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!

Luton by far is the worst UK airport, dirty, old, shambles of what seems to be lots of rooms with no passenger flow at all, charge for "priority" security queue in that horrible room

Awful.

CDG for their absolutely hideous passport security. One window open and 10000 people waiting usually.

CDG customer service is non-existent.

Daleman was pretty bad. A 51/2 hour delay didn’t help. Also Honolulu wasn’t great.

Luton. Massive shit hole

True, but now extremely pleasant and efficient with nice shops and cafes - and if you're flying up from Luton, it's most certainly a happier landing!

Geneva yes, you need a 2chf coin for a trolley, who is going to have a 2 franc coin when they arrive ?. It pisses me off no end and I always forget to have one on me. Ski season is a disaster there, even with the new expansion they still can't support the number of passengers coming through. The only upside is they are now trialling limited security where you don't have to remove any electronics from your hand luggage.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea

One of the rare cases where having money doesn't work for you, 😂although in all fairness the luggage allowance and the lounge and straightforward and seamless transfers with lovely drivers more than make up for it.

Cannot believe no-one has said Toronto. It’s a terrible airport.

1990 - arrived, no bags for 2 hours, surly staff. On the way home the check in staff insisted we were going to Leeds-Birmingham airport, not LBA, which was interesting, and then we were held in a holding pen for 3 hours after the gate was called.

2022 - arrived and held on plane for almost an hour before allowed to disembark, then funnelled through a ludicrously packed room while they hoiked people out for random Covid testing.

A week later departing for Calgary (which is an absolute delight) the security queue was disorganised and 2 hours long.

And transiting on the way home was unreal. Many, many, gate changes and delays for all Air Canada departures, insane queuing areas at the gates where passengers for one gate crossed with those for another, no information from staff. And the worst and most expensive bar food and bar service I have ever encountered anywhere ever.

Never again. I understand locals use Buffalo and cross the border at Niagara if they possibly can.

On the other hand, I have no complaints about Orlando International (T3 is great). Manchester has also been surprisingly pleasant (T2). Even last year during the worst of the delays the queuing seemed calm and the staff friendly. I guess my expectations may be low…

Gosh yes I remember the landing at Kai tak , terrifying

When my aunt and uncle emigrated to Oz in the 60s, they flew Qantas with a stopover at HK. Landing was late at night and my aunt wrote and described how lovely all the lights looked either side of the runway as they touched down. DM (who was in HK in the 50s) laughed and said she'd bet aunt didn't know the runway went out into the bay.

@marcopront 15 years. My luck they build new after I've traveled. I am firmly convinced the toilets had never been cleaned since they were installed.

I've always hated Geneva. Really grubby café areas in airside departures. And no practical solution for handling oversized luggage despite the significant proportion of skiers / snowboarders passing through.

Cannot believe no-one has said Toronto. It’s a terrible airport.

I've never been but everyone I've ever heard speaking about a trip here, it's always to complain about delays in Toronto.

LAX... a dirty shithole of an airport with rude staff, and poor facilities.

And San francisco for being a disorganised shambles! The whole plane waited an hour and a half for baggage... nothing. Eventually found someone to ask... and then the guy announced ' sorry about the wait... the baggage handlers forgot to take it off the plane' !!!!!

As it was 1am by now none of us were impressed....

Sharm and Hurgada are both totally disorganised and utterly grim, especially in terms of the numerous security checks and queues.

Cannot believe no-one has said Toronto. It’s a terrible airport
Came here to say Toronto! A masterclass in how not to run an airport. JFK is pretty underwhelming too.

Schipol is dire.

@Maraudingmarauders totally forgot about Montpellier and totally agree! DD has a cochlear implant, so can't go through the scanner. They were trying to argue that because she didn't have a medical letter, we were wrong. Took forever to argue our case in my shit French. I feared we'd have to fly from a different airport as DD CANNOT go through. Finally, got through, but a very very stressful hour.

Mykonos in the early eighties. We left the UK in autumnal temperatures and arrived in 30 degree heat. Yanni with the key had gone home for his siesta so they had to send someone on a moped to fetch it while we were in outside melting in our coats. Turned into one of the best holidays I've ever had and the start of a lifelong love affair with Greece and the Greeks.

Chambery, all flights were delayed due to poor weather and forget about finding a seat, there wasn’t even space to walk or sit on the floor. Absolute shambles, no food available to buy. Airline eventually sent some reps to local supermarket to get guests some packaged juice and packet of crisps
Its been nearly 15 years since that experience and I still refuse to book a flight into there for ski holiday

Dalaman - delayed for 8 hours with young children. Nowhere to sit, no air conditioning or fans, filthy toilets, inadequate catering. Blow somewhat softened knowing we would be getting £400+ compensation each for the flight delay so spent part of it on lounge access (which was an extortionate €60pp - happy to spend when flight compensation paying for it but insanely expensive if want to walk up and use it)

Rio de Janeiro. Shit hole.

Schipol Amsterdam is infested with mice. It’s disgusting.

isthismylifenow

I realise at the time your experience must have been grim, but your description is vivid and riveting.
Maybe you should expand it into a longer article and get it published in a travel mag?

Galileo Galilei in Pisa. He must be rolling over in his grave. Denver ducks too

Reus airport 1996 arrived on a flight when a few minutes before they had an airport bombing. It was awful. Runway in boiling heat. Searched and searched again - had guns pointed at us and no one explained anything,people injured - I was terrified. On hearing why it had been like that I understood and could empathise that my small inconvenience was nothing in the grand scheme and I was very lucky but could not and would never go back.

Manchester to Sharm- el- skeikh - tripped over a massive step ankle swelled up - first aider said it was a light sprain - step was in a totally stupid place reported and logged it with the airport - got on the plane and then arrived - airport employees took our luggage and wanted a bribe to get them back I think about £100 each in sterling - our greeter with two heavies went to get them back and when our suitcases came back they had blood on them. We didn’t ask - two young women and at least we got them back.

arrive at sharm to fly back to Manchester waited for hours and then the pilot came down and down us that they were out of flying hours - and the airline knew this before they have left never mind arrived and we were given a choice hand in passport and go to a hotel for the night out of the airport or keep our passport and sleep in the airport. Handed our passports in and someone put them in a sandwich tin - no money it was all worrying - luggage was already checked it. Two days in a hotel - no clean pants etc arrived back at the airport a sandwich box was left on the counter for everyone to find their own passport. There was two pe teachers who stood on the counter, whistled called out name and flung them out like frisbees. I never ever knew how no one stole one. Returned to airport in Manchester went to an and e ankle was fractured in 3 places - no wonder it didn’t feel better! Not a light sprain after all

never been back to Spain, Egypt or Manchester!!

Manchester - hands down the worst

Last summer it was chaos - massive queues to join a queue. Put your own label on …. Load the bags - whilst 3 TUI staff stood around looking at photos on their phone and talked about a colleague
Next massive queue - for security where this was shouted out to the lines of people going up and down the line to go through ‘ don’t be stupid people cape is a fluid, put it in a bag, don’t be stupid’
I couldn’t believe the above but it happened

Have been through here before and the security staff were rude, aggressive and the worst advert for Britain - ( whereas Copenhagen was a dream)

Back to Manchester - rude staff, stained seats ( not fun when your flight is delayed and they want you to have a 12 hour nap)
no information- and I purchase eventually no plane

Avoid Manchester