Yates Birmingham Airport

Travel starting to pick up, has it's busy periods again.

Airport location convenient, access and parking OK. Aspire Airport lounge not good value re: food quality mediocre at best and small glasses of beer from a single can of Boddington classified as your drink entitlement is cheap to say the least, smallest wine glasses I've ever seen and even lager bottles not given out but decanted into smaller glasses cheap and nasty, save your money and get a proper drink and something to eat in one of the other options available at the airport, or better still take some sandwiches and save yourself around between Couldn't find a bottle refill station for flight side water bottle filling having to rely instead on the ubiquitous airport requirement to purchase water to drink on the ensuing hour flight. Outgoing takeoff and return landing experiences on the tui flights were really poor and very turbulent/scary akin to unwilling rides on an alton towers roller coaster. Outgoing flights not on time irrespective of having to turn up and check in hours in advance. Shameless inflight upselling of snacks and drinks to compensate for profit margin enhancing non provision of in flight meals, eg a can of coke or x cans of beer for really! Hyperinflated prices, save some more money and take your own (at least for snacks). Duty free prices at airport and in flight dearer for most products than most supermarkets and online retailers? Airport toilets absolutely bogging and smelled worse than the gents at millennium stadium at the end of an international match, ground crew clearing of passengers from arriving planes painfully slow, baggage handling slow, baggage conveyors even slower, overall not a great experience and not a patch on foreign airports or carriers, need to up performance levels and the quality vfm of what's delivered. Great Britain...my proverbial

Years back when I traveled to Birmingham Airport immigration was so smooth I really liked it. However, travel over this weekend was not comfortable rather painful. Airport was overwhelmed and for security we have to stand in queue for like more than hours. I wanted to purchase gifts from duty-free but my legs like gave up after standing in queue so couldn't buy any thing. I believe sane was with all passengers. Loss for shops in duty-free. I do understand that airport itself is small and for some reason it was overwhelmed with weekend travel. But experience wasn't pleasant one.

Well organised and staff very helpful getting through passport control. Baggage arrived fairly quickly. Nice and clean.

Situated central in the country this is an easy airport to get to with its road links to the motorway system and its railway links to not only the city about miles north but the railway system is the north to south line connected to London Coventry even to the southwest and northwards to Manchester and beyond Scotland The airport is connected to the railway with what used to be (The maglev) but now it's a rapid transit system which takes mins from the station which has a very large multi storey carpark very usefull the airport has reasonably priced large carparks dotted around off even off site secure carparking which are served by shuttle buses it is easy to use the facilities at the Airport for a quick transit either car or train to plane there are cosmopolitan shops and bars even through passport control yes try the (Brummie) experience if visiting Shakespeare country is a car or train ride of miles from the city or by car straight to Stratford upon Avon or Warwick with it's fine castle worth a visit from the airport- Birmingham with its famous jewelry quarter or close by Dudley castle and zoo The old crooked house at Himley is close by where if a coin is placed on the shelf it appears to roll up hill yes up hill so if visiting this light bright Airport the people are friendly helpfull it's bright modern easy use and is surrounded by a large area of history lovely green fields friendly towns and people