Worst run UK Airport

[Vortexadminman]

Having for a change had a run of traveling as a pax through a fair few of Uk s airports, I was wondering which others peeps out there would vote the worst. Anyway we bitch at each other enough lets bitch at civvies now LOL.
PS LBA gets my vote. Stinking cess pit of disorganization.:O

[BEagle]

LHR - utter $hithole. Car parking b£oody miles from the terminal, traffic jams on the inner airport roads. Scenic tours with a madman at the wheel of the transit bus, taking in the bowels of T1 to get to T2 - which is like a downmarket bus station. The whole place looks like a junkyard - and it's unbelievably expensive.

So nowadays I use BHX!

[pr00ne]

BEagle,

Car park for Term 1 is right next to it, 2 of 'em!

ALL airports are absolute poooh, without exception! The closest I have come to anything aproaching a decent expereince is Bristol. A little further than LHR for me but so much quieter and far less queuing.
Still loads of waiting around, standing in lounges, standing on buses, standing around waiting to file up aircraft steps though.

Then there's squeezing onto ridiculous aircraft like the Fokker 50 that are just too small to be anything other than uncomfortable.

I travel extensively and it's all a load of pooh, Europe, the US, the Far East, they all are a grinding waste of time!

Roll on teletransportation!

[Pontius Navigator]

prOOne

Bristol get a plus from me too but I give Humberside number 1. Easy to park, minutes to board, only a couple of flights in the departure lounge, and Schipol and the world closer than a journey to LHR. As for the other one south of town I need to night stop first!

[oakworth]

Having travelled through virtually all of UK and a great deal of European airports there is only one:



Brize Norton

[Flightmapping]

East Midlands catering is pretty lousy after the last international flight goes. And the whole places seems to shut down around 7.

Coventry has to be the ugliest, but I think the staff are making up for that.

The prettiest was Stansted, pre-clutter. Heathrow is still a dump - I'm glad I haven't had to go anywhere near it for about 4 years. Well, went past T5 on the M25 last weekend - that should be interesting, but bearing in mind how long it took to get approved, will it already be out of date by the time it actually opens?

Worldwide, you can't beat Riyadh & Denver for looks, but I couldn't comment on their current service standards. JFK T9 has to be the worst terminal I've been to recently - ridiculously overcrowded, no catering & very smelly. But at least they're going to pull it down. BAA - take note for LHR 1&2.

[Pontius Navigator]

Years ago, Sri Lanka. Oh Chr*st hundred. All the shops opened for one miserable 10 out of Singapore. In the cafe a brilliant cup of tea straight off the mountain.

"What money to do you take?"

"Anything you want."

[HOODED]

Humberside No1! Maybe thats because it's not that busy then. Surely MAN must rate as one of the worst alongside LHR!:ok:

[5711N0205W]

Title says it really, car parking £2.30 / hr, rabid traffic wardens if you spend more than 1 second dropping off or picking someone up. Inside the shopping is poor, catering is overpriced and unimaginitive (well I suppose it's Aberdeen after all). The terminal is dark and gloomy....

[CatpainCaveman]

5711N - I must disagree in the strongest of terms- partly anyway.

Aberdeen was the best airport in the world for a while. Or at least that's what it seemed like to me on those occasional leave passes from Buchan to civilization.

Of course going the other way ...... I agree with you entirely!

[allan907]

LHR Term 3 has to be up there at the top of the list. What a dump! Hardly a good advertisement for Betty's Kingdom for all those foreign wallahs.

Abu Dhabi used to be good a couple of centuries ago but has turned into a grotty backwater now.

Dubai absolutely splendid except when you are a transit SLF. Arrive at Gate 1 on the bus and told that you have 5 mins to get to Gate 35 where bus back to ac leaves. Ignore 'mover' handing out transit tags and instructions, dive into duty free, smoke cigar rapidly and then join queue at Gate 35 and stand around for 45 mins!!

Bandar Seri Begawan OKish unless you arrive at dead of night.

Perth (International side) clean, modern, good parking (but expensive), efficient and not crowded. :ok: Downside can be the customs and immigration jobsworths

Changi (any terminal) - absolute tops:ok: :ok: Just shows what a benevolent (apparently) dictatorship can do!

[eagerbeaver]

manchester - the walk to the train station is unbelievable, i was f@*cked by the time i got there with my two bags.

They were exhausted too!

Boom Boom?

[IB4138]

LHR Term 1 by miles!

and Manchester is going downhill fast.:sad:

[dada]

coventry - you'd be more comfortable in a freight shed.

[PAXboy]

Whilst I might agree about LHR, the same goes for any BAA 'managed' airport ... :*

I use LHR because it's close and I can get to everywhere from it and I use LTn because it's closest to me and I can get to an increasing number of places. I would have voted for LTN but the owners (not just the current bunch) have been working very hard to discourage my use of it and make the experience more unpleasant. :rolleyes:

Dundee (DUN) I have only used once but it was great. I walked from the client (about 1/2 mile away), the terminal was small and quiet and I walked out to the Business Air (had just been bought by BD at the time) and boarded the Saab for the 11 minute hop to EDI.

Now, if they could figure out how to make LHR work the same way ...

--------------------
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[LGS6753]

Worst UK airports: Gatwick and Heathrow (all terminals)

Best UK airports: Bristol and Luton.

Average UK airports: the rest.

And I think I've experienced all but NCL.

[Snakecharmer]

Only place they make you check in the night before: Brize Norton

Only place where I've had departure time brought forward (only to get home late, but that's another story!): Goose Bay

Same airline!

[radarcontrol]

I had the unfortunate experience of having to wait at HUY for approx 4 hours while my friend dilly dallied about in his PA28 somewhere south of me. I couldn't wait to get out of there, and duly breathed a sigh of relief once we got airborne. Extremely boring, and bordering on extortionate prices, even for a simple sandwich.

Also, crap public transport. In fact, scratch that, ZERO public transport. It you want to get to HUY from Hull city centre, the only way of doing it is forking out £27 for a taxi!

RC

[eurostar builder]

re......East Midlands catering is pretty lousy after the last international flight goes. And the whole places seems to shut down around 7.


Bournemouth who is own by the same group has the same as East Midlands

Staff waiting for the pax to depart whislt holding the doors to shut after them/.

Local transport is total crap too

[LTNman]

My biggest gripe about Luton is its poor lighting. For a new terminal it is dire. The lighting in the check-in area is appalling and that is when all the 40 watt bulbs are working. At any one time a good third of the lights are busted so I always try to remember to take my torch with me when walking around the terminal as I try to avoid those pesky pieces of luggage that litter the floor. :sad:

[CentreFix25]

I travelled thru LAX, SFO, OAK, OGG, HNL on honeymoon and was impressed with them all. Then came back to the UK thru LHR, what a dump in comparrison. The first impression of the UK for foreign visitors is this s**t hole!, great first impression - not! Dark, smelly, dirty, couple of areas i was scared - thought i was gonna get mugged.
On a seperate rant, the United Airlines cabin crew were the worst i've came across too.

CF.

[MrBernoulli]

Snakecharmer

Having had extensive eexperience operating from Brize Norton I can say that it is an awful place as far as pax handling goes. I have also had to endure the check in the night before (and the blasted Gateway House) in a previous incarnation. RAF movers and their jobsworth attitudes are probably the stickiest ointment that the fly ends up in! Idiots, the lot of them!

[Snakecharmer]

Indeed... in the real world they're called baggage handlers and paid the market rate.

In another place they're given a Hitler Youth armband ('MOV') and...!

[singleacting]

Unlike Dada I have actually been in the departure building at Coventry and found it was much more comfortable than a freight shed with excellent staff too. The worst airport I have been to must be T1 LHR ! Miami comes a close 2nd!

[DC10FAN]

Radarcontrol,

The public transport is actually quite good at Humberside..frequent(hourly) stagecoach services to Sheffield, HULL and Grimsby. Also a railway station at Barnetby @1 mile from airport perimeter.
Sandwiches are no more expensive than any other airport. Catering has been improved recently and choice of shops reflects size of airport.
I would actually rate HUY 1st of the airports I've used(others being LGW/LHR/STN/BHX/MAN/LBA/GLA/PIK/EDI/ABZ).

[mini]

Good:

Ljubjana
J-Burg
Arlanda
Helsinki
Copenhagen
Basra

Bad:

Luanda
Pristina
Heathrow
JFK
Vienna
Nairobi
New Dehli
Schipol
Yerevan
Baghdad
Tiblisi
etc etc.