Bristol Airport compared to ‘zoo’ as angry passengers queue for hours just to get into terminal

Passengers trying to get away for a half-term holiday were greeted by chaotic scenes this morning (Monday, May 30) as they faced hours of queues just to get into the terminal.

Families were forced to wait outside from 5am as crowds of holidaymakers snaked around the car park at Bristol Airport.

Stranded travelers compared the scenes at the airport to ‘a zoo’ and claimed there was widespread disorder and confusion - along with several flights being cancelled.

The scenes today follows weeks of disruption with hundreds of cancelled flights by Easyjet and Tui, and long queues.

Bristol Airport this morning issues an apology and said it had “fallen short” of standards it expected.

On passenger said: “Only half the security lanes open and not FastTrack. Several hours to get through with queues starting 300m on the road outside.

“Everyone was calling it a zoo - and it was a pretty apt description.”

What the airport said

Bristol Airport has previously apologised for the disruption and has issued another statement today.

A spokesperson said: “We appreciate the frustration experienced by customers early this morning and are sorry for the long queues at security.

“We’ve fallen short this morning but the Bristol Airport team and our business partners are working hard to ensure all customers have a smooth and easy journey through the terminal.

“Each day over 80 per cent of our customers experience less than a 20-minute security queue time, it is only during peak flight operations we extend beyond this – we are focussed on improving this.”

300,000 customers expected to travel on Jubilee weekend

On Friday, the airport warned the week of the Queen’s Jubilee would be its busiest period since 2019.

The airport has said that 300,000 customers are expected to travel through the airport over the holiday period.

But people have described the scenes as “disgraceful” - reporting on the “awful service.”

One said: “Bristol Airport is a zoo at the moment, terrible service from everyone involved.”

Another added: “We couldn’t believe how long the queue was just to get into the airport this morning. It was utter chaos. How can things have got so bad? “

Another passenger said: “They knew it was going to be busy so why couldn’t they employ the staff to cope. Waiting for more than two hours queueing for security. What is going on? It’s carnage here.”