The Worlds Worst Airport
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
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Watabench, I think EWR is indeed another airport that has improved its act a fair amount in recent years, after having a bad press for so long. As for immigration, however, surely this is a lottery : much depends on how long the queue is and whether your arrival coincides with other international flights. Oddly, at JFK immigration can vary since they have immigration service distributed at 4 or more terminals, rather than concentrating it at two in EWR. If you're the only flight and you're near the front of the line, it can be pretty quick, but if the alternative faces you (eg. Terminal 8/9 and all those AA Caribbean/Latin American flights), you can wait half a day........
Pilot of the Airwaves
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Close to the Med
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Mrs IB transited Luton last weekend and that is where her vote goes.
Awful, bad design, total lack of seating at gates, snail paced security.
As with MAN, it depends which terminal you use. I find T3 is slow for baggage reclaim, but otherwise OK, whilst T1 is abysmal for many reasons, both arriving and departing.
As an experience though, LGW (N) is the pits.....and I've given up using Heathrow.
Awful, bad design, total lack of seating at gates, snail paced security.
As with MAN, it depends which terminal you use. I find T3 is slow for baggage reclaim, but otherwise OK, whilst T1 is abysmal for many reasons, both arriving and departing.
As an experience though, LGW (N) is the pits.....and I've given up using Heathrow.
Join Date: Jan 2006
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I agree that MAN T1 isn't ideal at the moment but there is the small matter of practically the whole terminal being redeveloped, so of course there's going to be hoardings and disruption. The new security area will open 3 weeks today so the majority of the landside works will disappear after that. Malaga airport is in a very similar situation with all the work going on there.
The worst airport I have flown through recently was Murcia. It is far too small for the amount of traffic it now handles. The queue for security was 25 minutes long despite there only being four departures, the terminal itself was cramped, there was virtually no airside seating available and only one (rather expensive) outlet to buy food and drink.
The worst airport I have flown through recently was Murcia. It is far too small for the amount of traffic it now handles. The queue for security was 25 minutes long despite there only being four departures, the terminal itself was cramped, there was virtually no airside seating available and only one (rather expensive) outlet to buy food and drink.
Pilot of the Airwaves
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Malaga airport is in a very similar situation with all the work going on there.
Malaga's new terminal is a total new construction. The security items and shops remain as they were. The only alteration to the existing terminal is on pier C, where the link to the new terminal is being constructed, necessitating the closure of gate 44 and new links to the existing main terminal, which are already in use.
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Just bad timing
Personally I think it is a little unfair to start this argument now... maybe we should all wait until the summer season when a lot of terminal development is complete. Many airports have to complete capex projects out of season so as to reduce the disruption... the only way to avoid this is to build a completely new terminal while still operating existing facilities. Obviously there are some airports that can (kind of) manage this; as we have all seen with T5, but for a lot of airports the only way to carry out works is during a slightly quieter winter season.
Granted you can probably slag off the major hubs all you like - winter/summer... it makes no difference whatsoever. But having said that, I flew from MAN T2 and thought it was brilliant. As for T1 and T3, ok, works in progress and maybe some room for improvement on the wayfinding signage... but I'm sure some of the right people will probably be reading this?!
Granted you can probably slag off the major hubs all you like - winter/summer... it makes no difference whatsoever. But having said that, I flew from MAN T2 and thought it was brilliant. As for T1 and T3, ok, works in progress and maybe some room for improvement on the wayfinding signage... but I'm sure some of the right people will probably be reading this?!
Join Date: May 2007
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My vote goes to Exeter. Longest security wait I have experienced anywhere (about one hour). Standing room only in the Departure Lounge. No seats left in the Coffee Shop. Like travelling in a third world Country.
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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The charter terminal (or whatever it is now called) in Geneva Airport. Awfully long wait for baggage - longer than the flight from Bristol and the inside resembles a third world refugee camp. Bodies everywhere, no seats etc etc
Join Date: May 2002
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As someone who passes through many airports worldwide including some that are tempory constructions the worlds worst by far is Gatwick South!
Absolutely Filthy! very poor facilities and I never did manage to find a member of staff who could help me, they tried bless them but non spoke English! What must visitors from abroad think? Its a discrace I would have jumped straight back on the flight back out if I thought I could cope with the nightmare of another departure from LGW!
Vast difference compared to say Frankfurt Main which is excellent! Maybe we should build a FRA style super airport in the midlands. Easily connected to the whole country and lets face it London talks the talk but always falls way short of the mark! I would much rather connect via AMS or FRA than do LHR LGW again.
Absolutely Filthy! very poor facilities and I never did manage to find a member of staff who could help me, they tried bless them but non spoke English! What must visitors from abroad think? Its a discrace I would have jumped straight back on the flight back out if I thought I could cope with the nightmare of another departure from LGW!
Vast difference compared to say Frankfurt Main which is excellent! Maybe we should build a FRA style super airport in the midlands. Easily connected to the whole country and lets face it London talks the talk but always falls way short of the mark! I would much rather connect via AMS or FRA than do LHR LGW again.
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: BRISTOL
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Flyjerry, ha ha yes EXT can be awful at times, having worked there on and off for the last 5 years it is an airport in desperate need of a new terminal, gawd bless them! and with the rate of expansion down there at the mo it can only get worse, flybe putting routes on like they're going out of fashion and the recent year round base for FCA, thats quite a lot for a little place like that! EXT Will always hold amusing memories for me though!
By the way, anybody ever flown in to Tripoli(Libya) now thats real fun and games!
By the way, anybody ever flown in to Tripoli(Libya) now thats real fun and games!
Join Date: Aug 2002
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World's Worst Airports
Europe-Naples takes some beating for being very badly run any of the Moscow Airports and Bucharest,any of the very small Greek Island Airports such as JSI and JTR come to mind. Of course London Heathrow.
Africa-They dont get much worse than Mombasa the insect life carry your bags to check-in!!
Colombo-Sri Lanka dreadful, rude uninterested staff in an otherwise paradise of a place.
All great candidates for Worlds worst.
Daza
Africa-They dont get much worse than Mombasa the insect life carry your bags to check-in!!
Colombo-Sri Lanka dreadful, rude uninterested staff in an otherwise paradise of a place.
All great candidates for Worlds worst.
Daza
Last edited by Daza; 8th Apr 2008 at 23:07.
Join Date: Jan 2005
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Thought of another hole that takes some beating.....Skopje in Macedonia, yep definatly that has to be the worst airport i've visited worldwide, nothing in departure lounge, toilets never cleaned with excrement on the seats and floor, gone off food on sale, and I had the delight of being delayed over night with Swiss Air due to fog, they did get us off to a hotel in the end but approx 5 hours after STD, I managed 4 hours kip before getting woke up my the call to prayer from the mosque next to the hotel...oh joy of joys!
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Switzerland
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Morning Chaos at ZRH Terminal E
Terminal E at ZRH between 06:00 and 07:30 am. This joke of a terminal can hardly handle 3 widebodies per hour, nevertheless LX schedules about 9 long haul flights into E very morning. Chaos on the escalators as the funny train ( which takes longer to stop than to ruin, after 5 years tehy have not been able to fix this epitome of American technology) is not able to move the people to the main terminal. The floor is filling with people, trains come in, but people inbound to the terminal can not move out, as the crowds are blocking the exits. In between totally helpless "unique" staff, shouting / commanding in Swiss German.The escalators continue to move people downward, first people are not able to leave the moving stairs and stumble until somebody pushes an emergency button making the downward escalators inop.
You are lucky if you win the fight and board No. 5 or No. 6 train leaving to arrive at an understaffed immigration desk with long waiting lines ( you stop laughing about Hellrow T2).
Then you get to the bag claim. Now this is a system which works the bags are already there. Unfortunately the bag storage area on the assigned belt is too small for a wide body. Maybe the designers thought that people would constantly remove their bags form the belt. The result is that bags arrive on 2 belts not necessarily adjacent to each other. A nice play of hide and seek.
Frank
Join Date: Nov 2006
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There can't be many snowsports enthusiasts on this thread, because, as far as I can see, there has been no mention of Lyons LYS, or Chambery CMF.
LYS has got to be the most inefficient airport on the planet, especially in the tent, where they used to send the UK charter passengers. If cattle were treated like the pax in the tent, Greenpeace would be blockading it! - and we pay money for the 'priviledge' of using it. The current wheeze is that they are building a hotel etc in the old bus park, so you now have to wait for an hour and more for your baggage, then hoof it half a mile upstairs, then downstairs, to outside the railway station, and just to make the experience more memorable, especially with ski gear ( case, boot bag, and a 6' long bag with skis), there are no trollies, but even if there were any, it's hard to get trollies up and down escalators! My only slight pleasure was to see a flight from LHR arriving, an thanking my lucky stars that I had avoided that additional agony.
CMF is just too small for the number of flights, and any delays really screw them up badly. We had the pleasure of arriving three hours late, this winter, at the same time as about three other flights. When we got inside, ONE baggage belt of the two was working, and the crowd round it were behaving like they were handing out free beer.
Check in areas too small for the number of flights, and the departure 'lounge?' reminded me of a hospital waiting room, but less hygenic! Used to be really nice, but too many Russians are using it now.
LYS has got to be the most inefficient airport on the planet, especially in the tent, where they used to send the UK charter passengers. If cattle were treated like the pax in the tent, Greenpeace would be blockading it! - and we pay money for the 'priviledge' of using it. The current wheeze is that they are building a hotel etc in the old bus park, so you now have to wait for an hour and more for your baggage, then hoof it half a mile upstairs, then downstairs, to outside the railway station, and just to make the experience more memorable, especially with ski gear ( case, boot bag, and a 6' long bag with skis), there are no trollies, but even if there were any, it's hard to get trollies up and down escalators! My only slight pleasure was to see a flight from LHR arriving, an thanking my lucky stars that I had avoided that additional agony.
CMF is just too small for the number of flights, and any delays really screw them up badly. We had the pleasure of arriving three hours late, this winter, at the same time as about three other flights. When we got inside, ONE baggage belt of the two was working, and the crowd round it were behaving like they were handing out free beer.
Check in areas too small for the number of flights, and the departure 'lounge?' reminded me of a hospital waiting room, but less hygenic! Used to be really nice, but too many Russians are using it now.
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Worst I ever experienced was Freetown.Sierra Leone.Tripoli only during RAF service when it was still labeled Castel Benito !
Went out of T2 MAN on QR a couple of weeks ago and back in on the 11th no problems with that terminal at all but of the walkways between the station and the terminal only 2 were working !
Went out of T2 MAN on QR a couple of weeks ago and back in on the 11th no problems with that terminal at all but of the walkways between the station and the terminal only 2 were working !
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I might get shot down for this, but ATL is horrible. The timings into Terminal E are unfortunately such that several international flights come in at around the same time so you end up with massive queues at immigration and customs, with the requirement that you have to recheck your baggage after customs (rude, surly - what Southern hospitality?) has been through it.
Most pleasant, even though there is not much land-side or air-side - ORD pre-9/11. Post-9/11 LAX Terminal 2 even if the check-in area land-side is crowded, security etc are actually not too bad. I guess if you only have VS, NW and AC with a couple of small airlines sharing a terminal, there's less of a crush. JNB is actually not bad either.
Domestically, STN gets my vote for crapness, regardless of its 'revolutionary' design. It is a nightmare for me. I've only ever flown out of LGW-N, so once I go through LGW-S I'll see if my vote changes (based on previous experiences). The air bridge from LGW-N to the BA terminal is a novelty but the terminal is airy and pleasant.
S.
Most pleasant, even though there is not much land-side or air-side - ORD pre-9/11. Post-9/11 LAX Terminal 2 even if the check-in area land-side is crowded, security etc are actually not too bad. I guess if you only have VS, NW and AC with a couple of small airlines sharing a terminal, there's less of a crush. JNB is actually not bad either.
Domestically, STN gets my vote for crapness, regardless of its 'revolutionary' design. It is a nightmare for me. I've only ever flown out of LGW-N, so once I go through LGW-S I'll see if my vote changes (based on previous experiences). The air bridge from LGW-N to the BA terminal is a novelty but the terminal is airy and pleasant.
S.
Join Date: May 2006
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For me it has to be Milan Linate, its a very busy airport for its size but there are not many shops, very little to no choice in terms of food and if you happen to be flying to London once your at the gate your stuck due to the passport control/security specifically set up which prevents you from going back to the main area of departures - not that there is a great deal to do there. All that is in the area your segregated into is a set of toilets and a drinks machine - so if you ever have the misfortune of being delayed you have had it. Ive flown a few times on a Friday night when the BA and Alitalia flights to LHR plus the Easy to LGW are all departing within a short while of each other and there are never enough seats!
The best i think ive been to is Madrid Barajas - bit of a trek to and from your gate if your flying BA and luggage can take at least 90 minutes to turn up once you arrive but the design and surroundings are perfect!
The best i think ive been to is Madrid Barajas - bit of a trek to and from your gate if your flying BA and luggage can take at least 90 minutes to turn up once you arrive but the design and surroundings are perfect!
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Ho Chi Minh City?
Arrived last year on SQ at same time as CX and one other flight.
Two hour immigration, bags left piled...then the scrum outside the airport as local people offer "taxi" services.
Fun Fun Fun!
Arrived last year on SQ at same time as CX and one other flight.
Two hour immigration, bags left piled...then the scrum outside the airport as local people offer "taxi" services.
Fun Fun Fun!
