
Pete
What isnt helping, in any way, is all those travellers arriving very early for their flights. There are plenty arriving 3-4 hours prior so that they can get through the queue, which exacerbates the queue at the earlier time.
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But this it what passengers are being told to do, I’ve received an email from TUI this morning advising those travelling to Europe/Africa to arrive 3 hours before departure and 4 hours for long haul.
Last edited by chinapattern; 8th Jun 2024 at 15:18.
Instead there is nothing but posts on the BHX Twitter feed that fail to accept the blindingly obvious and reports on notoriously unreliable Reach online news media fueled by social media posts.
News management by fessing up is preferable to burying corporate heads in the proverbial sand.
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If Nick Barton would go on to broadcast media and give an honest assessment of where they are, when things are going to normalise and what, if indeed anything, has not gone to plan it might help.
Instead there is nothing but posts on the BHX Twitter feed that fail to accept the blindingly obvious and reports on notoriously unreliable Reach online news media fueled by social media posts.
News management by fessing up is preferable to burying corporate heads in the proverbial sand.
Instead there is nothing but posts on the BHX Twitter feed that fail to accept the blindingly obvious and reports on notoriously unreliable Reach online news media fueled by social media posts.
News management by fessing up is preferable to burying corporate heads in the proverbial sand.
Lutons reputation took a hit and they were always in the news for the wrong reasons.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...ngers-29256422
"We cannot cope. The main reason for this is the new security system. But [the airport] should have employed extra security staff to stop this from happening.
"We're getting a lot of delayed flights, or customers missing their flights, which is really bad. A lot of us are really overworked at the moment.
"It doesn't seem to be slowing down. I think it will remain like this until at least the end of August and into September."
"We're getting a lot of delayed flights, or customers missing their flights, which is really bad. A lot of us are really overworked at the moment.
"It doesn't seem to be slowing down. I think it will remain like this until at least the end of August and into September."
Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but did anybody at BHX foresee the increase in passenger numbers caused by airlines operating 200 seat jets instead of the 80 seat turboprops and minijets previously operated by regional airlines.
Paxing All Over The World
Just seen this, post in Twitter this morning along with photos:
After updates:
Just joined the Birmingham Airport security queue. It’s 5.18am - let’s see how quickly we get through. Don’t have fast track. I’ll do the job that the comms team don’t. Awful for anybody elderly, with a disability, kids or if it was raining
Well we’ve just about made it. Got through Birmingham Airport security queue with the boards telling us ‘final call’. No time to buy anything, get food, go to the loo, make use of the lounge I’ve paid for or sit down after being on our feet for well over two hours. Absolutely shambles and a terrible, stressful, exhausting start to the holiday. When bag drop doesn’t open until two hours before the flight, and it takes one hour and 45 minutes to clear security, it’s just absolutely the most stressful start to the holiday. My advice to everyone is get here three hours before, drop your bag as early as you can, wrap up, make sure you have drinks and food for the queue - and vow to yourself never to fly from this dump until they sort their **** out.