# Birmingham Airport delays ahead of UK summer break

By Simon Faulkner — 2026-06-10

Simon Faulkner, senior lecturer and academic excellence coach at University College Birmingham, said: “Birmingham Airport (BHX) has recently faced intense negative publicity over long queues, with many passengers and media outlets, in my opinion, unfairly blaming the airport.

“I have experienced this myself as a Birmingham resident: on a recent trip to Germany, I faced significant delays at Birmingham Airport, with long queues for security and wait times far beyond what I’d encountered before.

“The airport confirmed that longer waits were due to an ‘unexpectedly high level of staff absence because of sickness,’ not poor management.

“However, as the big summer getaway approaches, we need to go deeper and explore the broader picture to offer more context to the anticipated delays.

“To its credit, Birmingham Airport was the first UK airport to install advanced Next Generation Security Checkpoints (NGSC) featuring CT scanners, to comply with the government’s June 2024 deadline.

“This was no insignificant step and saw the airport invest £60m in the technology.

“The government’s subsequent U-turn resulted in the instruction to BHX to maintain the existing 100ml liquid limit, instead of allowing the planned increase to a 200ml limit.

“This resulted in creating passenger confusion and additional bag rejections at security.

“Additionally, post-Brexit, British passport holders are now treated as third-country nationals under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which requires biometric registration at EU border points, causing processing times to increase by up to four to five times at European airports.

“Consequently, airlines are now advising passengers to arrive three hours before departure due to the expected EES delays.

“Birmingham Airport is absorbing blame for delays driven by government policy changes, EU regulations, and industry-wide staffing challenges, even though the root causes lie beyond its direct control.”

Canonical: https://experts.pressassociation.com/expert/151/views/75444be72c615651