Just to post a balance to the mostly negative reviews people seem to leave:
Flew out from BHX on Saturday and flew back yesterday (Thursday), both flights with Jet2.
Outbound entered the Terminal via T2 (Jet2 check-in) with just hand luggage. Secondary security by Jet2 check-in was closed - expected as it was late afternoon - so walked round to the lifts. No queue for the lifts, straight up to security and again no queue. One out of our four cases were sent for review (for some "dangerous" looking nail clippers), but delayed us less than 30 seconds.
Still a longish walk through the ongoing building works to get to duty free then the departure lounge, but can see both just after security and in duty free where the two will eventually connect, so shouldn't feel like such a long, twisting route by next summer.
No idea what "main" T1 departures area was like as headed straight to T2 departure lounge. Kerbside to All Bar One took maybe 15-20 minutes maximum, and most of that was just walking from A to B. All Bar One was maybe about 50% full in T2.
Boarded from Gate 1, so no use of the new holding area, pushed back on time and landed slightly early.
Return flight, aircraft changed from A321NEO to a B737 due to a tech issue with the former. Seats changed but kept together as a group. Knew we were likely to have our seats changed, but weren't given new boarding passes and told what seats until boarding - didn't go to check in at the airport as again hand luggage only. Given Jet2 notified us that the aircraft changed and that the flight would be delayed in advance, I don't know why they couldn't have notified us of our new seats any earlier (not that it would have made any difference).
Outbound aircraft arrived an hour late due to French ATC strikes and slots. Boarded and transpired we also had a slot for the return for the same reason, so sat on the ground for around 45 minutes before pushback. Unfortunately come pushback time, we'd "lost" our tug to another aircraft so had to wait a few more minutes before they arrived. Both issues outside of Jet2's control and fairly normal situation when flying in Europe during the summer. Had more updates from the flight deck whilst we were sat on the ground that I've had on entire flights before.
Landed back at BHX about 90 minutes late and parked on a remote stand. Ended up having to wait about 10-15 minutes before the buses arrived - seems to be the one part of the operation that Jet2 don't do themselves. Considering they have almost exclusive use of the T2 remotes and they account for between a quarter and a third of their departures, I wonder why Jet2 don't use their own buses. Did notice the Jet2 A330 was being turned around on a remote as we taxied in, so maybe a lot of the buses were being used over there.
Bus stop outside the terminal is only big enough for one bus at a time so had to wait another few minutes for the bus in-front of us to empty before ours could pull up. Up stairs into immigration hall and queue was just getting back to the start of the marked queue - marked by the tape barriers - seemed to be our flight plus one other so maybe almost 400 people to process. Noticed the changed layout straight away - the previous 4 manned passport gates have moved and another 4 added, so now a total of 8 manned gates (5 were manned when we came through). The area occupied by the former gates is closed off presumably as they install the e-gates. Took no longer than 10 minutes to get through immigration, then no need to wait for bags and straight out of the airport.
From pulling on stand to getting in the taxi took around 40-45 minutes, with about 10-15 minutes of that waiting on buses, so actual "processing" time was around 30 minutes which I'd say was very reasonable.
Overall I'd say a more positive than negative experience both departing and arriving at BHX.
Are there areas that could be improved? Of course, there nearly always are.
On a number of threads on this forum, people blast the airport for not investing and point to airports like LTN, MAN, & STN as all doing big expansions whilst BHX "does nothing". Actually travelling through the airport and its clear they ARE doing things to improve the customer experience - yes they may appear small compared to new terminals and piers, but they're still improvements.
New scanners already installed
Departure lounge expansion underway
Additional immigration booths already installed
New e-gates being installed
And that's just the passenger facing improvements and not including the improvements that help the operation (e.g. stand reconfiguration).
Looking forward to seeing what will have changed by the next time I fly out of BHX, although that likely won't be until January at the earliest.
