Passengers have been urged to turn up for flights at Manchester airport as early as possible after huge queues developed over the past two days.
Delays getting through security led to lines of travellers accumulating outside Terminal One and into the car park on Thursday morning, with complaints on social media that many had missed flights.
The situation had developed from Wednesday evening, with one passenger reportedly saying he had waited five hours to board a flight.
Frustrated passengers had already checked their bags in but were then forced to go back outside the airport to join the queue for security, the BBC reported from the scene.
The airport said unexpectedly high passenger numbers put “considerable strain” on staff while 60% of bags had been rejected at security.
In a warning on its website, Manchester airport said: “We are likely to experience longer security queues than we would like. This is due to a number of factors and apologise to all affected.
“If you are due to travel through our airport please arrive at the earliest time your airline allows and ensure to be as prepared as you can to pass through security.”
An airport spokesperson said on Thursday: “At times yesterday and this morning, security queues in Terminal One have been significantly longer than we would like due to a combination of factors.
“With the rapid recovery of international travel, it has been much more difficult to predict passenger volumes based on the flights that are due to depart. We have seen more people than we were expecting, which has put a considerable strain on our operation.
“This has been compounded by up to 60% of customer bags being rejected as they passed through security because they contained restricted items – a much higher rate than we typically experience.
“Our colleagues have been working tirelessly to safely process passengers as quickly as they can and we would like to thank them for their dedication.
“We have deployed staff from other parts of the operation to assist in security and, wherever possible, we have prioritised customers within the queue in order to ensure they make their flights.
“We would like to apologise to those impacted by these challenges and assure them we are doing all we can to rectify the situation.”