Birmingham Airport

✅ Trip Verified | For the second largest city in the UK, this airport is a terrible mess. I recently visited Birmingham (Jun '23) through this airport. I like to rate the atmosphere/ambiance/atmosphere and effectiveness/efficiency separately. My first impression of the airport was as if I had arrived at a small city in a developing country. Nothing fancy about the airport but immigration was okay. There was one big hall with UK/EU lines at one end and immigration at the other. Given the low number of non-EU/UK travelers, the experience went smoothly. I was able to clear immigration but had to wait for my colleague who is a UK national. Going past the immigration reveals a more gloomy room where it took ages for the luggage to arrive. Overall, it was fine in terms of efficiency (given the low number of passengers). The departure was another story altogether. As soon as you enter the airport, it is just chaotic. The Emirates counter was at the farthest end and after checking in my luggage, it was hard to find where the departure is from. Two of the escalators weren't working leaving a long line at the 3rd which was blocked by a staff member for no apparent reason. The signage at the escalator mentions that it is for the train but doesn't say departure. If you climb upstairs, there is a person directing you to departure and to trains. The security line was just a complete mess and took a long time to clear. The passageway to security is narrow and the way they were handling security was quite inefficient. Security itself wasn't very tight to put it lightly. Once you clear security, it is more bearable and signage also improves. Overall, the airport looked congested and disorganized. All lounges were full. The boarding gates have access-controlled seating but remain closed until close to boarding time meaning passengers who arrive more than 30-40 prior to departure have no place to sit. Also, there are no shops close to the gates, so even if you need a cup of tea you will have to walk all the way to the duty-free area with restaurants. I think the ground floor needs a makeover and upgradation and access to security gates can be better organized. Other than that, it is just a basic airport and certainly not one to be excited about.

Not Verified | This must be the worst airport in the entire world. £4 for drop off, no seating in departures, overcrowded. Absolutely disgusting. I have travelled extensively and this airport is the worst ever. Monorail not available at night.

✅ Trip Verified | Now-a-days a UK airport should be better but certainly as the UK second city one would expect a much better airport. Simply put, there is just not enough space. The staff are brilliant at what they are trying to do. But really? Up and down steps to get to and from an aircraft in this day and age? And don't even get me started on the state of Car Park 5 which is just shocking for the price one pays. Broken barriers and cameras facing the wrong way that do not recognise the car reg. The instructions to "call for assistance" apparently means you won't be spoken to, just a ticket dished out and it is up to you to pray that your pre-paid dates will be recognised on return. On return people struggling to get out with barriers again not recognising cars, inability to put in the ticket dished out on arrival and barriers not going all the way up! At least the shuttle bus service worked from Car parks 4 and 5 and 50% of the drivers we had were pleasant and polite. Come on Birmingham, sort it out!

Not Verified | This is the filthiest airport with the most incredibly hostile, unhelpful, miserable security staff ever. The toilets stink, the floors are filthy and I hate travelling using this airport. Thought I’d try again and it’s worse than ever. Extra half an hour to East Midlands

✅ Trip Verified | I first used Birmingham Airport in February 2022 and then again on 21st October 2022. On both dates I found the place to be a chaotic disaster! The check in desk area is badly designed and has poor facilities for customers, however, the security procedures are the worst I have encountered at any airport in the world in 40 years of travelling. The queues are long and badly managed. The staff are rude and unhelpful. The flight information screens are inaccurate and slow to update.

✅ Trip Verified |  Security was a nightamre, unfreindly staff, dirty bins for your possesion to sit in and dark and dingy. The Aspire lounge was still as SAD as ever. I can only hope that a major improvement is initiated ASAP

✅ Trip Verified | I travel a lot and it's no chance that everything is disorganised and chaos. Time for a change of senior management. I am sure there is someone who could do a better job and change the Culture of acceptance at this airport

Not Verified | Where do you start? Seating in departures is massively inadequate, security queue still ridiculous. Take-off delayed an hour (already seated on plane) because someone hadn’t done final weight calculations for take-off and then no aircraft tug to push back. Passengers make the effort to get here in time and some people seemingly can’t do their jobs. Arrivals was even worse. The airport continually blames immigration for delays but this took about 15-20 minutes, even with the constant failure of the e passport readers. It was 2 hours after entering the terminal that our baggage finally started to make its stuttering way around the carousel. That’s purely an airport issue so sort it out. I could’ve eaten a 3 course meal in the baggage reclaim area while waiting!

Not Verified | Arrived back from Dubrovnik delayed flight. TUI said it was due to all trucks being broken to pull plane on outbound flight. Anyway fast forward to arrival back in Birmingham queuing at Passport Control to be greeted by what I can only describe as a farce. You clearly think that after a flight we have lost the ability to distinguish between green and red to indicate which booths are free. To further add insult insult to injury we then had a second individual barking instructions at weary travellers. This is totally unnecessary and insulting to our intelligence. More manned booths and less staff standing around barking instructions would ease the congestion.

✅ Trip Verified | We arrived at Birmingham airport returning from Heraklion airport. My daughter was taken ill on holiday and had her appendix removed. On arrival a man waited at the steps of the aircraft i didn't catch his name, he went above and beyond in his job role, nothing was too much trouble he even said he would stay with us although his shift was nearly over. My little girl said he was amazing as well. He deserves recognition for his superb customer service.