TravelWatch has condemned delays and costs involved in sorting out airport security queues - insisting this is ’simply not acceptable’.

Travellers have been faced with long queues getting through security during peak times since the summer.

The problem has been put down to some routes using much bigger aircraft with a number of flights scheduled to depart within a short time.

Now the government has announced that Ronaldsway airport’s security area is to be revamped.

It said there will be ’significant investment’ in equipment as well as in the additional staffing needed to operate the second scanning line at busy times.

But the £300,000 cost, and delays in starting work, have been criticised by TravelWatch.

The group said it had initially welcomed the move.

But this had swiftly changed to ’disappointment and shock’ - both at the levels of expenditure being envisaged to tackle a ’fairly simple problem’, and by the fact that the work won’t now begin until after Easter.

This, said the passenger watchdog, would ’condemn many thousands more passengers, including those travelling on our patient transfer services to the North West, to yet more months of inconvenience and distress’.

It added: ’It seems inconceivable that the task of bringing the already installed second X-ray channel into operation, the lack of which is the root cause of all the problems, should incur a capital expenditure of £300,000 and further delays of several months.’

TravelWatch said that no major costs, other than additional staffing and any necessary physical changes to the search area itself, should be incurred before the two channel X-ray system has been tried in practice.

’We strongly believe that much of the very considerable cost of major building works simply to make better conditions for longer queues may prove to be quite unnecessary,’ said the group.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the DoI broke down the £300,000 cost of the work as follows: £160,000 for two automatic tray returns, £40,000 for two boarding card readers, queue monitoring equipment £30,000 and building works £70,000.

TravelWatch said that two line security scanning should be properly trialled - and then only after that should the need for any more extensive building alterations be ’sensibly considered in the light of real experience’.

It described the provision of automatic boarding pass readers as ’nice to have’ but something that will make no savings in staffing costs or in speeding up the security process.

For these, there should be a full cost/benefit evaluation, it advised.

TravelWatch added: ’To now hear that the department’s Easter target for implementation has been abandoned, and that work will not even start until after the holiday period, is of the utmost concern.

’The Minister must move swiftly to give absolute priority to bringing the two X-ray system into operation by the end of March.

’After this, the need to spend £300,000 of taxpayers’ money can be re-considered, much of which may prove to be completely unnecessary.

’We are far from confident that any improvements at all will be in place in time, not only for Easter, but even for the start of the TT period.

’This is simply not acceptable to our residents, our visitors, or to the island. Simply throwing money at the problem without a real understanding of the root causes may not be the answer.’

Under the plans, the central security area is to be remodelled and its entrance moved.

An automatic tray return system will be integrated with the X-ray equipment, enabling several passengers to put belongings on to the queue at the same time.

Tynwald has heard that the contractor had suggested the annual cost of operating the second line of security scanning for two daily peaks would be about £150,000.