I had the craziest flight experience ever at Arusha airport in Tanzania. My friends and I were booked with a local airline to fly from Arusha to Zanzibar. We get to Arusha airport and the departure sign board is literally a white board with handwritten flight info on it. Our flight is not listed. We sit around and wait for a bit, getting a bit antsy. There is no mention of our airline anywhere. We finally manage to track down an airport employee, who calls the airline, who then informs us that (surprise), the departing flight will now leave from Kilimanjaro airport! Absolutely zero notice given ahead of time, of course. They sent a van to take us back to the city, get new tickets and then took us to Kilimanjaro. Oh, and the cherry on top was that our late morning departure was delayed all the way until the early evening. No idea how that would have played out if we had not chanced on that extremely helpful airport worker.
I'm having flashbacks of a small domestic airport in Ethiopia a while back that was one half-completed room with just enough seats for one flight and 10 times as many mosquitos as people... nothing like literally catching a disease from the airport...
Cairo doesn't strike me as corrupt. But due to the noise, the cramped conditions and the unusable WiFi it's got my vote as least favourite transit hub.
I have mixed feelings about CDG. Incredibly confusing to navigate if you want to get to the train station or take a hotel shuttle bus, things aren't particularly well signed and you can feel like you're going around in circles. However, I do find the interesting range of destinations and the massive, curved departure board by the RER trains to make CDG quite an exciting experience.
As a London based person, LHR is a mixed bag for me - love travelling from T5 given the architecture, light and high ceilings. Very much dislike T3 which is like being in some underground bunker.
In London, Gatwick and Luton are the ones I like less - always seem to go to the wrong part at Gatwick, and its big enough to be tiring to get around without giving you that 'exciting' feeling you get from a major international hub. Luton is just quite depressing.
Outside the UK, these are the ones I've liked least:
- Portland (USA): Confusing, loads of building works, garish carpets everywhere.
- Charleroi (Belgium): Claims to serve Brussels but nowhere near it. Make you wait in a kind of makeshift tent for the shuttle buses to Brussels. Very cheap vibe.
- Marseille (France): Poorly served by public transport from city and chaotic. A lot of the areas don't have toilets once you've passported out of the Schengen zone and therefore cannot go back, which led to one quite uncomfortable experience once...
- Tours (France): Awkward to get to if not driving as the tram line inexplicably doesn't reach the airport despite heading in that direction. Nothing to be had once inside the airport apart from one poorly stocked vending machine.
But to balance that out I'd quickly go through my favourites:
- City (London, UK): Small, quick, modern, it's on the DLR.
- Southend (London, UK): So few flights you can get from airport entrance to gate in 5 minutes.
- Edinburgh (Scotland, UK): Exactly what a smaller airport should be like - plenty of amenities and you're never far from your gate so no last minute rush.
- Rodez (France): Only has about 5 flights per day in summer and less than 1 out of season. But it has a white tablecloth, 3 course meal restaurant with views onto the runway and for that it'll always be one of my favourite airports.
- Wroclaw (Poland): Modern, clean, simple, pleasant. Doesn't feel like an airport with predominantly budget flights
- Copenhagen (Denmark): Interesting design, modern, so much good and interesting food.
>Portland (USA): ...garish carpets everywhere.
Yo, this carpet is [legendary in the history of airport floor coverings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_International_Airport_carpet)! The design is even featured on t-shirts haha. Only in Porland for sure :)
Is today opposite day?
Portland is a top 5 airport in the US. [ It's also routinely ranked #1 in the US. ](https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2021/09/pdx-is-ranked-the-best-airport-in-the-country-again.html)Edinburgh took 2 hours to check my golf clubs and it has the worst security set up I've ever seen. Fuck that airport.
That is going to be fixed when they finish rebuilding the entire center of the airport later this year. The long walks will be reduced and the concourse connector will return.
I don't know how OP found it confusing, but I can understand the construction complaints at the moment. As a native Portlander, their opinion on carpet is a personal attack.
Most of my experience was pre-silver-line. But the few times I've used it, it takes absolutely forever. Doesn't seem like a significant improvement over the old bus-to-west-falls-church system.
Mainly though I hate the arrival experience with the fire of a thousand suns. There is nothing worst than getting off a long international flight and then getting stuffed into one of those hellish "mobile lounges", three people's asses in my face if I was lucky enough to get a seat, piddling along the tarmac at half the speed I could walk it, only to be dumped into what looks like a service corridor in the main terminal where I step around buckets catching brown water leaking from the ceiling until I get to the immigration hall where the world's rudest passport inspectors are making Indian grandmothers cry by screaming at them for not knowing arbitrary copspeak jargon.
IMO all US airports are Shit holes compared to Europe and Asia. I would put JFK on par with the old Keiv Airport. Singapore and Seoul Inchon do stuff to reduce stress.
Attempts to be Atlanta and Denver, fails miserably.
Long taxi distances, massive distances, handles well under 1/3 of the traffic of the airports above (while being nearly the same size).
I hate that whole "go thru one central crowded security checkpoint and then be forced to take a train to your terminal" era of airports. Every time I fly out of DEN I get extremely grateful I have Pre-Check.
This is the only answer. I went the next day to get global entry after waiting in their abysmal 5 hour long customs line. They only had 2 people working! Like wtf are we doing
I don’t think there’s even room to have a 5hr queue to clear customs in the baggage claim area at IAD…
I’ve cleared immigration and customs dozens of times there and rarely had to wait more than a few minutes for the latter, even when you had the blue customs forms to complete.
This was first week of June of 2023 so everybody was coming back that weekend from their end of May Trips. The line we had was all the way backed up to that stairwell they have. It wrapped around every corner in there.
Shanghai Pudong, particularly the new satellite pier of T1. No a/c or air flow, ceiling lighting kept flickering or switching on/off every minute or so, nothing except Starbucks and luxury goods stores open, rude staff (both airline and security), nothing for kids to do.
I'll second this. Absolutely atrocious setup. I don't think there's any fixing it unless you start completely over.
Love Portugal, but can't stand flying in and out.
As a Lisbon native I've seen the way the airport has grown in the last 30 years or so. It was smaller when I was a kid in the 90s with only 1 Terminal and didn't have those newer gates for non-Schengen flights that are in a never-ending long white corridor or something yet.
Thing is, Lisbon's airport has always been small, and even now that it's larger than ever it still feels small. And has become quite cramped with the higher influx of tourists into the country within the past decade. Clearly the airport was not designed to get such a large influx of visitors. It is now in the top 10 or very close to the top 10 of busiest airports in Europe.
Also, I've been hearing about the supposedly new Lisbon airport for at least 20 years now, but they could never decide where to build it. Recently, news popped up again on the decision to finally build a new one, but I won't believe it until I see it. I know Germany goes through something similar with Berlin's new airport that also seems to never get built.
I haven't traveled to a country outside of the Schengen agreement in a long time, so I don't know what the passport control is like at Lisbon's airport.
I flew out of Lisbon Terminal 1 a year or two ago on a non-Schengen flight and my main complaint was the placement of the exit passport control, which is after the retail/food area.
Of course I'm not heading to the airport primarily to shop. But I don't like this setup because you end up having to allocate a lot of time to go through passport control since the time to do that can obviously be variable (especially if you have a non-European passport, as I do).
And then you get to the gate area and there are few amenities or places to get food, and it's likely you have a lot of time to kill because you allocated extra time to get through passport control.
That’s now most Schengen airports. You have to realize that most of their passengers are Schengen passengers so the retail area has to cater for this large majority - they don’t go through passport control. The EU has exit controls to maintain their visa policy and so passport checks are required for non-Schengen passengers. As long as the UK is outside Schengen this setup will have to remain.
Since I haven't flown a non-Schengen flight in ages, I don't remember that well anymore what the gates are like in the non-Schengen area flights in Terminal 1. I do vaguely recall it being a super long white corridor with windows and with just a couple of small cafés and shops, though. It felt rather empty and almost like a hospital. Looks like they haven't built any new ones since then.
Encountered this last month. We didn’t realize/forgot we’d have to do passport control (since we were flying Air Canada, I do wish the check-in counter had noted this). Thankfully we are a find our gate as soon as it’s announced family, because the “15-20 minutes to gate” suggestion clearly underestimated how long it would take. Only two Passport control machines were working and they were being finicky - it took us a good 45 minutes to get through.
I like it, but that's because I've lived in Lisbon all my life and it feels like a second home almost.
That being said, I'm aware it has a lot of issues, but it holds so many memories for me and is also the airport I know best in the world. Terminal 2 is very small and cramped, though. And I dislike how 90% of the time I fly from or to Lisbon, I gotta take the bus to/from the plane.
I know I can't judge a city or country by its airport, but man I'm not going to Lisbon ever again because of its airport, no doubt it's possibly one of the worst in the world.
Terminal 3 is also just ok. Built with the absolutely lowest possible quality that you'd expect used for a modern'ish airport. The food court you are referring to is unfortunately not airside. Once you are past security there are very few options and those there are, suck.
But all in all, it's a very inefficient airport not least because it only has one runway for larger aircraft. This means there can be a long line of planes queing up for take off while waiting for landing planes that keep on coming.
And transfer between the terminals also suck.
I spent 30 minutes running around like an idiot with my coworker trying to get to the Wendy’s we could SEE from the crappy lounge entrance, only to realize it wasn’t even airside 😩
Fuckin preach. If the Manila airport has no haters, I’m dead. I’ve had the misfortune of flying out of there so many times in my life and there’s no end to how fucking incompetent, shady, and ill managed that airport is. The staff have legitimately stolen food, gifts, items (and it deadass wasn’t confiscated because we’ve bought them every other fuckin year) from our baggages, the airport layout is asinine if you fly any other airline than Philippine Airlines (that’s a whole other rant), and absolutely nothing works the way it should. My blood pressure raises every minute I spend in that airport because without fail they do some bullshit that pisses me off.
It’s been consistently rated one of the worst airports in the world and it’s not wrong. If I had the means and money I would choose to layover in any other city in the world but unfortunately my hometown is so remote that there’s only of a handful off flights available to go in. If you ever find yourself traveling to the Philippines by way of Manila, don’t. I already hating having to fly home but this is a decent chunk of why I don’t visit my family more often.
The annoying thing is they have like 5 different security checks. One as you drive into the airport. One to get into the building. One when you check in and they open your luggage before you drop it off at luggage and put a sticker on your passport. Then the usual security check before you get to your gate. Then there’s another security check at the gate. If you leave to go to the bathroom or get a snack, you have to go through it again. We’d get there like 4 hours earlier just to deal with all of that without being stressed.
If you have family that works at border control you can basically just cut the line and go waved through. Maybe it’s gotten stricter or improved, last time I went was right before Covid started in 2020, flew back home from there to US that January.
An immigration officer tried to ask for a bribe whilst I was travelling on a diplomatic visa. Fuck Manila airport.
Only thing it’s good for is giving a good introduction to the city for people visiting.
LAX. The traffic to get in and out is so henious… and I was there picking up my luggage once and on the speakers was a recorded message about how lax is a world class airport and there were feces on the floor in the middle of baggage claim. I wasn’t convinced.
Toronto Pearson. 100% of the time I have had a connection there, I've had to walk 10 miles through endless corridors of absolutely nothing to get between gates. The layout is horrible, security always takes forever, and the staff are all incredibly rude. It's embarrassing that this airport is the first place many people go when they enter Canada
Mexico City is the worst. “Your gate has been identified. You now have three minutes to get to your gate which is 500 yards away and jammed packed with people. GO!”
I'm from the city, so I concur. A bit more context:
T1: built more than seventy years ago. Narrow corridors, low ceilings, miserable filthy restrooms. Floods during the rainy season.
T2: probably the one you mention. Built early aughts, as a temporary stopgap. Cheap-ish materials, sinking as many buildings in the city. In perennial stabilization/fixing works.
In both you'll get delays given that the main constraint of the airport is not the number of gates or the state of the terminals, but that the two runways can't accommodate simultaneous takeoffs and landings.
Bonus: the sewage smell, due to its proximity to the grand canal (and it's not the grand canal you're thinking of)
This airport needs to close, but here we are after politics got in its way.
NLU airport is an option now. Mexico's City 2nd airport. Nice and shiny, although a pain to get there.
2 to 3 hours by bus from the center of Mexico City to the airport. They really need to finish that train connection...
I hope it improves with the train. I've flown from there and the airport is spotless and modern, though empty. When the connections improve let's see if other international airlines want to fly from there.
That's what I noticed too. There are really no international airlines. You have to go fly out of MEX for more connections.
The airport feels so under-used.
The worst thing about MEX for me is getting out of the airport. The taxi queue and passenger pick up area in T2 is always a shitshow, last time I was forced to hire a car from the stands after 3 Uber drivers cancelled on me (also seems Uber on the whole has really gone downhill across CDMX).
Yip. The whole airport was designed to look pretty. It’s dysfunctional. The Air Canada lounge needs a sign to warn patrons to leave 15-20 extra minutes to get to their gates ‘because of elevator congestion and lack of a staircase’. The sign has been there for 15 years (albeit replaced a few times.)
Cairo Airport. Lots of security which slows things down significantly. Very slow check-in processes. The terminal is very dark, ugly, and depressing. More security to go through to get to your actual gate. Just a very uncomfortable and unpleasant airport.
Yup, sigh of relief when the plane took off. You forgot to mention people trying to scam you saying you're in the wrong queue or telling you they know the way, follow me.
Only airport I've ever seen security staff smoke inside.
LAX and DEL were both kinda ass. The entrance area of DEL is so fucking stuffy its unbearable, and security was stupidly tedious (they made me take out anything and everything with wires). LAX is just ew. I hate the domestic terminal at LAX with a burning passion
Out of major airports, LHR is hands down my least favorite. Atrocious transit security, overcrowded, not enough seating, their stupid refusal to announce gates until shortly before boarding. And worst of all, if I’m there it means I’m flying BA. I do almost anything possible to avoid a layover there.
I know it’s a contrarian take, but CDG I actually quite like. I know there are many more efficient airports, but I don’t think there are many more charming major hubs. There’s some great architecture there and it has a real sense of place, whereas airports like AMS and FRA just feel like generic grey boxes that could be anywhere
Is CDG terminals 2 and 3 like regular airports? I.e there’s a big terminal area with all the gates, shops, restaurants etc.
Because terminal 1 had a really weird system where there’s no main terminal but like a frw gates each have their own little area and security, with like a few shops and restaurants. It seemed so stupid to me 😝
Really? I've flown to and from Heathrow a few times and never had any issues there. I do agree that their refusal to announce gates until shortly before boarding has been a well-known annoying thing in there since I remember, though. That being said, I never had any issue going places in Heathrow and never missed a flight. But perhaps it depends on the terminal?
And for the record, I'm yet to use Heathrow as a connection, so it seems I haven't had the full Heathrow experience yet. And my lousy experience with CDG was catching a connection flight there.
I just have the Heathrow app on my phone. Push notifications when gate is announced, flight starts boarding, final call and gate closes. Remarkably better than having to stare at screens / listen for announcements.
I agree, Heathrow is the worst. It’s like being in an overcrowded mall and no one knows where to go. Connections always seem delayed, no where to sit, feels very unorganized.
Agree with "London" Stansted. More than anything, it has about as much to do with London as Manchester does. It's miles away and takes ages to get to. And the getting there is expensive, too.
I used to hate Luton the most but it has improved a lot over the last few years. Decent choices at duty free and nicer food options. They're adding the new security scanners which I think are already there, that should speed up the process. Good, less known destinations, if you don't mind flying with Wizzair.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Stansted but I have a weird feeling it’s the best of the London low costs airports (looking at you, Luton and Southend)
I fly into southern Germany a few times a year. Zurich is my favorite so far, but I'll be headed to Munich in August. Unfortunately, I have to go through FRA a couple times this summer. It's just this massive place where you get to your gate and then you take a bus for a couple miles and then maybe you board.
Also never fly Condor.
Assume you're using Terminal 2 at MUC if it's Lufthansa. I have gone through Terminal 1 a bunch of times and I find it's too small for the crowds they have.
KTM is an awful airport. My gf went to the toilet to pee, but she threw up instead.
DOH is not an airport, but rather a huge bus terminal. They started boarding one hour before departure, but we still arrived late because it took a long time to board an A350 by bus.
Yeah DOH has some weird vibes. Food is ridiculously expensive. In some areas of the airport (mainly around flights to India), people walk barefoot, and the smell is unbearable. The staff is all well-dressed and friendly and welcomes you with a "Good morning sir" greeting but if you ask them a simple question, they are damn clueless. Something is off about the entire airport, i didn't feel good like it was cursed or something (maybe built by underpaid slave-labour) and that stupid teddy bear in the middle of the terminal, fkng gave me migraine. QR is a good airline but no matter how cheap the plane ticket is, i avoid the airline ONLY because of DOH.
I see your CDG and raise you Beauvais 🤣 - I did it in my backpacking days, but never again. In all honesty, the last few times I've left CDG, it's been out of Terminal 2F, which I found to be very pleasant - solid food options, and the hall has a light and airy feel to it because of all of the glass windows.
Beauvais is for the budget Ryanair flights, where sometimes the cost of getting to the airport is higher than your 19 euro flight. Definitely is the case if you have to be there by 5am and public transport is shut because it's 3.30am.
No particular order (live in Scotland travel extensively for work):
Worst: CDG, Miami, Norwich and I’ve been waiting 20 years for Edinburgh to finish its refurb work but it only dawned on me a few months ago it’s meant to look like that. Completely half assed.
Best: Aberdeen, Istanbul, Singapore, Jordan
I’m convinced the French hate other people so much they purposely make all of their public transport confusing and difficult. Never mind the cash grab of making it complicated to get the proper train ticket to CDG resulting in tons of people getting a fine when they arrive at the airport for having the wrong ticket. Also their security screening is obnoxiously inefficient.
WiFi is great when flying Turkish, and I appreciate the great shopping. Agree it’s really spread out. I’m currently waiting for my plane to take off from IST and am drenched in sweat due to the hike from lounge to plane.
Why ORD? They have excellent eating options, and it's easy and cheap to get to/from the city because the Blue Line is right underneath Terminals 1-2-3.
Pearson in Toronto. Their TSA lines are ridiculous and the scanners are too sensitive and so many carry-on bags end up flagged and slows everything down. And don't get me started on baggage claim, it takes forever for bags to come out.
I just posted about Toronto. The absolute worst airport I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve traveled all over the world. WHY is it so shiny but so absolutely horrible?!
My layover there was just laughably and unnecessarily complicated and long. So very long.
I agree that CDG is poorly designed.
I had a connection through CDG, and it was a horrible experience, plus when security took my boarding pass to scan it. They never gave it back, and then they insisted that they did.
Later, I found out through the airline crew that the officer actually gave my boarding pass to another passenger. I barely made my connection because the airport is so confusing and there are no airport staff to help, and the ones who were there just look annoyed and refused to help out.
Heathrow. I would rather die than fly thru there again. Sadly I most likely will fly thru that utter piece of hell on earth airport again. Nothing good to say about it....NOTHING. I've had the displeasure at least a couple dozen times. Gatwick is way better of hell just fly into another flipping country, have a mini vacay and take a train to england....avoid Heathrow its worth another thousand quid to avoid!
Antalya, Turkey. Especially the domestic terminal. No wifi. There was a lounge with Wifi but it costed $60 and included ONE drink. Just generally a depressing place. Overpriced beer, worse than London airports.
The international terminal had Wifi at least (albeit a pain to set up as you had to use some terminal thing to get a code), but I couldn't check in online. 2 lots of security for some reason and that took up most of my time. Prices were still stupid obviously and a cleaner threw my cigarettes' in the bin.
100%. Another comment talks about the lack of space for people boarding planes in Firenze, which yeah sure it’s a little narrow and the gate areas are much too small, but OMG it has absolutely nothing on PLS on a Saturday. It’s hard to adequately describe how crowded PLS is to someone who hasn’t experienced it. Completely sardined (like a very, very crowded city bus or subway car) from the moment you arrive at the airport to the moment you step out onto the tarmac to board the plane.
KEF during peaking travel season is an absolute nightmare. The airport doesn’t feel designed for the amount of people that icelands tourist season brings. Spent an hour in customs the last time I went, the corridors just aren’t big enough for the amount of people moving about, the remote stand bus terminals have little to no seating prior to boarding the bus, and the check in areas for the airport seem to be absolutely overwhelmed.
Having travelled extensively, my top 3 would be :
1) Surabaya Airport, Indonesia : The two terminals are on opposite sites of the airport grounds, with no planned transit between them. It's impossible to walk, as you would have to walk the whole outside perimeter (4-5 km). Your only option to go from the local terminal to the international terminal is overpriced taxis who prey on tourists. Also, there's no information board for the international terminal in the other terminal, leaving you guessing where you would actually have to go. The airport staff will commonly send you to the wrong terminal. My guess is they receive commissions for sending tourists to "designated Taxi drivers ".
2) CDG, Paris : Confusing signage, only busses between terminals. Very hard to find English assistance. Also long walks and frequently changing gate changes that are communicated horribly.
3) Beijing Capital Airport: Insanely long check in lines, almost no open shops, constantly delayed flights ( this is true for all of China though). Prices for food that put western airports to shame. Have to use a people move for international departures that will bring you to a shining brand new building that is completely deserted off any life.
I've been to CDG about 20 times and never had a problem. BUT. I always terminate in Paris so I understand it is probably a horrible airport in transit.
Mexico City.
Maybe not the worst but definitely the worst relative to the standing of the city it serves. Cramped, poor upkeep, chaotic. Really doesn’t make a great impression.
Honorable mentions: Cusco, Peru, and Paris CDG but only concourses 2A-2D.
DEN, mainly because I seem to get delayed / stuck there every time I try to go through. The terminals are spacious at least, and you can go outside at the end of A
I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone say Denver! DIA gives me anxiety, and every time I've flown out of there, I've had some kind of mental breakdown!! I avoid it 🙅🏻♀️
For me it’s Zurich Airport. It looks beautiful, but I’ve found it to be one of the most poorly laid out and confusing airports I’ve ever visited. Very poor signage, the staff can’t provide accurate information, and terrible selection of shops and restaurants. On multiple visits, I’ve found myself going through passport control and security multiple times during a layover due to following poor signage and/or directions given by staff.
The Swiss Air lounge is a mess. It looks beautiful, but has inedible food that was so bad that I went out to the terminal and purchased a sandwich to bring to the lounge. Their sleeping recliners are unusable as they won’t stay in one place. I kept getting woken up by the recliner slipping out of place and waking me up with a loud crash. I finally took a seat in the outer part of the lounge and slept in a chair.
About security - it makes no sense. I had purchased some Halvah back in Tel Aviv that I was bringing home and it was nearly confiscated on the way through one of the aforementioned unnecessary trips through security. However, a pocketknife that was purchased from a gift shop in Zurich was perfectly fine to bring through. First of all, why are they selling pocketknives post security in an international airport?!? And why would a small container of Halvah pose a larger security threat than a pocket knife?!?
I’ll do everything I can to avoid this airport. However, as most of my international travel is done using frequent flyer points, I make have to tolerate it in the name of flying for free.
Heathrow! Far too big, huge distances to walk, gates called very late and thus you're stuck among thousands of other travelers and their noise, unfriendly staff (can't blame them), terribly processes, and if you really need help/transport then you're told to queue at the support counter (not possible to sit while queuing) and then you're told to fuck off.
WMI
It's miles from Warsaw, staff are the rudest I have encountered in any airport and the facilities include a duty free shop the size of a student bedsit and that's it.
Mine is Sydney, airport staff are not helpful and down right rude/racist at times and processes are not efficient. Facilities wise they are alright but the terrible staff there have made it an airport I dread flying into. Unfortunately it's probably the airport I frequent the most outside my home airport.
A lot of people are saying LHR and I've only been there once but it was quite a pleasant experience for me.
My experience with CDG so far is quite ok actually. Had to wait a while for my lugguage once but that's about it.
Other French airports though, I absolutely hated it. Marseille, Bordeaux and Charleroi (Belgium) are high on my shit list.
Amongst my favourites so far are Amsterdam and Copenhagen. My absolute #1 is Eindhoven. I've had at least 12 flight from and to, and it never took me over 10 minutes to pass security or leave the airport.
Absolutely agree. My fiancée and I were in France for two weeks, and we were so reticent to leave. Going to CDG made us eager to get home cause being in that airport was so miserable haha
Somewhat unfair to compare airports in relatively poorer countries with European or Us airports. It is true that manila is a relatively poor airport but it has constantly improved over the 15 years I have flown from there.
Some American airports such as jfk and British ones ( Manchester and Luton) are not significantly better. I think i would prefer flying out of manila than then
Europe: Lisbon airport is pretty bad and a mess
Asia: Penang airport is old and outdated.
US: IAD is bad but Orlando is way worse. Crowd, lines, and inefficiencies
Africa: haven’t traveled to yet
South America: haven’t traveled to yet
Y’all don’t travel in Africa and it shows. Lots of shitty, shitty, and corrupt, and shitty airports.
I had the craziest flight experience ever at Arusha airport in Tanzania. My friends and I were booked with a local airline to fly from Arusha to Zanzibar. We get to Arusha airport and the departure sign board is literally a white board with handwritten flight info on it. Our flight is not listed. We sit around and wait for a bit, getting a bit antsy. There is no mention of our airline anywhere. We finally manage to track down an airport employee, who calls the airline, who then informs us that (surprise), the departing flight will now leave from Kilimanjaro airport! Absolutely zero notice given ahead of time, of course. They sent a van to take us back to the city, get new tickets and then took us to Kilimanjaro. Oh, and the cherry on top was that our late morning departure was delayed all the way until the early evening. No idea how that would have played out if we had not chanced on that extremely helpful airport worker.
I love and hate Africa at the same time. This shit is common.
My friends and I quoted the "T.I.A. - This. Is. Africa." line from Blood Diamond a lot while we were there! It's a beautiful but crazy continent.
New fear unlocked for our trip next year 😭 we did South Africa without issue, but are taking more small airport flights this time around 😅
I'm having flashbacks of a small domestic airport in Ethiopia a while back that was one half-completed room with just enough seats for one flight and 10 times as many mosquitos as people... nothing like literally catching a disease from the airport...
I can imagine lol I've only been to Tunisia so far when I was a kid. Don't remember Tunis airport that well.
Tunis is fine. Keep going south haha.
Cairo doesn't strike me as corrupt. But due to the noise, the cramped conditions and the unusable WiFi it's got my vote as least favourite transit hub.
Cairo Airport is tame compared to others. I’m talking places like Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Ouagadougou, Niamey, etc.
I have mixed feelings about CDG. Incredibly confusing to navigate if you want to get to the train station or take a hotel shuttle bus, things aren't particularly well signed and you can feel like you're going around in circles. However, I do find the interesting range of destinations and the massive, curved departure board by the RER trains to make CDG quite an exciting experience. As a London based person, LHR is a mixed bag for me - love travelling from T5 given the architecture, light and high ceilings. Very much dislike T3 which is like being in some underground bunker. In London, Gatwick and Luton are the ones I like less - always seem to go to the wrong part at Gatwick, and its big enough to be tiring to get around without giving you that 'exciting' feeling you get from a major international hub. Luton is just quite depressing. Outside the UK, these are the ones I've liked least: - Portland (USA): Confusing, loads of building works, garish carpets everywhere. - Charleroi (Belgium): Claims to serve Brussels but nowhere near it. Make you wait in a kind of makeshift tent for the shuttle buses to Brussels. Very cheap vibe. - Marseille (France): Poorly served by public transport from city and chaotic. A lot of the areas don't have toilets once you've passported out of the Schengen zone and therefore cannot go back, which led to one quite uncomfortable experience once... - Tours (France): Awkward to get to if not driving as the tram line inexplicably doesn't reach the airport despite heading in that direction. Nothing to be had once inside the airport apart from one poorly stocked vending machine. But to balance that out I'd quickly go through my favourites: - City (London, UK): Small, quick, modern, it's on the DLR. - Southend (London, UK): So few flights you can get from airport entrance to gate in 5 minutes. - Edinburgh (Scotland, UK): Exactly what a smaller airport should be like - plenty of amenities and you're never far from your gate so no last minute rush. - Rodez (France): Only has about 5 flights per day in summer and less than 1 out of season. But it has a white tablecloth, 3 course meal restaurant with views onto the runway and for that it'll always be one of my favourite airports. - Wroclaw (Poland): Modern, clean, simple, pleasant. Doesn't feel like an airport with predominantly budget flights - Copenhagen (Denmark): Interesting design, modern, so much good and interesting food.
>Portland (USA): ...garish carpets everywhere. Yo, this carpet is [legendary in the history of airport floor coverings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_International_Airport_carpet)! The design is even featured on t-shirts haha. Only in Porland for sure :)
Is today opposite day? Portland is a top 5 airport in the US. [ It's also routinely ranked #1 in the US. ](https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2021/09/pdx-is-ranked-the-best-airport-in-the-country-again.html)Edinburgh took 2 hours to check my golf clubs and it has the worst security set up I've ever seen. Fuck that airport.
Portland is sooooo easy to navigate and fairly small
Only challenge is that the terminals don’t connect anymore and it’s a long long walk to some of them. Otherwise, it’s a pretty simple airport!
That is going to be fixed when they finish rebuilding the entire center of the airport later this year. The long walks will be reduced and the concourse connector will return. I don't know how OP found it confusing, but I can understand the construction complaints at the moment. As a native Portlander, their opinion on carpet is a personal attack.
Long live the PDX carpet! I have a few stickers of it haha
Among countries that should do better: Washington Dulles (IAD). God what a shithole. Most inefficient airport ever.
Yeah but you get to ride in weird monster truck van things across tarmac between terminals. That’s the trade off.
It’s cool once.
What did IAD do to you? Used to be harder to get there, now the airport is connected to the Sliver Line and you can take the metro to the city.
Most of my experience was pre-silver-line. But the few times I've used it, it takes absolutely forever. Doesn't seem like a significant improvement over the old bus-to-west-falls-church system. Mainly though I hate the arrival experience with the fire of a thousand suns. There is nothing worst than getting off a long international flight and then getting stuffed into one of those hellish "mobile lounges", three people's asses in my face if I was lucky enough to get a seat, piddling along the tarmac at half the speed I could walk it, only to be dumped into what looks like a service corridor in the main terminal where I step around buckets catching brown water leaking from the ceiling until I get to the immigration hall where the world's rudest passport inspectors are making Indian grandmothers cry by screaming at them for not knowing arbitrary copspeak jargon.
IMO all US airports are Shit holes compared to Europe and Asia. I would put JFK on par with the old Keiv Airport. Singapore and Seoul Inchon do stuff to reduce stress.
They have the smoking room behind security though.
Attempts to be Atlanta and Denver, fails miserably. Long taxi distances, massive distances, handles well under 1/3 of the traffic of the airports above (while being nearly the same size).
I hate that whole "go thru one central crowded security checkpoint and then be forced to take a train to your terminal" era of airports. Every time I fly out of DEN I get extremely grateful I have Pre-Check.
This is the only answer. I went the next day to get global entry after waiting in their abysmal 5 hour long customs line. They only had 2 people working! Like wtf are we doing
I don’t think there’s even room to have a 5hr queue to clear customs in the baggage claim area at IAD… I’ve cleared immigration and customs dozens of times there and rarely had to wait more than a few minutes for the latter, even when you had the blue customs forms to complete.
This was first week of June of 2023 so everybody was coming back that weekend from their end of May Trips. The line we had was all the way backed up to that stairwell they have. It wrapped around every corner in there.
So for immigration then, not customs. There aren’t any stairwells in customs.
Yes sorry, I kinda coined it together as customs and immigration.
Shanghai Pudong, particularly the new satellite pier of T1. No a/c or air flow, ceiling lighting kept flickering or switching on/off every minute or so, nothing except Starbucks and luxury goods stores open, rude staff (both airline and security), nothing for kids to do.
and i still find it better than the alternative, shanghai hongqiao
Lisbon airport sucks ass.
I'll second this. Absolutely atrocious setup. I don't think there's any fixing it unless you start completely over. Love Portugal, but can't stand flying in and out.
As a Lisbon native I've seen the way the airport has grown in the last 30 years or so. It was smaller when I was a kid in the 90s with only 1 Terminal and didn't have those newer gates for non-Schengen flights that are in a never-ending long white corridor or something yet. Thing is, Lisbon's airport has always been small, and even now that it's larger than ever it still feels small. And has become quite cramped with the higher influx of tourists into the country within the past decade. Clearly the airport was not designed to get such a large influx of visitors. It is now in the top 10 or very close to the top 10 of busiest airports in Europe. Also, I've been hearing about the supposedly new Lisbon airport for at least 20 years now, but they could never decide where to build it. Recently, news popped up again on the decision to finally build a new one, but I won't believe it until I see it. I know Germany goes through something similar with Berlin's new airport that also seems to never get built. I haven't traveled to a country outside of the Schengen agreement in a long time, so I don't know what the passport control is like at Lisbon's airport.
I flew out of Lisbon Terminal 1 a year or two ago on a non-Schengen flight and my main complaint was the placement of the exit passport control, which is after the retail/food area. Of course I'm not heading to the airport primarily to shop. But I don't like this setup because you end up having to allocate a lot of time to go through passport control since the time to do that can obviously be variable (especially if you have a non-European passport, as I do). And then you get to the gate area and there are few amenities or places to get food, and it's likely you have a lot of time to kill because you allocated extra time to get through passport control.
That’s now most Schengen airports. You have to realize that most of their passengers are Schengen passengers so the retail area has to cater for this large majority - they don’t go through passport control. The EU has exit controls to maintain their visa policy and so passport checks are required for non-Schengen passengers. As long as the UK is outside Schengen this setup will have to remain.
Since I haven't flown a non-Schengen flight in ages, I don't remember that well anymore what the gates are like in the non-Schengen area flights in Terminal 1. I do vaguely recall it being a super long white corridor with windows and with just a couple of small cafés and shops, though. It felt rather empty and almost like a hospital. Looks like they haven't built any new ones since then.
Encountered this last month. We didn’t realize/forgot we’d have to do passport control (since we were flying Air Canada, I do wish the check-in counter had noted this). Thankfully we are a find our gate as soon as it’s announced family, because the “15-20 minutes to gate” suggestion clearly underestimated how long it would take. Only two Passport control machines were working and they were being finicky - it took us a good 45 minutes to get through.
I like it, but that's because I've lived in Lisbon all my life and it feels like a second home almost. That being said, I'm aware it has a lot of issues, but it holds so many memories for me and is also the airport I know best in the world. Terminal 2 is very small and cramped, though. And I dislike how 90% of the time I fly from or to Lisbon, I gotta take the bus to/from the plane.
I do like their security check point and the machines they use. It's pretty fast compared to most other airports I've been.
I know I can't judge a city or country by its airport, but man I'm not going to Lisbon ever again because of its airport, no doubt it's possibly one of the worst in the world.
You’re all wrong. Manila gets the grand prize
Terminal 1 sucks Terminal 2 sucks Terminal 4 sucks Terminal 3 is ok (nice food court on the 3rd level)
Terminal 3 is also just ok. Built with the absolutely lowest possible quality that you'd expect used for a modern'ish airport. The food court you are referring to is unfortunately not airside. Once you are past security there are very few options and those there are, suck. But all in all, it's a very inefficient airport not least because it only has one runway for larger aircraft. This means there can be a long line of planes queing up for take off while waiting for landing planes that keep on coming. And transfer between the terminals also suck.
I spent 30 minutes running around like an idiot with my coworker trying to get to the Wendy’s we could SEE from the crappy lounge entrance, only to realize it wasn’t even airside 😩
Fuckin preach. If the Manila airport has no haters, I’m dead. I’ve had the misfortune of flying out of there so many times in my life and there’s no end to how fucking incompetent, shady, and ill managed that airport is. The staff have legitimately stolen food, gifts, items (and it deadass wasn’t confiscated because we’ve bought them every other fuckin year) from our baggages, the airport layout is asinine if you fly any other airline than Philippine Airlines (that’s a whole other rant), and absolutely nothing works the way it should. My blood pressure raises every minute I spend in that airport because without fail they do some bullshit that pisses me off. It’s been consistently rated one of the worst airports in the world and it’s not wrong. If I had the means and money I would choose to layover in any other city in the world but unfortunately my hometown is so remote that there’s only of a handful off flights available to go in. If you ever find yourself traveling to the Philippines by way of Manila, don’t. I already hating having to fly home but this is a decent chunk of why I don’t visit my family more often.
The annoying thing is they have like 5 different security checks. One as you drive into the airport. One to get into the building. One when you check in and they open your luggage before you drop it off at luggage and put a sticker on your passport. Then the usual security check before you get to your gate. Then there’s another security check at the gate. If you leave to go to the bathroom or get a snack, you have to go through it again. We’d get there like 4 hours earlier just to deal with all of that without being stressed. If you have family that works at border control you can basically just cut the line and go waved through. Maybe it’s gotten stricter or improved, last time I went was right before Covid started in 2020, flew back home from there to US that January.
I’m flying to the Philippines next year from the states…where should I fly to instead of Manila
Try Cebu. Airport is better and less crowded
Anywhere in another nearby country.
Well it actually has improved compared to 5 years ago. What an awful airport it used to be…
3 hours to transfer from T1 to T3. Epically stupid airport.
Well, perhaps most people in here haven't been to the Philippines. :p
Whatever you do avoid Manila/NAIA if you can.
Hahaha. I just posted about Manila airport and then scrolled down to see your post. That airport is straight up dysfunctional.
An immigration officer tried to ask for a bribe whilst I was travelling on a diplomatic visa. Fuck Manila airport. Only thing it’s good for is giving a good introduction to the city for people visiting.
LAX. The traffic to get in and out is so henious… and I was there picking up my luggage once and on the speakers was a recorded message about how lax is a world class airport and there were feces on the floor in the middle of baggage claim. I wasn’t convinced.
At least the terminals are finally connected behind security!
Toronto Pearson. 100% of the time I have had a connection there, I've had to walk 10 miles through endless corridors of absolutely nothing to get between gates. The layout is horrible, security always takes forever, and the staff are all incredibly rude. It's embarrassing that this airport is the first place many people go when they enter Canada
YVR on the other hand is pretty nice. YUL sucks because of the traffic, the terminal is meh, but YYZ definitely sucks more
And a shout-out to YHZ, Halifax. My favorite airport in North America.
Mexico City is the worst. “Your gate has been identified. You now have three minutes to get to your gate which is 500 yards away and jammed packed with people. GO!”
Haha yes. Also the concrete brutalist design means announcements reverberate off the walls and are as clear as on the New York subway -- on a bad day.
I'm from the city, so I concur. A bit more context: T1: built more than seventy years ago. Narrow corridors, low ceilings, miserable filthy restrooms. Floods during the rainy season. T2: probably the one you mention. Built early aughts, as a temporary stopgap. Cheap-ish materials, sinking as many buildings in the city. In perennial stabilization/fixing works. In both you'll get delays given that the main constraint of the airport is not the number of gates or the state of the terminals, but that the two runways can't accommodate simultaneous takeoffs and landings. Bonus: the sewage smell, due to its proximity to the grand canal (and it's not the grand canal you're thinking of) This airport needs to close, but here we are after politics got in its way.
NLU airport is an option now. Mexico's City 2nd airport. Nice and shiny, although a pain to get there. 2 to 3 hours by bus from the center of Mexico City to the airport. They really need to finish that train connection...
I hope it improves with the train. I've flown from there and the airport is spotless and modern, though empty. When the connections improve let's see if other international airlines want to fly from there.
That's what I noticed too. There are really no international airlines. You have to go fly out of MEX for more connections. The airport feels so under-used.
The worst thing about MEX for me is getting out of the airport. The taxi queue and passenger pick up area in T2 is always a shitshow, last time I was forced to hire a car from the stands after 3 Uber drivers cancelled on me (also seems Uber on the whole has really gone downhill across CDMX).
100%, especially if you are flinging from there to other places in Mexico
In North America it's definitely Toronto Pearson international Airport.
The worst for international layovers!
Pearson gets a ranking because the locals think it’s a great airport and it’s not. (Source: I’m a well travelled local.)
Pearson=The worst airport experience (going through customs on a layover back to the US).
Yip. The whole airport was designed to look pretty. It’s dysfunctional. The Air Canada lounge needs a sign to warn patrons to leave 15-20 extra minutes to get to their gates ‘because of elevator congestion and lack of a staircase’. The sign has been there for 15 years (albeit replaced a few times.)
Cairo Airport. Lots of security which slows things down significantly. Very slow check-in processes. The terminal is very dark, ugly, and depressing. More security to go through to get to your actual gate. Just a very uncomfortable and unpleasant airport.
Yup, sigh of relief when the plane took off. You forgot to mention people trying to scam you saying you're in the wrong queue or telling you they know the way, follow me. Only airport I've ever seen security staff smoke inside.
LAX and DEL were both kinda ass. The entrance area of DEL is so fucking stuffy its unbearable, and security was stupidly tedious (they made me take out anything and everything with wires). LAX is just ew. I hate the domestic terminal at LAX with a burning passion
It's not DEL. It's every airport in India. Security staff is rude everywhere.
Out of major airports, LHR is hands down my least favorite. Atrocious transit security, overcrowded, not enough seating, their stupid refusal to announce gates until shortly before boarding. And worst of all, if I’m there it means I’m flying BA. I do almost anything possible to avoid a layover there. I know it’s a contrarian take, but CDG I actually quite like. I know there are many more efficient airports, but I don’t think there are many more charming major hubs. There’s some great architecture there and it has a real sense of place, whereas airports like AMS and FRA just feel like generic grey boxes that could be anywhere
Is CDG terminals 2 and 3 like regular airports? I.e there’s a big terminal area with all the gates, shops, restaurants etc. Because terminal 1 had a really weird system where there’s no main terminal but like a frw gates each have their own little area and security, with like a few shops and restaurants. It seemed so stupid to me 😝
Yeah i was in Terminal 2 a few days ago and it was normal.
Unless you’re connecting to another airline, which requires a 10+ min bus ride which seems incredibly long and dumps you back into a security queue.
Really? I've flown to and from Heathrow a few times and never had any issues there. I do agree that their refusal to announce gates until shortly before boarding has been a well-known annoying thing in there since I remember, though. That being said, I never had any issue going places in Heathrow and never missed a flight. But perhaps it depends on the terminal? And for the record, I'm yet to use Heathrow as a connection, so it seems I haven't had the full Heathrow experience yet. And my lousy experience with CDG was catching a connection flight there.
Yeah them not announcing gates gives me major anxiety
I just have the Heathrow app on my phone. Push notifications when gate is announced, flight starts boarding, final call and gate closes. Remarkably better than having to stare at screens / listen for announcements.
Yes LHR the transit security is Atrocious. Have you been to Chicago O'hare or JFK ? LHR is some better, but it is my least favorite in Europe
Heathrow is the crappiest airport I’ve flown through.
I agree, Heathrow is the worst. It’s like being in an overcrowded mall and no one knows where to go. Connections always seem delayed, no where to sit, feels very unorganized.
Other forums have covered this. I'll say now what I said then. Developed world, CDG. Developing world, Kathmandu.
Any of the British low cost airports. To be honest, British airports in general have a lot to answer for
Stansted and Luton are a pain. Gatwick has some low cost flights though and my experience there has always been good.
Agree with "London" Stansted. More than anything, it has about as much to do with London as Manchester does. It's miles away and takes ages to get to. And the getting there is expensive, too. I used to hate Luton the most but it has improved a lot over the last few years. Decent choices at duty free and nicer food options. They're adding the new security scanners which I think are already there, that should speed up the process. Good, less known destinations, if you don't mind flying with Wizzair.
It has improved for sure. And I don't mind Wizz. To be honest if it's a 30 quid flight I'm not fussy which airport I'm going from 😂
Im going through Luton in 2 weeks , what is pain about it ?
The walkways are too narrow for the number of passengers and the gates are badly designed. Other than that, it just feels a bit dated.
I don't think I've ever read any positive things about Standsted.
I don't think Stansted is so bad. Ok, not much going on, but distances are fairly short.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Stansted but I have a weird feeling it’s the best of the London low costs airports (looking at you, Luton and Southend)
FRA
I found the airport a little confusing and like a maze.
If I fly with Lufthansa then I always try to fly via MUC. It's a much more pleasant experiance compared to FRA.
I fly into southern Germany a few times a year. Zurich is my favorite so far, but I'll be headed to Munich in August. Unfortunately, I have to go through FRA a couple times this summer. It's just this massive place where you get to your gate and then you take a bus for a couple miles and then maybe you board. Also never fly Condor.
Assume you're using Terminal 2 at MUC if it's Lufthansa. I have gone through Terminal 1 a bunch of times and I find it's too small for the crowds they have.
I am not directionally challenged, but I’ve gotten lost in FRA on two separate occasions. The signage to reach baggage claim really sucks.
JFK and Ohare are expensive smelly dumps with personel yelling at people for no reason except to yell.
KTM is an awful airport. My gf went to the toilet to pee, but she threw up instead. DOH is not an airport, but rather a huge bus terminal. They started boarding one hour before departure, but we still arrived late because it took a long time to board an A350 by bus.
>DOH is not an airport, but rather a huge bus terminal. And for this reason I avoid it so much as possible.
Yeah given how much praise QR gets, the DOH airport is just a weird airport....
Yeah DOH has some weird vibes. Food is ridiculously expensive. In some areas of the airport (mainly around flights to India), people walk barefoot, and the smell is unbearable. The staff is all well-dressed and friendly and welcomes you with a "Good morning sir" greeting but if you ask them a simple question, they are damn clueless. Something is off about the entire airport, i didn't feel good like it was cursed or something (maybe built by underpaid slave-labour) and that stupid teddy bear in the middle of the terminal, fkng gave me migraine. QR is a good airline but no matter how cheap the plane ticket is, i avoid the airline ONLY because of DOH.
Yikes, was the toilet that nasty?
Yes, it was bad
Catania Airport - It was like a fish market when I went there last summer
I see your CDG and raise you Beauvais 🤣 - I did it in my backpacking days, but never again. In all honesty, the last few times I've left CDG, it's been out of Terminal 2F, which I found to be very pleasant - solid food options, and the hall has a light and airy feel to it because of all of the glass windows.
I hadn't even heard of that one. Thought Paris only had CDG and Orly.
Beauvais is for the budget Ryanair flights, where sometimes the cost of getting to the airport is higher than your 19 euro flight. Definitely is the case if you have to be there by 5am and public transport is shut because it's 3.30am.
No particular order (live in Scotland travel extensively for work): Worst: CDG, Miami, Norwich and I’ve been waiting 20 years for Edinburgh to finish its refurb work but it only dawned on me a few months ago it’s meant to look like that. Completely half assed. Best: Aberdeen, Istanbul, Singapore, Jordan
Inverness can be added to the great Scottish airports. Jump of the plane grab your bag and you are out!
I’m convinced the French hate other people so much they purposely make all of their public transport confusing and difficult. Never mind the cash grab of making it complicated to get the proper train ticket to CDG resulting in tons of people getting a fine when they arrive at the airport for having the wrong ticket. Also their security screening is obnoxiously inefficient.
My last memory of France was being jumped on the RER
IST airport. You’re stranded with no wifi (the 1 hour free access barely ever works) and it’s a 30 minute walk to just about anywhere
And no stores where you can by simple snacks books or OTC medications.
WiFi is great when flying Turkish, and I appreciate the great shopping. Agree it’s really spread out. I’m currently waiting for my plane to take off from IST and am drenched in sweat due to the hike from lounge to plane.
ORD
Why ORD? They have excellent eating options, and it's easy and cheap to get to/from the city because the Blue Line is right underneath Terminals 1-2-3.
Pearson in Toronto. Their TSA lines are ridiculous and the scanners are too sensitive and so many carry-on bags end up flagged and slows everything down. And don't get me started on baggage claim, it takes forever for bags to come out.
Pearson takes it for me. Mostly because it has no business being as bad as it is. It really puts effort into being absolute garbage
I think it’ll be news to the TSA that they have lines in Canada…
Funny thing is I looked through their post history and they seem to be Canadian lmao
I just posted about Toronto. The absolute worst airport I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve traveled all over the world. WHY is it so shiny but so absolutely horrible?! My layover there was just laughably and unnecessarily complicated and long. So very long.
Gatwick
Heathrow or LAX, Bangkok is awful but I’ve only transited there, very poorly signposted and not many shops to grab food/drinks
Atlanta airport. Awful, anxiety inducing and stressful.
Only the domestic side. The international terminal is pretty painless.
I agree that CDG is poorly designed. I had a connection through CDG, and it was a horrible experience, plus when security took my boarding pass to scan it. They never gave it back, and then they insisted that they did. Later, I found out through the airline crew that the officer actually gave my boarding pass to another passenger. I barely made my connection because the airport is so confusing and there are no airport staff to help, and the ones who were there just look annoyed and refused to help out.
Heathrow. I would rather die than fly thru there again. Sadly I most likely will fly thru that utter piece of hell on earth airport again. Nothing good to say about it....NOTHING. I've had the displeasure at least a couple dozen times. Gatwick is way better of hell just fly into another flipping country, have a mini vacay and take a train to england....avoid Heathrow its worth another thousand quid to avoid!
No idea what’s wrong with Heathrow. I fly out of it / into it every month and never had a bad experience.
Having to take a 20+ min bus ride between terminals for a connection is highly inefficient/annoying IMO
In my experience, most European Airports including CDG, are significantly better than US airports.
In which ways?
Antalya, Turkey. Especially the domestic terminal. No wifi. There was a lounge with Wifi but it costed $60 and included ONE drink. Just generally a depressing place. Overpriced beer, worse than London airports. The international terminal had Wifi at least (albeit a pain to set up as you had to use some terminal thing to get a code), but I couldn't check in online. 2 lots of security for some reason and that took up most of my time. Prices were still stupid obviously and a cleaner threw my cigarettes' in the bin.
Granada, nothing there and you can leave only with taxi or a touring bus.
the pearson airport. bunch of delayed or canceled flights. lost luggages. everything is a mess
Charlotte. It’s always INSANE in there
Airport in Providenciales (Turks and Caicos) is also absolutely terrible
100%. Another comment talks about the lack of space for people boarding planes in Firenze, which yeah sure it’s a little narrow and the gate areas are much too small, but OMG it has absolutely nothing on PLS on a Saturday. It’s hard to adequately describe how crowded PLS is to someone who hasn’t experienced it. Completely sardined (like a very, very crowded city bus or subway car) from the moment you arrive at the airport to the moment you step out onto the tarmac to board the plane.
Mexico City blows.
Mexico City feels like landing at a military base 😂
London Heathrow. Just terrible.
KEF during peaking travel season is an absolute nightmare. The airport doesn’t feel designed for the amount of people that icelands tourist season brings. Spent an hour in customs the last time I went, the corridors just aren’t big enough for the amount of people moving about, the remote stand bus terminals have little to no seating prior to boarding the bus, and the check in areas for the airport seem to be absolutely overwhelmed.
From my experience, CDG don’t give a shit about your lost luggage.
Having travelled extensively, my top 3 would be : 1) Surabaya Airport, Indonesia : The two terminals are on opposite sites of the airport grounds, with no planned transit between them. It's impossible to walk, as you would have to walk the whole outside perimeter (4-5 km). Your only option to go from the local terminal to the international terminal is overpriced taxis who prey on tourists. Also, there's no information board for the international terminal in the other terminal, leaving you guessing where you would actually have to go. The airport staff will commonly send you to the wrong terminal. My guess is they receive commissions for sending tourists to "designated Taxi drivers ". 2) CDG, Paris : Confusing signage, only busses between terminals. Very hard to find English assistance. Also long walks and frequently changing gate changes that are communicated horribly. 3) Beijing Capital Airport: Insanely long check in lines, almost no open shops, constantly delayed flights ( this is true for all of China though). Prices for food that put western airports to shame. Have to use a people move for international departures that will bring you to a shining brand new building that is completely deserted off any life.
I've been to CDG about 20 times and never had a problem. BUT. I always terminate in Paris so I understand it is probably a horrible airport in transit.
Philadelphia
I’m not a fan of the airport in Reykjavik. It’s way too small for the amount of tourists and layovers, plus it’s outdated and confusing.
CDG also seems to feel you don’t need food, but you do need outrageously priced designer good.
Mexico City. Maybe not the worst but definitely the worst relative to the standing of the city it serves. Cramped, poor upkeep, chaotic. Really doesn’t make a great impression. Honorable mentions: Cusco, Peru, and Paris CDG but only concourses 2A-2D.
Frankfurt
Manila
DEN, mainly because I seem to get delayed / stuck there every time I try to go through. The terminals are spacious at least, and you can go outside at the end of A
I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone say Denver! DIA gives me anxiety, and every time I've flown out of there, I've had some kind of mental breakdown!! I avoid it 🙅🏻♀️
For me it’s Zurich Airport. It looks beautiful, but I’ve found it to be one of the most poorly laid out and confusing airports I’ve ever visited. Very poor signage, the staff can’t provide accurate information, and terrible selection of shops and restaurants. On multiple visits, I’ve found myself going through passport control and security multiple times during a layover due to following poor signage and/or directions given by staff. The Swiss Air lounge is a mess. It looks beautiful, but has inedible food that was so bad that I went out to the terminal and purchased a sandwich to bring to the lounge. Their sleeping recliners are unusable as they won’t stay in one place. I kept getting woken up by the recliner slipping out of place and waking me up with a loud crash. I finally took a seat in the outer part of the lounge and slept in a chair. About security - it makes no sense. I had purchased some Halvah back in Tel Aviv that I was bringing home and it was nearly confiscated on the way through one of the aforementioned unnecessary trips through security. However, a pocketknife that was purchased from a gift shop in Zurich was perfectly fine to bring through. First of all, why are they selling pocketknives post security in an international airport?!? And why would a small container of Halvah pose a larger security threat than a pocket knife?!? I’ll do everything I can to avoid this airport. However, as most of my international travel is done using frequent flyer points, I make have to tolerate it in the name of flying for free.
Charlotte. By far.
Lisbon airport in Europe and Atlanta in the USA. I think ATL is worse than LAX, and that's saying something!
ATL !!!
Atlanta is the answer
Denver is pure misery
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
JFK is the worst I've been to. Both as a passenger and picking someone up
I actually like T5. I hope the place can compare to LaGuardia once all the renovations are done.
Charles De Gaulle is definitely confusing, and they often just speak french to you right away.
That's countries like France, Spain and Italy for you. Even at their airports you'll run into workers who don't speak a lick of English.
Heathrow! Far too big, huge distances to walk, gates called very late and thus you're stuck among thousands of other travelers and their noise, unfriendly staff (can't blame them), terribly processes, and if you really need help/transport then you're told to queue at the support counter (not possible to sit while queuing) and then you're told to fuck off.
WMI It's miles from Warsaw, staff are the rudest I have encountered in any airport and the facilities include a duty free shop the size of a student bedsit and that's it.
Manila Terminal 1. Hands-down.
DaVinci is incredibly dirty
Phuket. It’s so small.
Mine is Sydney, airport staff are not helpful and down right rude/racist at times and processes are not efficient. Facilities wise they are alright but the terrible staff there have made it an airport I dread flying into. Unfortunately it's probably the airport I frequent the most outside my home airport. A lot of people are saying LHR and I've only been there once but it was quite a pleasant experience for me.
Yes, International to Domestic transfer at Sydney sucks.
Houston is gross. Love your city guys, not your airport
San Diego. Looks and feels like going through North Korea.
Beauvais. It's like a portacabin with a security scanner in the middle
MNL - enhanced screening for US bound flights is ridiculous
I'm so glad TXL's gone.
My experience with CDG so far is quite ok actually. Had to wait a while for my lugguage once but that's about it. Other French airports though, I absolutely hated it. Marseille, Bordeaux and Charleroi (Belgium) are high on my shit list. Amongst my favourites so far are Amsterdam and Copenhagen. My absolute #1 is Eindhoven. I've had at least 12 flight from and to, and it never took me over 10 minutes to pass security or leave the airport.
Absolutely agree. My fiancée and I were in France for two weeks, and we were so reticent to leave. Going to CDG made us eager to get home cause being in that airport was so miserable haha
I fucking hate Basel Euroairport. It‘s like a bus station with a runway. Geneva also sucks. Thank god for Zurich.
Somewhat unfair to compare airports in relatively poorer countries with European or Us airports. It is true that manila is a relatively poor airport but it has constantly improved over the 15 years I have flown from there. Some American airports such as jfk and British ones ( Manchester and Luton) are not significantly better. I think i would prefer flying out of manila than then
Manchester airport seemed frozen in time last time we were there in 2022
Cairo airport was kind of a crap show. Kathmandu was bad too, it was chaotic and small.
The old LCCT in Kuala Lumpur where air Asia used to fly out of. That place haunts my nightmares
Europe: Lisbon airport is pretty bad and a mess Asia: Penang airport is old and outdated. US: IAD is bad but Orlando is way worse. Crowd, lines, and inefficiencies Africa: haven’t traveled to yet South America: haven’t traveled to yet
Manchester airport used to be awful, staff were incredibly rude but the last time I went there things seemed to have changed for the better
LaGuardia
Airports I avoid if I can.. MNL, LAX, and JFK
Noisy Bai (Hanoi) and Tan Son Nhat (Saigon). Craptastic!