I am booked on a single ticket that involves an international-to-international connection at BHX. According to their website I will have to enter the country, pick up my luggage and then re-check it. This seems highly unusual to me as you usually just go through transit security. Will I have time for this on my 55 minute connection? Bag drop for my next flight closes 40 minutes prior to departure...

I also see that MCT for I/I is actually just 45 minutes, which seems strange if every pax needs to go through this process.

the only airports in the UK with an airside transfer route are LHR and MAN
btw, this means that people transiting at any other UK airport need to check whether an ETA is required

if you provide information on airlines / time of day / time of year ... people might be able to provide more advice

there have been various articles recently about building work at BHX resulting in very long security wait times at certain times of the day

Will be arriving on SV departing KL at around noon on a weekday.

What I am most curious about is if I really need to collect my luggage? In that case it would be almost impossible to re-check it before bag drop closes.

It's worth asking at check in if your bag will be transferred to your onward flight, leaving you just to enter the country (you will need an ETA) and reclear security.

I'm curious about this too. It's a single ticket on main members of Skyteam so I would expect interlining by default, but I doubt BHX gets many bags in transit.

While airports like ZRH and MUC routinely transfer bags with as little 30 minutes between scheduled arrival and departure, I'm not sure how well BHX will cope. The baggage handlers might even just automatically dump all bags into arrivals.

SV253 JED-BHX is also frequently late, so there is a reasonable chance of having to take the next KL flight around 4 hours later. I hope this ticket was cheap as there must be better ways of getting from Saudi to NL...

It is an SK award ticket. CGK-JED-BHX-AMS-CPH-OSL. New personal record in terms of number of flights on the same bound

It is possible that someone will find the idea of a transit passenger exciting, and will help sort everything out so you can speed through

I fear it's more likely that you'll be faced with unsympathetic people saying "why did you book that mate?" and "how did you think that was going to work?" when it has all gone wrong...

if you're travelling in the coming weeks whilst the building work is still in progress ...
I fear from the stories I've heard that it would be a challenge even without luggage - deplaning, clearing security, and making it to your gate before closing time ...

In case you have to collect and check your bags. It's usually about a 5 minute walk along a corridor and down some stairs to border control where they now have passport scanner entry machines. If you are not from UK you need to look into the new entry scheme as you'll be headed into the UK for a few mins. You can collect luggage straight after. Then customs immediately after luggage carousels (I've never seen anyone actually operating customs) and another 2-3 mins to get back land-side. when you get land side keep going left down to the AF/KLM check-in area its on the left wall past TUI and EasyJet and before you get to a whole bunch of RyanAir desks, actually just in front of them . When you are done there head back where you came and you'll see some lifts on the left side, they take you up to security, there are some stairs but unless theres a huge queue by the lifts use the lifts the stairs aren't worth the bother. If security is quiet 5-10 mins and you'll be through. If its busy and looking like you might not make it go to the left side of the security gates and talk to someone there, they are pretty human (its not USA). 50:50 chance the machine wont like your hand luggage and it will need a manual check, add 5 mins. Another 5 mins to walk through duty free and then you'll be in a busy area with shops and stuff, just keep going straight. Go past a WHSmith on your left then turn left before "Shelby and Co" a bar. Up about 1 min turn left and another 2 mins to the gate, you'll likely be something like gate 42-46 if you are KLM. KLM usually go from the gates on the right side as you walk up. If you get delayed and you have priority pass (+�15) or are in J the Clubrooms Lounge is the one to go in. Its right near those gates. I think in the last few weeks there might be a new Indian Restaurant opposite now. Adding those time up if you have an easy time at border control - Ive never really seen it busy - I think its doable in 30 mins unless you hit a snag

I've never transited just been in and out but as others said you are going to have to go land-side and back through check-in and then through security.

TLDR You'll be OK but the above might help you navigate,

Good Luck