Exclusive:
Nick Barton told the Mirror that the Department of Transport had partially left Birmingham Airport in the dark on Friday when it announced the high-tech scanners could not be used to allow passengers to travel with two litre bottles in their hand luggage as planned
The boss of a major UK airport hit by huge queues of passengers snaking out the terminal doors says security issues will come to an end fully only once the Government has green-lit the use of newly installed scanners.
However, in what will be a worrying admission for those with flights booked from Birmingham Airport this summer, the travel hub’s CEO has said it is not known when a temporary pause on the use of newly installed security scanners would come to an end.
Nick Barton told the Mirror that the Department of Transport had partially left the airport in the dark on Friday when it announced the high-tech scanners could not be used to allow passengers to travel with two litre bottles in their hand luggage as planned.
He admitted that the configuration of the departures hall with the newly installed scanners meant the queues would not be brought back to normal levels – until the Department of Transport directive stopping their full use is lifted.
“We have no reason to believe this won’t be a temporary measure,” Mr Barton told the Mirror when asked if the Government had provided any time frame when it came to the scanners’ use being paused.
“We need to manage the challenge of it while we wait. We (have no idea) how long it will be.”
The CEO also issued a plea to passengers to make sure their bags are correctly packed, while clarifying what the current hand luggage rules at the airport are.
Previously he has warned that one in five passengers are arriving with bottles that are too large – potentially adding a 20 minute wait for every one. Given there are 45,000 customers travelling through Birmingham Airport each day right now, that’s 3,000 hours of extra security time taken up daily.
Mr Barton told the Mirror that passengers don’t need to put their liquids in clear plastic bags when heading through security, but that they must be 100ml or less.
“Ideally liquids should be in the hold bag. But the bottle size is fundamental (for hand luggage). It is 100ml. Full stop. Anything more than that cannot go and will be discarded,” the CEO said.
Mr Barton expressed hopes that the lines which have been building up outside the terminal could be significantly reduced if all passengers were aware of the 100ml rule and followed it.
Mr Barton said no one had missed their flights yesterday or on Monday as a consequence of the queues, which tend to flare up in the mornings, lunchtimes and evenings. He said plans were underway to introduce extra measures to cut down the lines, starting from next week.
Once those measures are in place, the airport should be able to get “close” to its normal capacity for dealing with queues, Mr Barton said.
He added that, despite pictures of frustrated passengers standing outside the airport being spread far and wide in recent days, “passenger demand is as strong as ever. We haven’t seen any drop.” The aviation boss also praised staff for being “brilliant” during what has been a challenging time, as well as the vast majority of passengers for being patient and considerate.
The Department of Transport declined to comment.
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