England football fan at Birmingham Airport says second journey in days was quicker for this reason

-Credit: (Image: Nick Horner/BirminghamLive)
-Credit: (Image: Nick Horner/BirminghamLive)


England football fan Nick Horner has travelled through Birmingham Airport twice in a matter of days bound for Euro 2024 in Germany. But his second journey through the airport was quicker than his first and he's revealed why he thinks that is.

The BirminghamLive Sutton Coldfield journalist told how the bag scanning area at security was "clogged" up on Sunday, June 16. It took around two hours to pass all the checks on that morning.

Fast forward four days to today, Thursday, June 20, and Nick completed his journey through the city airport in one hour and 15 minutes. That was a reduction of 38 minutes from one hour and 53 minutes. So what changed? It came as others earlier this morning branded queue scenes as "appalling", "ridiculous" and "insane."

READ MORE: Birmingham Airport live as England football fan caught in 'insane' queues

Nick said there were six bag scanners in use by security staff rather than five on the previous occasion. Just that simple change, he thought, made all the difference to his journey time today.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Nick shared a thread of his experience. He posted: "The scanning area was clogged Sunday, but not today. We moved through quickly. And the queue never really stopped moving, snaking towards the bag scanning area. All good. I started to think 'why was it quicker?

"And the penny dropped ! On Sunday five of the seven new bag scanning machines were working. And today when we turned the corner six of the seven were being used. And what a difference they made! What had taken some 90 mins to reach Sunday was under an hour. And the queue didn't stop moving.

"With six machines in operation that's 20 per cent more capacity. So the queue sped along by comparison. While there's a 100ml liquid limit. You don't need to take those liquids out nor your electronics out. Bliss!"

He added: "My view is it's a capacity issue and not a liquids issue. Today was smooth by comparison to Sunday. Had I not been Sunday, I may be viewing the 1 hour 15 to get through security differently. Everything is relative I guess! On the Germany and three points #EURO2024."

Queue at Birmingham Airport departures on June 20 -Credit:Nick Horner/BirminghamLive
Queue at Birmingham Airport departures on June 20 -Credit:Nick Horner/BirminghamLive

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