We are bringing our live coverage of BBC Radio WM's hot seat with Nick Barton to a close. Thank you for joining us.

Here is a round-up of what was said:

• The airport's CEO, Nick Barton, was apologetic throughout the session and said he felt "terrible" about the impact luggage delays had on customers over the weekend
• He revealed that the issue was with a failure with a part of the baggage screening system, which was then exacerbated by the volume of luggage during a busy time of the week
• Several passengers voiced their anger at not just the recent issue but the airport's performance as a whole, with one caller describing Barton as "delusional"
• Barton said people who had still not received their luggage should keep in touch with their airlines
• Despite the recent problems, Barton said he would still rate the airport as an 8.5/10 overall, later claiming that it was performing "better than it ever has before"
• The CEO also gave an update on plans to introduce flights to New York, which he said were still in the negotiating phase due to economic issues in the industry

Barton was asked why there were still no flights to New York and he said it was the "enduring challenge" he set himself.

He said the "economics of the industry" has had an impact on plans but added 646 people a day on average travel from the area to New York, with more than 80% using Heathrow.

"We need to get that service on," he added.

Barton said there had been multiple engagements with airlines about the potential service and the airport had offered them a multi-million pound incentive package.

"We are still in the negotiation phase," he said, adding that the airport needed the world to "settle down".

Passengers at Birmingham Airport are always the priority over shareholders, Barton said.

"I always look at the passengers, because if you get that right then your shareholders are happy."

"Overall, this airport is performing better than it ever has before."

He said half of the airport was owned by the seven districts that make up the West Midlands.

"We've handed to them, over the last three years since Covid finished, £71m of dividends which they can reinvest in their communities," he said.

"Everybody has a stake in this airport.

"It's important for me to make sure if I deliver for the customer, then everybody wins because of that."

Barton contested with Susan's views about how the airport operates.

He invited her to visit him at the airport and said he would "demonstrate what the issues are when they happen".

"There is no queueing downstairs unless something has gone wrong upstairs, it's just stopped happening," he said.

He added he was "happy to have a discussion" with her and offered to sit down and have "tea and biscuits".

Caller Susan told Barton "you are completely and utterly delusional, my friend".

"You need to get yourself into your airport and go through the process at different times of the day," she added.

"What you are saying, in my opinion and every single person I know who travels through the airport, is not the experience any of us ever have, no matter what time of day you travel."

She said she was a "seasoned traveller" who loved flying, describing it as the "best thing in the world".

"Birmingham Airport, without even a contest, is the worst airport, even though it's on my doorstep, I've ever had to use," Susan added.

When asked why, she said she had never seen more than three or four lanes open, adding that there were always queues.

One customer said she pre-booked express lane passes for five people but it was closed when they arrived so had to queue up through "normal security".

They asked: "Why are we paying £7 per person to have less stress at the airport for it to be closed?"

Responding to the question, Barton said the express lane should not have been closed but there might have been a reason for it to be closed that day.

"There are so many things that can go awry in security and decisions will be taken at that moment in time," he added.

The airport would refund passengers who bought passes for the express lane if it was closed when they arrived, Barton said, adding that they should contact the airport.

Birmingham Airport saw 51 "serious incidents" on escalators in 52 weeks, its chief executive said.

Because of this, Nick Barton said he made the decision to remove the four escalators near the main check-in area and replace them with lifts.

He said large bags would topple on the escalators and pull people down.

"It's no slower, the capacities we've got with the lifts work fine," he said.

"What we do know is that some people don't like lifts, it's actually a higher percentage that we originally modelled.

"There are alternatives and there is a small escalator in the Zone A area."

Barton said he was happy with the format of the airport, and said most large international airports were moving to a lift-based operation.

John from Castle Bromwich flies from Birmingham Airport regularly, and last used it when he travelled to Crete in June.

He said he experienced queues and an hour-long delay at security and was told there were staffing issues.

Barton said there were 10 lanes for security, but they were not all open when they were not needed.

The average time for people to get through security at Birmingham was 11 minutes, he added.

He said the airport was fully resourced in terms of staffing, and that peak times sometimes meant security waits were longer.

Caller Angela said she went on holiday earlier this year and came back to find her car was gone from one of the car parks.

She asked Barton how safe it was to park at the airport.

Barton said the car park in question, car park three, was not one the airport owned but they had an agreement with the operators.

Angela claimed the operator "did not want to know" when she raised the issue with them directly.

Responding to concerns about the security of the car parks, Barton said tens of thousands of cars parked at the airport and incidents of thefts did happen "occasionally".

"It is certainly not a significant issue in terms of it being a high number, that's for sure," he added.

Barton urged Angela to get in touch with the airport to raise the issue.

When asked about what has been learnt from the luggage issue, Barton said communication was something that should have been better.

"How we put the bags into the contingency system was another one, there was some technical issues which caused further problems."

"In terms of the will of the staff at Birmingham Airport, plus those airlines involved... the commitment of those individuals to make the best of a bad lot was extraordinary."

Barton said he would not blame airlines because it was the airport's machine that failed.

"The airlines will always look at this and see what they can do better, as we do as an airport."

After hearing from Hayley, Barton said the airport never wanted to hear about the difficulties faced by passengers affected by the incident.

"We're not here for that," he added. "We're here to provide a service, we're here to be invisible for the customers who choose to use us.

"This is a major issue, there's no question about that. I'm not going to sugar coat it in any way."

He said it was "one of those things" that happened from time to time but had not happened in his eight years at the airport.

"This was a real one-off that created an incredibly difficult situation that has had all these knock-on effects," Barton said.

"It makes me feel pretty terrible to listen to it and recognise the real challenges it creates for many passengers."

Hayley flew to Turkey on Friday afternoon and said she got her bags at 01:00 this morning.

Her family asked Tui staff at the airport what was happening, and she said they were told luggage would be on the plane.

She asked Barton: "If you all knew instantly on Friday morning, why was I not told... to take the essentials out of my hold luggage because there was going to be a delay in it getting to me?"

Barton apologised and said the airport knew the whole day was going to be about recovering a very difficult situation.

"The assumption would be that these bags can get there ultimately and they could very well make the same flight," he said.

"I do not blame the front of house people for giving that advice because they would've earnestly believed that was correct."

Hayley said upon landing the pilot informed her plane that he had just found out that there was no luggage.

"How on earth can a pilot not know that he's not holding an entire plane's worth of luggage?"

Barton said he could not speak on the specifics of what the pilot had told them.

"There would be never a question of a flight departing not knowing what the weight [of the plane] is," Barton said.

Asked how he felt when he heard stories like Jade's, Barton said: "For us, we all feel it, we absolutely feel it.

"When the incident happened, we all knew instantly how this was going to affect people."

He said the response from the teams at the airport had been "extraordinary" but they were there to mitigate what was "inevitably" going to disrupt passengers' journeys.

Barton went on to say that there were a lot of bags affected so the sheer number of individuals meant there were delays in getting information to passengers.

"Everyone wants to know when their bag is going to turn up and that is entirely understandable," he added.

Barton said it could be "tricky" for airlines to know where the bags were in the process at a given time.

Jade flew out to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote on Saturday, using EasyJet.

She told Barton that the baggage issues happened to them on Saturday.

"We still haven't received our bags, we haven't heard a single thing," she said.

"It's great to know about all the machinery, but the fact that we haven't heard a single thing from Birmingham Airport, no correspondence whatsoever... is absolutely diabolical."

She added that her son just had a heart operation and his case had also gone missing.

Barton said baggage issues on Saturday were at "10% of the Friday problem".

"We don't know who the passengers are from the airport's perspective.

"Keep in contact with the airlines, they know who you are and where your bags are... the airline is your key point of contact."

He advised the family to buy replacement clothing and look at their insurance in the meantime.

Barton says engineers had to effectively split the machine in half to get access to the part that had failed.

The back-up plan was to default to other check-in desks, he adds, but the sheer volume of bags meant it destabilised the other systems.

"The essence of it is we have further back-ups," he says. "The crucial point is to get passengers away to their destinations."

Asked if his priority was to get planes into the sky no matter what, Barton says a decision would have been made to let the planes go and then the bags would follow on later planes.

"It was the scale, driven by the time it happened, that caused the immediate backlog and it became extremely problematic," he added.

Nick Barton has apologised to all those affected by the baggage issues.

He tells BBC Radio WM that part of the hold baggage screening system, which scans hold luggage before it goes on the plane, failed.

"It is fundamental for security and safety of the plane," he says of the screening system.

"As a bag goes through it scans it from thousands of different angles... it declares the bag safe or not, so it presents no danger when it goes onto the hold."

He says the part of the machine that failed is one you "would never expect to".

Barton added in almost eight years of working at the airport, he had never seen this particular part fail.

The question and answer session with Birmingham Airport's chief executive Nick Barton has started.

He begins by telling BBC Radio WM's Ed James that he would rate the airport 8.5/10 generally, despite the recent issues.

Asked if he thinks if the customers believe that, he says that is the feedback the airport gets, adding: "That's not my opinion, that's the opinion of our passengers."

In a post on X shortly before 04:00 BST today, Birmingham Airport said baggage had been restored to normal and was "operating at capacity following recent issues".

"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused and thank passengers for their patience," the post added.

Image source, Getty Images

Passengers were first alerted to an issue with luggage on Friday afternoon, when they were told there had been a problem impacting outbound baggage.

This led to hundreds of people being left without luggage after landing abroad, with one holidaymaker who travelled to Ibiza describing the situation as "utter carnage".

The issue persisted throughout the weekend as engineers, who were first called to the site on Friday, worked to remedy the problem.

Contingency measures were put in place, Birmingham Airport confirmed, and a spokesperson apologised to customers for the inconvenience.

They said the airport worked with its airlines and third parties to reunite luggage with passengers "as fast as possible" while the issues remained.

On Tuesday, the airport said the situation was "stable" and recovery plans were "continuing to prove successful" while telling customers they should continue to arrive for their flights.

It confirmed in a post on X on Wednesday morning that baggage operations had been restored to normal.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of BBC Radio WM's hot seat with Birmingham Airport's Nick Barton.

The chief executive will be joining presenter Ed James from about 10:00 BST as he answers questions from listeners.

It follows recent problems with the airport's baggage system, which left many holidaymakers abroad without their luggage.