Birmingham Airport delays blamed as family miss Brazil flight

Robert and Jeannie Armstrong had been due to fly to Brazil to meet their baby grandson

A family who were heading for the trip of a lifetime to Brazil to meet their baby grandson said long queues and delays saw them miss their flight.

Jeannie Armstrong, her husband Robert and son Stuart had been due to fly from Birmingham Airport on Tuesday morning.

They left home in Tamworth and arrived more than three hours before their flight was due to leave, but claim the gate closed before they got to it.

Birmingham Airport said it sympathised with the family and would investigate.

The airport was recently ranked the worst airport in the UK for delays for the second year running, but its chief executive has insisted its performance has improved.

Mrs Armstrong said she spent £3,000 on the flights ahead of their three-week trip to meet their grandson, Francis.

"When [our daughter-in-law] got pregnant we started saving," she said.

Mrs Armstrong said her son and daughter-in-law were "devastated" they could not come

Their first flight to Lisbon had been due to depart Birmingham at 10:30 BST on Tuesday so the family got a taxi from their Tamworth home, arriving in the departures hall just after 07:00.

They had checked in online the day before but needed to check in their bags. However, they said the bag-drop did not open until about 08:30 and they then had to go through security.

"There were hundreds of people," Mrs Armstrong said. "It took two hours to get through, by the time we made it we were running to the gate."

Then at the gate "we were told we couldn't get on the plane", she said.

Instead, they waited for an hour for their bags to be removed and were "left high and dry" to get a taxi back home.

EasyJet told the BBC it was a security requirement for bags belonging to passengers who had not arrived on time to be offloaded.

Mrs Armstrong broke down in tears as she talked of their experience, especially as she does not now know when they will get the chance to meet Francis.

"We wanted to celebrate together," she said. "They're all devastated, they had things planned, trips planned."

'Always distressing'

Work to improve the airport's security check area is ongoing and passengers have been warned to expect different queuing routes while construction is under way.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Birmingham Airport said: "We sympathise with anyone who misses their flight, as this is always distressing.

"Our data shows us that on the day in question, peak waiting time in the security area was 45 minutes and that 83% of passengers cleared security in under 20 minutes."

They added they had approached the family and asked them "to provide further details, so we can fully investigate what happened here".

A spokesperson for EasyJet said the airline was sorry to hear security delays had meant the family arrived too late to board the flight.

"We know how disappointing this will have been for them and we will be contacting the family to understand more about their experience," they added.