The Worlds Worst Airport
 

Had the dis-pleasure to go through Manchester Airport, what a complete mess the place is.
No where to sit down, more and more shops taking up seating space,
(terminal 1 has just had half the seats taken out and replaced by a boots !)
nothing is switched on, travalators, escalators etc, and que's everywhere.

The road system is a shambles with people not being able to be dropped off without some jobsworth trying to give you a ticket, that's if you can actually find your way to the terminal via the 'new' road system.

Takes hours to get through passport control, and often longer to get your bags.

The place is a first class dump.



rant rant rant..........

can anywhere be as bad ????? I think not.

:sad:

Cannot accept that LHR is the complete shambles. T5 when it gets sorted will be OK T 1 - 4 are dreadful and dirty, everywhere you look.

Try the Nissen hut arrivals at Bournmouth:*

Gatwick in summer is my idea of hell- I shall be avoiding it this year I can assure you! i'd rather a week in rainy bognor that deal with it!

My vote is for Bournemouth. Arrivals, as has been said, is a hut with a conveyor belt. Departures is like a rubbish leisure centre with a conservatory stuck on it (and some more huts). The standard of facilities is terrible

Had the misfortune of LHR T1, LGW and MAN all within a couple of days recently. LHR was actually not too bad (reading elsewhere, seems this is all as a result of BA moving out), LGW depressing as always, but MAN really does take the biscuit. As the original poster says, what a grade A sh*thole!

Clearly somebody of severe visual impairment was tasked with signposting the various terminals (just for giggles, try and find your way from T3 to T1 just by following the signs), and then a bunch of drunken baboons let loose with various power tools and hoardings to try and impede your progress.

For major airports in a supposedly major economy, British airports are a bloody disgrace! I pity any visitors to this country trying to find their way around, when even native, seasoned travellers have such extreme difficulty and such an unpleasant travelling experience.

:ugh:

Have to agree with what is being said about MAN. Someone there PLEASE do an audit of your signage! You can't find anything there, it's pathetic.


But as far as overall airports go.......JFK.

The winner is....
 

My vote has to be for LHR T3, which has been a complete shambles for the past year. Catastophic landside, from being dropped by bus at arrivals for departures, flooded tunnel from central bus station, non-working travelators and escalators, security queues extended the entire upper departures landside, insanitary toilets, jam-packed departure lounges, insufficent seating, squalid food outlets, rip-off shops, slow baggage recovery, long queues for UK immigration and the mindless bureacracy that entails. BAA can't run the proverbial event in a brewery.

Luton by contrast is a sheer delight.

Bournemouth is owned by MAPLC who own MAN. Its MD is also an ex-MAPLC engineer, of, it has to be said, reduced stature. He probably can't see out of his office window to see how bad it is.

Manchester is pretty dire at the moment with all the reconstruction work and temporary hoardings everywhere. It is certainly the least visually pleasing airport to pass through I can think of, although on a functional basis for regular travellers who know where they're going it still works better overall than LHR or LGW.

Strange how it goes. Dubh12000 votes for JFK. I, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised when I went through JFK last year. Out of the terminal within 30 mins of blocking on. On the return, no significant problems with check-in and departure procedures (with the exception of the usual 75 minute taxy time of course). Guess I was just lucky.

Manchester until recently was actually not too bad. T1 had that bright food court where you could sit with a coffee between flights and look out on the apron with easy access through to T3. T1 landside is now just a building site with no seats, virtually no food outlets and trying to get through it from T2 to T3 for anyone who doesnt know the airport must be a nightmare - hope the end result is worth it......

Have to agree that Manchester T1 in particular isnt at its best at the moment but they are doing a lot of work. But my offering of airports I have been to of late is Bucharest Baneasa, talk about not fit for purpose.

Leeds. And not from a passenger point of view. :ugh:

Its got to be Bournemouth. Just love those ex-factory canteen chairs in the arrivals waiting area complete with filth from years of greasy overalls.

In second place Blackpool, the newish terminal has a bad case of rust while parts of the terminal are actually a tent no doubt loaned from the town’s circus that flaps in Blackpool’s year round winter micro climate.

Prestwick is stuck in a 60's time warp. I don't think the windows in the railway station have been washed ....... EVER!!!! There is slime and I don't know what growing on the walls and all metal areas are completely rusty.

On the plus there is a smoking area air side but is an absolute dump with indoor chairs set out soaking wet and rusting in the rain.

I would go as far as to say it's a pig sty but that would be offensive ...... to Pigs!!!

Bournemouth
 

As a Dorset local who uses Bournemouth a lot for business and family holidays, I have to agree with some of the comments on this thread.

However, Bournemouth is well aware of it's limitations and has started a £32m redevelopment program to effectivly rebuild the whole terminal, enlarge the car parks and improve the transport links.

First to go is the much loved arrivals hall (portacabin) which is currently in the early stages of work (all the ground clearance has been completed) and phase two will be a much larger departures hall etc.

http://www.bournemouthairport.com/bo...nt/Development

With FR being quoted in the local press this week that they are looking to base 5 planes down here and constant rumours of EasyJet about to base you would assume that there have been some cast iron guarentees made from MAPLC to the airlines about when this work will be completed espically after the holdups to the origional schedule from the nimbys in the New Forest.

BTW, the reason the chairs in arrivals are so manky is because at Bournemouth you are home 20 minutes after the plane lands, hence the chairs have never had need to be used.... :D

Gatwick South - what a hell hole. :{

One of the best has to be Cincinatti; small, efficient and very clean. :ok:

Avman, re: JFK. I agree with you. JFK landside is much improved compared with, say, 5 or 10 years ago. Much of the recent construction has been finished, and the new roads and the new AirTrain system are most welcome. Terminals 7 and 8/9 have been cleaned up quite a bit as well, while wait-times for check-in or security have been curtailed sharply. The problem at JFK is more runway/taxiway congestion and waiting times for take-off.

LGW on arrival is a complete bitch, arrived from AUA in Oct, took the best part of 3 hours from arriving on stand to getting on to motorway, completley shocking after a 9 hour over night trans-atlantic with a 3 hour drive ahead of me, wasn't impressed to have another 2hours lumped on, best for arrivals so far that i've been too I would say is EWR, 20 mins total time from stand to taxi cab...and that includes US immigration! Cant agree with the JFK theme though, that took 2 hours when I flew in, I've always found my local BRS pretty good going both OB & IB although it's following all the big boys with more and more shops being crammed in and less and less seats, bring on the terminal expansion I say!