LCPH/PFO Airport

[737James]

At the weekend I have just returned back from a well earned break in Cyprus with the family.

I have to say what a nightmare Paphos airport is on Sat & Sun evenings and the ground agents are useless.

inbound Swissport had no busses so we had to walk to the terminal pax could wander off anywhere they wanted to no supervision in fact one guy nearly got ran over by baggage trolleys and some ended up trying to go into the departures door instead of arrivals.

Outbound back to the UK was even more of a mess over an hour and 30 mins to check in then another 20 mins for security followed by 15 mins for passport. End result flight was being called while most pax still waiting to get through to departures with the last ones still waiting to check in.

I spoke to the crew as obviously we missed our slot due to these delays, They said that it is a regular thing at PFO and they often hit delays there at the weekends they cannot prepare the figures back to UK as they never know how many pax or bags they are taking until the last min they crew are waiting around for fuel.

The situation was made worse this weekned as they had some good tailwinds down to PFO so arrived 30mins early but due to airport issues with as previously stated and lack of busses then once all loaded we had 15 min wait for dispatcher to bring paperwork we ended up leaving 55mins late then headwinds made it 5hrs02 back to UK

By the sounds of it seems to be regular bit of a problem for crew and airport just cannot manage the amount of flights they accept Sat/Sun nights, I am just glad that my current base does not do flight down there yet on the other side of the island i always find LCA staff and agents very good.

[Flightmech]

I had a week there at the end of May. Arrived around 2230 on a Sunday night. It was chaos. No organised lines for passport control, just a cattle stampede and only 2 desks open with at least 4 flights worth of pax. However, leaving the following Sunday night it was a pleasant experience. No check-in lines (unless apparently you were flying with Thomson, looked really busy) We were in the departure lounge within 15 minutes of getting dropped off.

[HeathrowAirport]

Why is this airport such a mess? Very busy Airside. Delayed coming here. Delayed going home. 150 seats for 1000 people or something stupid like that.

Why don't they expand the terminal.

[AirGuru]

Had a similar experience last year, and after experiencing many of Europe's large and small airports the experience at PFO was by far the worst.

It's an absolute joke of an airport, and cannot handle the number of flights going through there at any given time. The tour operators are partly responsible for crowding the place, prioritising their own operational things over the operational capacity of the airport.

[MKY661]

Isn't the terminal fairly new as well?

[boeing_eng]

Blame the issues in Tunisia,Turkey and Egypt etc.....

Tour operators have simply moved capacity to other locations and PFO is one of them....Big operators like TUI obviously have multiple arrivals over a relatively short period to maximise the efficiency of coach transfers....

[AirGuru]

Originally Posted by boeing_eng

Blame the issues in Tunisia,Turkey and Egypt etc.....

Tour operators have simply moved capacity to other locations and PFO is one of them....Big operators like TUI obviously have multiple arrivals over a relatively short period to maximise the efficiency of coach transfers....

That's exactly what has happened. The actual airport terminal itself is quite nice from what i remember of it, but the tour operators certainly have a lot to answer for.

The TUI queue last year snaked around the entire check-in area, so much that there was no space left at all for other flights. As a result the whole queuing system was in a right old mess, and there was nowhere to walk etc. which further added to the confusion. Only way this mess can be sorted out is if the tour operators sort it in-house, i raised the issue with them last year after our dreadful experience and nothing has obviously happened.

[Andy_S]

It's been 18 months since I last went through PFO. After that experience I resolved not to go back until they at least staffed immigration and security properly at peak times and made at least some attempt to organise and manage the queues. It looks like nothing has changed. Shame. I like Paphos, but there's absolutely no way I'm going begin or end my holiday with the PFO meltdown.

[AirGuru]

Same goes here Andy.

I've pledged not to go back until that shambles is sorted. At the end of our holiday that experience marred the place for us. Paphos is beautiful though, a real fan of the place.

If you're going to PFO then i'd recommend flying in on a non-Tour Operator flight, otherwise prepare for it to take around 3 hours to get through the place and then a race to the plane to make it on time.

[Capt Scribble]

Larnica airport is the same on Saturday nights, crazy, as all the operators seem to have planned to arrive there at the same time.

[Andy_S]

Originally Posted by AirGuru

If you're going to PFO then i'd recommend flying in on a non-Tour Operator flight.......

I flew in and out with Easyjet. Unfortunately the flight arrived (and departed) at late afternoon / early evening peak time when aircraft were landing every 5-10 minutes, so it probably didn’t make a lot of difference who I flew with. At that time of day, the airport suffered from a toxic combination of understaffing and lack of physical capacity. I reckon about 1000 pax per hour were arriving, but capacity at passport control was less than half that. It took me about 90 minutes from entering the terminal to leaving it, which apparently isn’t that bad, relatively speaking! At least I was able to walk straight into the building – about 20 minutes later it was full, and disembarking passengers were being held outside. Returning wasn’t much better. Easyjet check-in was OK, but again there simply weren’t enough staff doing pre-security and security checks and the backlog just grew and grew. When I finally boarded my flight. I was shocked at the length of queues of arriving passengers snaking around the outside of the terminal.

Out of curiosity, when I got home I Googled news stories about Paphos Airport which is when it became clear that the problems with the airport were ongoing and well known. I had hoped that what with Paphos being a European City of Culture in 2018, the issues would have been dealt with. But apparently not. Like I say, it’s a shame because some people have clearly been so affected by the experience that they’ve chosen not to return.

I don’t know if arriving at, say, lunchtime makes the ordeal any easier?

[Captivep]

I flew to PFO in May from Manchester on Easyjet, arriving at 21:30 on a Monday night and flying out at 22:00 a week later. Quick and easy through the terminal both times - guess I must have been lucky!

[Hotel Tango]

There are other airports with similar sort of problems. It is caused by traffic surges on certain days of the week and times of the day. Simplifying the explanation, aircraft utilization and ground transfer logistics dictates that flights by one or more operators will be scheduled to arrive/depart on specific days and around the same times. It creates traffic waves. Find a schedule outside these waves and you will waltz through. I for one avoid flying to holiday destinations Friday noon to Sunday evenings. Try and find a schedule which goes against the general flow at a particular time of day. Of course a lot depends on if you're willing to do some homework, pay more for your ticket and have the flexibility to choose your day of travel.

[Heathrow Harry]

The Greek Govt has also been under tremendous pressure to cut people, costs & services over the last few years- no wonder there aren't enough immigration staff etc - especially at weekends and late at night when they are probably all on overtime...............

[LGS6753]

HH -

But Cyprus isn't Greece.

[snowman 1]

hi all
flew out of LBA with jet2 on sunday 4 june arrived larnaca at 9.15 no problems
collecting baggage.
return flight on friday 16 june arrived at airport at 19.30 very busy,off the bus and straight to security,the check in hall was manic but we had taken advantage of jet2 baggage collection service at the hotel what a difference this
made.
regards sm1

[sunshine79]

Originally Posted by MKY661

Isn't the terminal fairly new as well?

The new terminal opened November 2008

[737James]

So far this year both PFO and LCA have been a nightmare to operate into on Saturday and Sunday evening with frequent slot delays due to lack of capacity.
It was only a last week i was on a LCA arrived into area bang on time but then had to enter the hold with other traffic for 38 mins to land which of course changed all the figures for the return and upon getting on stand found we had lost the ground staff and tanker allocated to us as gone onto another aircraft.

PFO is just as bad with regular waits for the busses or steps what none of the ground agents I have come across in Cyprus seem to appreciate is what a long day it is for UK crew and don't want 2hour turnarounds