Birmingham Airport departures: the board and before you fly

The board shows Birmingham's departures for the hours ahead: the flight number, the airline, where each one is going and the time, kept up to date through the day so a delay shows as it happens. Birmingham flies everything from a single terminal, so there is one set of check-in zones and one central security area to plan around. The rest of the flight guides, including every route guide, live in the flights hub.

Arrive in line with the check-in time your airline gives you, on the boarding card or in its emails. As a rule of thumb, desks for long-haul flights open about 4 hours before departure, and short-haul desks normally open 2 to 3 hours before. If you have checked in online and have no hold bag, you can cut it finer; the queue that actually decides your morning is security, and the check-in guide covers the zones and which desk your airline uses.

Two things shorten the day-of scramble. First, the day-before bag drop: Jet2, easyJet, Ryanair and TUI let you check hold bags the evening before an early next-morning flight (each airline sets its own evening window and cut-offs), so on the morning you walk straight to the security queue on the first floor. Second, packing to the rules: the liquids rules have been genuinely in flux at Birmingham, so check them close to your flight, and the hand luggage guide covers sizes and what has to go in the hold. If the queue matters more than money to you, Fast Track sells a quicker lane. Once you are through the doors, the airport map shows the layout and the at the airport guide covers everything airside.

By rail, trains reach Birmingham International from New Street in about 10 minutes, and the free Air-Rail Link monorail covers the last stretch to the terminal in about 90 seconds, running roughly 03:30 to 00:30 daily, early enough for the first wave of departures, though it is the first trains that set the real earliest rail arrival; the train guide has fares and the early-morning pattern. By car, being dropped off is either free in the Drop Off Car Park (up to 10 minutes, about 400 metres from the terminal) or charged at Premium Set Down right outside the doors; the drop-off guide keeps the current charges. Leaving a car behind is a separate decision with real money attached, and the parking pages compare every car park by price and walk time. Every other way in, coach, bus and taxi, is covered in the transport guide.

A cancelled departure comes with fixed rights: the airline must offer you a refund or a rebooking, it owes you food and drink after a long enough delay, and a hotel if you are stranded overnight. Compensation on top depends on whose fault the disruption was. The cancelled flights guide takes it step by step, from the first hour at the airport to claiming afterwards. This board and the arrivals board show a delay or a cancellation as it happens.