Birminghamairport Reviews 

The airport:
Arrival to car park 2 was smooth and well signed. Getting from the car park was more challenging because the signage in car park 2 is sadly lacking. Both lifts were broken so we had to carry heavy suitcases down the stairs.
In the terminal is where it all goes to pot. There is a desperate shortage of seating, so you cant sit down because they’re all full. If there had been a problem in Wetherspoons, no one would have escaped as there was way too many people there, with huge queues.
We ate in Burger King, standard fodder but the place itself was a disgrace. Bins overflowing, dirty tables, long wait times. I had to clear and clean my own table.
It was the only choice because everywhere else was rammed.
Looks to me like it’s profit above all else at Birmingham airport.
We will not be flying from there again. Ever

06:30 - 10/09/26. Birmingham Airport what an absolute joke. Getting through security took over an hour. Not enough resources at Britains second city airport to deal with the influx of holiday makers. Staff members were generally rude and unhelpful, carrying out Gestapo-esk searches through hand luggage. Made to feel like a 3rd class citizen just for getting on a flight. BS experience - shame on you Birmingham. Book your ideas up. East Midlands, North London airports have a far healthier approach to dealing with travellers.... 0/5

BHX passport control has been Awful long waiting times with few passport desks open. With far To many desks allocated to fast track lane. I’d try use a different Airport or fast track lane and pay extra as service would be better.

For years now Birmingham Airport has and definitely remains the worst airport you can possibly imagine and that is so hard to have to state, as I am Birmingham born and breed!
Birmingham AirPort is an absolute embarrassment and I am yet find one worst that I have encountered in my travels within the Northern Hemisphere!
The entire airport can only be described as a “Toilet” of unclean facilities and shabbiness. And please try and avoid the toilets for fear of catching something…they have even turned off their “happy and sad” toilet review screens as I assume the sad face is totally broken!
From the moment you walk in the door and see the sticky tape hold them down the door entrance mat you know you’re in for a disappointing experience.
None of the air conditioning works and I would question if they are providing the correct levels of fresh air to comply with hygiene requirements.
Then there is the health and safety issues of boarding a plane and leaving everybody standing for 20 minutes in a staircase, how is that safe?
The only positive note is the Staff, obvious all local, that are truly wonderful, helpful, happy people….I feel sorry for them working in this “toilet”!!

Flight out to Tunisia last Saturday 31st August, delayed 1h then delayed once boarded. Firstly the airport was packed even at 4am, even the gents had to que to use the toilet. Weatherspoons toilet was closed so everyone was using the others, smelly urinals blocked toilets , doors hanging off hinges. The worse airport I've every been to is Sharm , Birmingham beats that now, I feel ashamed to be British and to fly out of that airport. Baggage pickup is always slow at this airport too. Why is it you can travel too and from 3rd world country's and they are far more efficient than Birmingham airport? We will now be looking at alternative airports to fly from and we have used this one for over 30 years . The Management needs to be looked at because you have no standards all.

The one star is for the staff who are friendly and helpful though often looked unhappy.
Car Parks 2& 3 were nearly full and parking on the 7th floor of 3 to discover the lifts were out of order very annoying - then had to go over to 2 with our cases to take the only one working lift down.
We had to keep asking where to go as this area is a complete shambles and crossing the roads was dangerous...
The whole airport is very noisy and cramped with too many bright lights & so many mixed perfume smells - very unpleasant
Although the airport wasn't very busy people were wandering round looking for a seat - unless you were buying refreshments in a café there were very few spare seats, with folk having to sit on the floor. Most seats we found were uncomfortable anyway.
Our flight was delayed, then cancelled and we had to work out way back through the system. We decided not to re-book for the following day - we just couldn't face it...

Birmingham Airport is frankly embarrassing.
I’ve travelled through airports in countries that are often described as being less developed than the UK, and some of them absolutely knock spots off Birmingham in terms of organisation, efficiency, cleanliness and the overall passenger experience.
The difference is staggering. You can arrive at airports elsewhere in the world and experience a smooth, well-organised process from check-in through security and boarding. At Birmingham, you seem to encounter queues, confusion, understaffing and poor organisation at almost every stage.
For an airport serving one of the UK’s largest cities and the wider West Midlands, the standard is simply not good enough. This isn't about the occasional bad day or an unexpected problem — these issues appear to have become the norm.
What is particularly frustrating is that passengers are paying increasingly high prices for parking, food and other services while receiving such a poor level of service in return.
Birmingham Airport seriously needs to look at how other airports operate and learn from them. Some of the so-called poorer countries are running airports that are streets ahead of Birmingham.
It is embarrassing that this is the standard we are offering visitors arriving in the UK and residents travelling from the Midlands.

There are not adequate facilities for the number of passengers. I’ve just managed to find a seat (most of them have been taken away to make room for concessions) after wandering around for ages and now looking at a massive queue for the toilets. The whole place is rammed- needs to be twice the size.

The bar must be pretty low to be an international airport.

Visiting literally anywhere else in the world really reminds you how poorly this country is run in every aspect.
No delays whatsoever in our departure airport, smooth process in a lovely airport then arrive back in the uk and as soon as we land we had to wait 10 minutes for a gate then another 30 minutes while one bus takes the passengers to arrivals in 3 seperate groups with even an air hostess commenting how shocking it is having to get people to wait on the plane for so long while having to look at 8 other buses parked up 200 yards away from us. The last group resembled morning rush hour on the tube being made to cram ourselves in while being told there wouldn’t be a 4th trip so make it work when a couple people start getting a bit aggy with the treatment after a long flight, whether they were right or wrong it definitely doesn’t give the driver of the bus the right to purposely slam the breaks on when we get to the airport to teach whoever a lesson especially when there were at least 3 baby in arms I could see that could’ve led to a nasty injury.
Then to baggage claim, everyone collectively thinking with how long it took to get inside the terminal all our bags would be waiting for us but were greeted with 3 different flights being shown on one belt to collect bags. Slowly bags arrive but none from our flight so half an hour later over the speaker we’re told the bags from our flight would be coming from a different belt so we all go to the new belt with bags already coming through which after a while we find out we’re also from a different flight, another half an hour later we were all told to go back to the original belt where all our bags finally slowly started coming through with a large number noticeably damaged with people going to the desk afterwards to complain which I’m sure fell on deaf ears.
After landing at 6am we finally leave the airport at 8.30am.
Why a pretty depressing looking awfully run airport is international is beyond me when literally every other airport I’ve ever been to is miles ahead of it in literally every aspect.
Madrid airport’s large corridors to navigate through compared to Birmingham’s that resemble packed narrow school corridors, Punta Cana’s spacious seating areas for eating and waiting for your flight compared to Birmingham’s cramped seating areas where you can hardly navigate around without knocking someone else’s chair and Munich’s delicious food options compared to Birmingham’s you’d usually have on a Sunday morning to cure a hangover but everyone still gets paid at the end of the month and the boys upstairs still receive their handsome bonuses no matter what so nothing will ever change.

The ground staff are so very very slow here that there is a high probability that your plane will miss its slot and your flight will be delayed. Just waiting for the ground staff to return so we can take off. Absolutely no urgency to work!

World's worst airport. Truly hopeless security. Never more than half the scanners working. More staff employed managing queues than operating scanners. Year after year it is the same. No number of poor reviews changes anything. Hopeless and uncaring.

We visited Bhx yesterday to collect our daughter. I have say, it must be an embarrassment to the staff. The toilets by Jet2 check-in were disgusting. The car park Car park 3 was used. Guess what? The lifts were out of order, so we had to take the stairs. My general sense is that the Airport is badly managed and the facilities, such as they are are under invested and that the whole operation is for the benefit of the shareholders, rather than the passengers or users.

If I could give this a 0 I would! I’ve flown from Birmingham twice to the same destination, both times delayed both times security has taken us a good hour! Staff could not care less, the facilities are awful, everything is co ordinated poorly and I’ve seen a more people running to catch their flights because of time spent at security! Can safely say I will avoid this airport going forward, and Birmingham should take some advice from Manchester, Heathrow even East Midlands on how an airport should be run!

​The main issue with Birmingham Airport is that it attempts to operate as a major international hub without the infrastructure to support it. Passengers are crammed into a main departure area that is far too small, regardless of how many food outlets are crammed into it. Management continuously pushes to expand business without recognizing a basic reality: more flights mean more passengers, which requires more physical space. Delays are practically guaranteed, and you can count on queuing at almost every stage—security, passport control, and baggage collection all suffer from severe staffing shortages. While upper management frequently touts growth goals in the local press, they seem focused on raw figures rather than the reality on the ground.

6:30am out of Brum going through security with two year old and a three month old grandchild.
After passing through security screening and collecting our belongings from the scanner conveyor, my wife is being harassed by an Asian looking security guard to hurry up. Bear in mind my wife is holding a two year old granddaughter whilst try to collect her belongings & put on her shoes.
I calmly reminded said security officer to bear with as we've got a small child to consider.
For some reason this made him very angry at me, he was repeatedly shouting 'chill' just chill and what's the matter with you? To which I calmly reminded 'said' security officer that we had a small child and things take a little longer. This only seamed to exacerbate his mood..... He manner was very confrontational & rude.

Apart from this guy, all other security staff were lovely.
Maybe he was having a particular bad day, but that is no excuse in a customer facing environment particularly where you may have nervous passengers.
Suggest he's re-calibrated in all things customer service or moved away from a public facing role.

It took longer to pass through security than the aircraft took to fly to Mallorca.
Not acceptable.
The retails stores and food outlets must suffer as people have to remaining time to use them.

Airports, and the security services therein, form part of the national infrastructure. Birmingham Airport, in my opinion, fails its customers at the crucial security lines. My recent experience saw me take nearly 2 1/2 hours to clear security only making my flight by the skin of my teeth. The management of the security process was chaotic to say the least. Several of the security scanners were closed, even though hundreds of passengers were backing up. Very poor service indeed.

New security facilities are appalling. Extremely long wait times and poor service. 2.5 hours still not enough time to get into terminal, no time for food and drink. Rapidly becoming worst uk airport

Unfair charge parking fine after staff member advised I was good to go.
Went to Birmingham Airport to collect my Mum and Aunty after their holiday, and both are blue badge holders which allows 30 minutes free parking in the main car park. On the day in question I moved very quickly to get both my Mum and Aunt in the car as well as my Aunts wheelchair and then went to the office in the car park to tell them I was now in the process of leaving. After speaking to the staff member who at first was most uuhelpful he finally checked the screen and advised me I had a green tick meaning I was within the 30 minute time allowed and that I could exit the car park. I went 4 minutes over the time allowed as I had to wait to reverse out of the parking space and there was also a queue waiting to exit the car park as it was a very busy period. I have appealed the £60.00 fine on these grounds and have been advised that as I was in breach of the 30 minute rule the fine as to be paid. Just so anyone using Birmingham Airport is aware they do not give a toss about disabled people or the time it can take to get them into a car and out of the airport.

I don’t normally leave negative reviews over something as small as £18, but the process of trying to obtain a refund from Birmingham Airport has become ridiculous.

I booked airport parking and Express Lane directly through the Birmingham Airport website in February 2026. The Express Lane tickets were for three of us and cost £18 in total. Unfortunately, when we travelled we were unable to use the Express Lane service, so I subsequently contacted Birmingham Airport to request a refund.

I provided my booking reference, email address and evidence of the booking/tickets. On 24 July I was told that my details had been forwarded to the relevant team and to “allow up to 10 working days to receive your refund”.

Ten working days passed with no refund and no further communication, so I chased it.

Since then I have been repeatedly asked to provide further information because Birmingham Airport apparently cannot locate the payment, despite their own admin system showing the booking as “PAID”. I have even gone through my bank statement and provided what I believe to be the corresponding transaction in an attempt to help them resolve it.

I have also explained that Birmingham Airport changed its booking system after I made the original booking. In fact, before travelling I had already needed to telephone the airport because the new system couldn’t locate my booking, and it had to be added back onto the system.

I have now been told that a ticket has had to be raised with the creators of Birmingham Airport’s booking system to investigate what has happened.

To be fair, the member of the customer support team I have most recently been dealing with has tried to help and has herself acknowledged that this should have been a very simple matter to resolve. My criticism is therefore not directed at her personally.

However, from a customer’s perspective, this is incredibly poor. Birmingham Airport accepted the booking, issued the tickets, shows the booking as paid and initially told me I would receive a refund within 10 working days. I don’t think I should then have to spend weeks providing increasingly more evidence because their systems cannot locate their own transaction.

It’s only £18, but that’s really not the point. We paid for a service we couldn’t use and I simply want Birmingham Airport to refund the money.

Nearly a month of correspondence to recover £18 is completely disproportionate and has left me very disappointed with Birmingham Airport’s customer service and booking systems.