What's the worst airport you've ever been to?

[foreverbasil]

Inspired by the dismal destination thread...where is the worst airport?
I think Lisbon is a shocker for such a major city. A warehouse with insufficient seating and barely any cafes.
Also had a horrible experience at Heraklion where it was so badly organised people were crying, fighting and missing flights!

Manchester terminals 1 and 3 - a miserable experience and if the buildings/corridors labyrynth wasn't bad enough, the staff at security and passport control are about the most miserable jobsworths you've ever find.

We've flown twice a year for 35 years to airports all over the World, but none are as miserable as Manchester 1 & 3.

Funnily enough Manchester 2 is fine.

Heraklion, complete chaos. Chances of ending up in the wrong queue for your flight extremely high. Need another holiday to get over the experience.
Naples, partly due to the way Tui deal with their homeward bound flights.
Mahon. Arrived there for one holiday, took longer for the baggage to arrive in reclaim than the flight took to get there. And either the air conditioning wasn't working or they just did want to turn it on! (Also fairly memorable for the departure announcement that the Gateway to England was Gate No 9).

Istanbul. Sheer chaos, huge and so crowded.
Dushanbe (Tajikistan). People having microwaves and fridges wrapped in plastic to travel God knows where.

As a child when we would fly from UK to SA we had to stop and refuel at Nairobi airport. So everyone had to get off the plane for the task. It was the pokiest little airport ever, but the toilets are what I remember the most. They were like a wooden barn door that only covered the area of the actual toilet. . So your legs and head were visible to others while doing your business.

😂

Manchester. For some reason every single staff member I ever encounter there is horrible. We often pay more to leave from Liverpool instead.

Chippy, sullen rude gobshites.

I assume it must be a particularly horrible place to work for and that management are horrible to the staff.

I've just checked and the last time was 8 years ago! It was the most chaotic airport I've ever seen and wasn't even school holidays. I'm not a huge fan of Kos anyway so haven't been since (but it's a good launching point for other islands).

Good to hear it might have improved.

Manchester airport is THE WORST and I have been several places where the airport isn’t exactly super modern/clean/organised (Cuba, Cambodia, Sicily)

Been to quite a few mentioned on here, but for me it would have to be Catania airport in Sicily. Dreadful, miserable and no facilities., eugh.

I wouldn't be put off Orlando if it suits your plans. Depending on the arrival time of your plane you could be lucky and get there before other atlantic inbound flights...or not. It gets busy in immigration if 3 flights arrive at once but that can happen anywhere

You don't have to put your luggage on another belt, in fact after 14 trips we've not done this once. Collect your luggage from the first set of belts as you normally would at any airport and take them on the monorail with you. Far quicker and easier.

The only thing I really dislike about the airport is that it feels like there is no air con, which is weird because the heat when you walk through the exit doors is like walking head first into a giant oven...you'd think an air con system would be the first thing they built!

Heraklion - dangerously overcrowded, filthy dirty, unbearably hot and disorganised too. A disgrace to Greece and the island of Crete.

Gatwick also up there, especially the North Terminal and sky bridge. Some gates are miles away and involve endless stairs. Not good before or after a red eye flight.

Reus was a bit concerning when they had staff standing letting groups of ten at a time go up the escalators or lift then waiting for them to move along before letting more up. Comments to the effect of it being to prevent the upstairs from being overloaded and possibly collapse were heard from supervisors talking to staff.

I've been in dirtier and more disorganised, but Gatwick makes you trudge for miles to get on an actual plan. I hate it.

Manchester. It's a joke and it costs a fortune to pick up or drop off.

Heraklion is terrible. It’s been swamped by the numbers now using it so there is a woeful lack of seating, and lifts and escalators routinely don’t work, so beware if you have mobility issues. It gets massively over-crowded, hot and the facilities are just terrible.

The landing, and the airport, at Lilongwe, Malawi, stays in my memory as being a bit challenging.

Mumbai

The toilets were unspeakable.

I don’t like Manchester airport because it’s so sprawling and takes ages to walk anywhere.
However the staff have always been really kind and friendly everytime I’ve been there.
Corfu last year we’re doing a refurb, it was chaotic.
I flew from LBA 3 years ago and not one person checked my passport until I got to Limoges.

Like Coventry when TUI were using it then? Little shed with garden furniture outside. But it was fab for nipping to Amsterdam.

Kuwait there were cockroaches everywhere.

La Rochelle used to be charmingly bad, it was just a shed before they redid it but it had a great restaurant.

Best by far was rekyavik but seriously £££££££

Yep! Came here to say this.

Worst by a distance impossible to calculate is JFK. Stucco everywhere, hot, low ceilings, ridiculous queues and the singularly most obnoxious security staff on earth.
It has to be in the job description "Are you a xenophobic, misogynist, people hating prick that can work at a pace approximating a glacier forming? We want you!"

Mykonos. There's luaus queues and flights always delayed. Nothing to do air-side.

Nice. Given it's location and status, the airport was awful.

I've been to DIA a lot. It is very odd. From the horse outside to the weird artwork and then start looking at the conspiracy theories...

Recently Bristol only had 3 working toilets for women, wasn't packed exactly but I queued 15 minutes!

Never had any problems with the Ryanair queue!

Berlin Tegel. Closed a few years back, but it was like walking into 1982 but with 2010s pricing.