Melanie Wood (30), of Wardlaw Way, as well as her partner and two young children, had been looking forward to jetting off to sunny Tenerife last week but they claim queues at Edinburgh Airport’s new security system saw them miss their flight.

However, airport officials insist that the family only left themselves 40 minutes – when they should have already been at the gate.

“The whole security was a complete shambles, it was a horrible experience,” said Melanie. “The whole new system is a complete nightmare.

“It was soul-destroying to realise we’d missed the flight. I ran to the gate and they said it had already left. Having to go back to my children and my partner and tell them that was horrible.” After turning up at Edinburgh Airport last Wednesday, Melanie and her family thought they had left plenty of time to navigate the busy queues.

“We were meant to be going to Tenerife on a family holiday, my partner, myself and my two young children,” she said. “We’d been saving for a full year. My partner was basically working to ensure me and the kids got a nice holiday.

“We were due to depart at 1.40pm and arrived at the airport about 11am. We went to security about an hour-and-a half before departure but were ushered to the longer queue when we were meant to be in the family queue. I asked them about it but they said, ‘Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time and you’ll still make your flight.’ Up until five minutes before our flight they were still saying not to worry, that we’d still make it.” However, when she turned up at the gate, Melanie was told the flight had already left and was disappointed with the reaction of security staff.

“The security manager’s attitude was that we weren’t the first and we wouldn’t be the last,” she said. “Nobody accepted responsibility and to top it all off we had to pay £50 for a taxi home!

“I was talking to the security manager in tears and there was no sympathy whatsoever.” Melanie is hoping that they’ll still manage to get a family holiday but is devastated that their hard-earned money has gone to waste.

“It’s really upsetting,” she said. “All the kids’ friends are off on holiday and they’re asking how come they get to go and we don’t?

“We’re hoping to get away as we don’t want to let the kids down. Now we’re stuck in a predicament where it feels like we’ve just thrown £2000 to the wind.

“There were flights available the following week but they were almost fully booked so they wanted to split us up on three separate flights, meaning that one child would have to fly completely on their own.” Now, Melanie is urging people to leave more than enough time to get through the queues.

“I just want to warn people to give themselves three hours to get through security,” she said. “The last thing you want to do is sit around but it’s just not worth missing your flight.” A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said, “We have investigated this complaint thoroughly and after reviewing our CCTV footage we found that this family arrived at the security preparation area at 12.59pm for a 1.40pm flight. Unfortunately, the family lane was congested at this time so they may have been asked by a member of staff to use the mainstream security lane instead. Security was progressing well at this time and no significant queues were reported.

“According to our CCTV footage, the passengers waited just over 20 minutes in the queue to get to the tray loading point and within four minutes they were through the body scanner. We identified that one of the family’s hand luggage bags had liquids inside and this was selected for additional screening.

“This family’s flight was scheduled to depart at 1.40pm. Ryanair commence boarding approximately 40 minutes before departure so therefore the passengers should have been at their gate at 1pm, if not earlier.

“Unfortunately, on this occasion, not enough time was left for this family to pass through security and get to the boarding gate.

“Summer is an incredibly busy time for us at Edinburgh Airport and we advise all passengers to be prepared for security and to allow enough time to get to their gate comfortably.”