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Birmingham and Manchester Airport It’s been in the news a lot lately due to ongoing issues with queues and staffing issues.
The inability of passengers to check their luggage in time and the large number of security lines have always been a problem.
The biggest worry for many is that baggage drop is only open three hours before a flight, but there are often long lines to check in and then long lines to ensure safety. For some unfortunate passengers, this resulted in missed flights. If you miss your flight due to these queues, there is little recourse as it is classified as your fault. If you miss your flight within 2 hours, your only option is to try to rebook. However, many, if not most, airlines charge a hefty admin fee for this, and you don’t even know if a seat is available on the next flight.
When you came back, things didn’t seem to get better either. Yesterday, there were reports of a “massacre” at Birmingham Airport, with some claiming to wait hours for their luggage.
Bank Holiday and Jubilee Weekend
With half term and jubilee weekend the airport could be under a lot of pressure this weekend, with queues all but guaranteed.
In my previous post about Manchester Airport, I tried to use theoretical methods to predict the severity of queues. But my results were mixed.
Twitter reported long queues this morning
Although I’ve grown to hate social media in recent years, you can still rely on it to get real-time information from angry customers.
Wednesday the 31st at 5:30 amstone May, at least post alone A photo of the long queue for departure.
One unlucky traveler missed it in the security queue two hours before his flight took off.
However, another traveler reported that the Jet2 bag check was well arranged and they passed security quickly. Just the other side was bumped.
Your best bet is to search Birmingham Airport, then filter by latest tweets.
Birmingham Airport estimated security wait times
One of the few things Manchester Airport has done right recently is implementing a basic system of reporting estimated safe waiting times.
As I write this on Tuesday morning, the 60 minute safe time on T1 and T2 looks very busy. I rarely see them report more than 30 minutes.
Sadly, Birmingham Airport has not implemented such a feature.
google trend time and real-time data
In my post in Manchester, I had hoped that using the time function popular in Google would give some idea of how busy the airport might be at a particular time.
For a normal week, this might give you a rough idea. For example, mornings are much busier than evenings, and you can calculate your busiest days.
Other than that, it’s not very useful. Current conditions do not represent previous trends.
Add half term and jubilee and you might forget about it.
Currently, the airport is reported to be busier than usual, with the little red line indicating that it is now busier than all day.
flight duration
Again, my previous theory was that you could look at historical flights to see if there were regular delays, which might indicate an ongoing problem.
On my trip to Porto, this theory was a huge failure. My flight was delayed by two hours.
What I do know is that flights later in the day are more prone to delays because of the knock-on effects of inbound flights throughout the day.
General advice
My best advice for Jubilee Week is to assume the absolute worst.
If you’re on a short trip, I’d try to avoid checked bags, even if you pay for it (that’s what we do). This is a variable that can be eliminated and can reduce your stress.
Unfortunately, with live hours and twitter, it only provides information about the current situation, which is often too late if you plan to leave early in the morning.
