Passengers at Bristol Airport have been left frustrated after an IT problem has caused delays to flights on Sunday morning.
Huge queues were seen at the airport's check-in caused by an IT problem affecting the self-services on Sunday morning (May 1) before 2.45am, according to a RyanAir passenger on Twitter, who referred to the issues as "an absolute joke".
The problem was largely resolved by 6am with most airlines’ kiosks made operational and extra staff on hand to help customers. All kiosks were fully operational by 7.40am according to Bristol Airport.
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A video shared on Twitter by @OurAdventures2 at 5.08am shows crowds of passengers gathered around the check-in desks before departures. One passenger said it was the worst travel experience they've "ever had at any airport" and the queues at 4am "were ridiculous". They added the service at Bristol Airport is "generally very good" and "they fell short this one time".
Lauren & Tamlyn Tucker from OurAdventures arrived at the airport two and half hours early.
They said: "We joined the special assistance queue but we were left standing for 45+ minutes, so struggled a lot as this was one of our special requirements that we can't queue or stand for long periods. Standard queues were blocking the whole terminal so you couldn't freely move around.
"Security was a further 15 minutes but again we had fast track, the queue was back to the security gates.
If we didn't have any of this it was taking 2+hours to get through and people were running to get to gates.
"Passengers were frustrated as no staff were available to direct, so you just had to join a queue, but they were queueing from both ends of the terminal and it was unclear what queues were for what airlines. No apology from airport issued and no compensation.
"Apparently it was caused by a IT issue. EasyJet issued an apology but the issue wasn't caused by them! The flight was delayed by 45 minutes and arrived 35 minutes late."
If flights weren't delayed I think a lot of people would have missed their flights!
In a statement to Bristol Live, Richard Thomasson, Head of Customer Operations, said: “We’re really sorry for the problems experienced by customers this morning, which were caused by an IT fault with our self-service check-in kiosks. We brought in extra staff to try and help as many customers as possible and worked with our airlines to minimise disruption. All our self-service kiosks are now working.
"This remains a busy time of year so we’re still advising customers to arrive at the terminal at least two hours before their departure time.”
The timetable at Bristol Airport has returned to normal with flights taking off on time. Inbound flights to the airport appeared to be unaffected by the IT fault.
Bristol Airport recently issued fresh advice to urge travellers to "plan ahead" of their upcoming journeys due to high demand. Customers flying around this time are advised to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their scheduled departure time.
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