Airport security queue chaos spreads following 100ml U-turn

Holidaymakers faced long queues on Friday morning as chaos at security spread to more airports around the country following the Government’s U-turn on the 100ml liquid rule.

Ministers reimposed a ban on carrying liquids greater than 100ml in hand luggage last weekend, confusing passengers and criticism from travel industry bosses.

Passengers at Birmingham Airport say they faced “carnage” in the early hours of Friday morning, with multiple lanes of queues forming just to get into the building.

It was the second time this week that long waits were reported at the West Midlands airport after some passengers departing on Sunday said they were forced to stand in queues for up to two hours.

The chaos has now spread to other airports following the U-turn, with holidaymakers at Bristol Airport saying security queues early on Friday morning were “all the way outside the terminal and down the street”.

‘Missed flights’

Matt Chinery, who was flying to Geneva early on Friday, said that while he left himself plenty of time to get through security, some passengers “definitely did miss flights”.

“It was about 40-45 minutes through security,” he told the Telegraph. “Lots of people were panicking around me at the length of the queue assuming it would be much longer than that, I think, but it moved pretty quickly.

“I’d read in advance somewhere that the new scanners were coming online today so I’d been generous with time. I was flying to Geneva and we left on time, though some people definitely did miss flights.”

Another passenger wrote on Twitter that she had met a few passengers who had missed flights following the “crazy” queues.

New security scanners came into use in the airport on Friday, however, a spokesman said the “longer than normal” queues were owing to staff illness.

“We’re really sorry that security queues first this morning were longer than normal,” the spokesman said.

“This was mainly caused by staff sickness, which we are working with our security partner to address.

“New security scanners are now in place at Bristol Airport - passengers should keep all items in their hand luggage, including liquids up to a maximum size of 100ml.”

It comes after Birmingham Airport blamed the Department for Transport’s (DfT) U-turn on the 100ml limit for long delays on Sunday morning.

Birmingham Airport bosses had expected DfT officials to lift the limit from June 1 and had “designed and resourced” a new £60-million security screening hall around scanners capable of handling larger bottles.

The airport had been waiting for the go-ahead from the DfT to use the new scanners with containers bigger than 100ml. In the meantime, staff remove larger bottles at manual liquid-check stations before passengers put their bags through the scanners.

Yet the DfT said last Friday that the 100ml limit would “temporarily be reintroduced” across the whole country from Sunday morning, amid concerns that the new scanning technology is not secure enough.