New research from Which? Travel reveals that 7% of people who travelled from a UK airport between mid-February and mid-August 2022 reported long security queues that caused them to miss a flight.
Some respondents to Which? Travel’s annual airport survey said they waited for over a hour - and were then forced to sprint for the gate when they finally made it through security.
One said: ‘I was consistently given bad information by the website and screens, nearly missed my flight and had an asthma attack from having to run to the gate.’
Others reported ‘uncontrolled queues’ with staff having to call people to the front to avoid missing flights.At the worst airport for queue times, Leeds Bradford, more than a quarter of respondents to our survey said they had to queue for over an hour.
Read our full reviews of the best and worst UK airports
Leeds Bradford, Bristol and Birmingham worst for security queues
The average security queue waiting time in the six months to August, according to estimates from passengers who took part in our survey, was almost 35 minutes at Leeds Bradford.
At Bristol it was 30 minutes, and at Birmingham and Manchester 24 minutes. But travellers who passed through airports at peak times could have a much worse experience. Overall, 5% said they queued for more than an hour but that was as high as 11% in Birmingham, 8% in Manchester and 27% in Leeds Bradford.
All three airports also got just one star out of five for security queues in our recent airports survey - which takes in passengers’ experiences over the past two years.
At some airports, passengers also reported queueing for over an hour for bag drop-off or check-in, with further queues at the departure gate.
Find out what you can do if you miss your flight because of long queues.
Smaller airports work better for passengers
At most smaller airports nobody reported waiting for over an hour to get through security. Other queues were shorter too.
The best London airports had faster average security queue times, according to respondents, than those in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. At Heathrow it was 20 minutes, Luton 19 minutes, Stansted 18 minutes and Gatwick 16 minutes. At London City it was just 12 minutes.
Security queue times compared
| Airport | Average reported security queue times in minutes |
| London City | 12 |
| Belfast City | 13 |
| Glasgow International | 13 |
| Newcastle | 15 |
| London Gatwick | 16 |
| Edinburgh | 16 |
| London Stansted | 18 |
| Belfast International | 18 |
| London Luton | 19 |
| London Heathrow | 20 |
| Manchester | 24 |
| Birmingham | 24 |
| Bristol | 30 |
| Leeds Bradford | 35 |
How we gathered security queue times
Which? surveyed 1,296 adults in the UK who travelled from a UK airport between mid-February 2022 and August 2022. Respondents were asked how long they spent in various queues at the airport, including the security queue data quoted above.
Fieldwork was conducted in August 2022, and the data has been weighted to be representative of the adult UK population.
Airports’ own security queue times data
Airports aren’t obliged to publish security queue data, and it is measured in different ways by those that do. However, we contacted the eight busiest UK airports, as well as London City and Leeds Bradford, from the list above, to ask for their own data for 1 March to 31 August.
Heathrow and Edinburgh Airports both said that 90% of passengers got through security within 15 minutes. Heathrow’s statistics, published online, show that queues were worse in July than the rest of the period.
Gatwick Airport didn’t respond but its published figures show there were seven security queues where passengers waited more than 30 minutes in July 2022 and six in June. It said around 96% of passengers got through in 15 minutes or less.
Manchester Airport said that 90% of passengers in the same period got through security in less than 30 minutes - but it acknowledged that some had a much worse experience. It said that it was hit by recruitment problems in the spring after pandemic restrictions were lifted, but that queue times had significantly improved by August.
Both Luton and London City Airport said the average wait time for security for that period was seven minutes.
Stansted Airport said ‘the overwhelming majority of passengers passed through security in well under 10 minutes.’
Bristol Airport said that average security queues took 27 minutes. It also said that 82.2% of customers passed through security in less than 20 minutes.
Birmingham declined to provide data. Leeds Bradford didn’t reply.
What time do I need to get to the airport?
In the travel surge after pandemic restrictions were lifted this spring, airlines told passengers to arrive much earlier at some airports because of long queues.
However, airports warned that they were being overwhelmed by some travellers arriving long before check-in was opened. It’s important to give yourself enough time to get through security, particularly during busier periods such as Christmas, but arriving too early may itself contribute to congestion at the airport.
Before your flight, check our guide to what time you should get to the airport - our research included all of the UK’s biggest terminals.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/seven-percent-of-passengers-said-this-summers-airport-chaos-caused-them-to-miss-a-flight-aSTC84b8oA0S