Furious passengers have raged about lengthy queues at some of the UK's busiest airports with long delays at immigration control and long waits at security before boarding a flight. Manchester Airport was forced to apologise after huge security queues caused passengers to miss flights.
While massive queues stretched for hundreds of yards at Heathrow for passengers waiting at immigration control after disembarking flights. The delays have been blamed on a lack of suitably-trained staff to cope with the upsurge in international travel following the end of travel restrictions in the UK.
Other airports have also been criticised by passengers forced to stand around amid lengthy check-in queues or delays in collecting baggage. Here's a round-up from some of the UK's main airports.
Manchester Airport
Bosses at the airport said passengers could continue to face delays - despite a recruitment campaign to take on hundreds of new employees. The airport said unexpectedly high passenger numbers put "considerable strain" on staff.
Karen Smart, managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “We want to apologise to all our customers who have experienced disruption over the last couple of weeks. “We want to be clear with our customers that getting back to full strength is going to take time and there will unfortunately be periods over the next few weeks when it will take longer to get through the airport than it should.”
Huge queues have been reported for Check-in, Security and Passport Control, as well as issues in other departments including baggage reclaim. An airport statement accepts there are also recruitment and staffing issues.
It says: “The airport is experiencing staff shortages, as it seeks to meet rapidly increasing demand for international travel following the lifting of testing and quarantine requirements in mid-February."
It warns that they are 'expecting there to be longer security queues than usual for several weeks', reports the Manchester Evening News. The statement adds that the ‘ramping-up’ of operations following the removal of travel restrictions is creating challenges not only for airport-managed sections like Security - where there are 'hundreds' of vacancies - but also for those run by outside agencies. These include Check-in, Baggage Reclaim and Immigration checks at the border.
Officials are struggling to employ and train staff fast enough to cope with the huge demand. Passenger numbers have doubled over the last two months, with 60,000 now travelling through the terminals every day.
Heathrow
The UK's biggest and busiest airport has also suffered from staff shortages. Passengers reported queues stretching for 'a quarter of a mile' to progress through immigration control. Social media showed hundreds of people waiting in line at Terminal 5, with queues said to have lasted for more than an hour.
At the weekend, baggage reclaim issues forced some travellers forced to leave the airport for their final destination without their possessions. Meanwhile, last month British Airways cancelled short-haul flights from the airport because of technical issues, which caused chaos at the airport.
Heathrow blamed an “increase in passengers” for the latest problems. The airport replied to social media posts from angry travellers posting: "We are aware of longer immigration queues, due to the increase of passengers. Border Force is working hard to process passengers. Thank you for your patience."
London Gatwick
Gatwick's South Terminal is set to reopen within days for the first time since the start of the pandemic. This will give passengers the choice of more than 30 long-haul destinations this summer, including Bangkok, Quebec and Islamabad.
However, passengers are being advised to arrive early for their flights from March 27 because the terminals are expected to be busy. All passengers – regardless of airline - are urged check the terminal they are flying from before they come to the airport.
Departing travellers are advised to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flights for long-haul routes and two hours for short-haul and services within the UK.
Birmingham Airport
Passengers travelling through the West Midlands hub have also reported delays both for arrivals and departures following the resumption of international travel. It has also blamed staff shortages for delays.
It has warned that hiring new staff "takes time" as passengers continue to complain about long queues. Travellers have reported waiting over an hour and a half to get through airport security and described holidaymakers "running" through the terminal to make their flights.
Social media images shared at the end of February showed what looked to be hundreds of passengers queuing for security checks, which BHX put down to staff shortages and an increase in passenger numbers. A recruitment drive was launched to help cope with a forecast surge in demand, but there have been complaints of further delays.
The airport said demand for travel has "accelerated far beyond" projected passenger forecasts. It said recent recruitment fairs have been successful, but "training and onboarding does take time".
London Stansted
Angry passengers have criticised "nightmare" passport control queues at Stansted. Problems were first reported last weekend and the issue appears to have been ongoing. Elderly passengers were among those suffering for hours as they waited to access immigration.
Stansted responded to passenger complaints saying it was "sharing all feedback with Home Office's Border Force, who manage the Immigration process" and would "be working with them to ensure that passengers enjoy the best possible experience going forward."
Cardiff Airport
The airport has largely escaped the problems suffered by some of the UK's busier hubs. It lists a set of guidelines to help departing and arriving passengers.
For check-in, it recommends arriving at least two hours before scheduled time of departure to allow enough time to check-in, drop-off any hold luggage and process through airport security.
The airport website also list various guidelines to help speed up the immigration process for arriving passengers.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
