Worst airport you have been in

[disappointed101]

Travelling through BHX this evening. Looks like a building site, no staff to be seen at check in, then a poor guy turns up apologising for lack of staff. Security an absolute mess, lots of staff having a lovely chat whilst the queue moves at a snails pace, nobody taking control. Awful. It’s got to be up with the worst experience I’ve had. Luckily our flight is delayed due to fog, else we wouldn’t have made it. What’s your worst experience in an airport?

Came on here to say exactly the same but you beat me to it xx

@Lollygaggle I think you win. Karachi airport sounds dystopian. Will be sure to avoid it like the plague.

Sixteen years ago we were due to fly home from Bangkok when a few hundred political protesters staged a sit in at the airport.
Spent the next few days wondering how and when we'd get out of the country.

With not much notice at all we were told to get our luggage, leaving now, with a police escort taking us to a military airport. It was just absolute chaos. I haven't flown since.

Schiphol used to have an arm of the Rijksmuseum in the terminal we use, we really miss it.

Addis Ababa. That six hours was the longest of my life.

...and try explaining what diving regulators are to a non-english speaking security guard in a landlocked fucking desert 🤣

Miami Airport, without a doubt!!

Kos - I can see other people have mentioned this. A few years ago, arrived at the airport in our TUI transfer coach to be told our flight was delayed several hours. One massive queue to get in the airport, another to check in, and another to check in luggage. And then security. Then hours sat on the floor with water dripping on our heads

I remember flying to (and from) Koh Samui the year the airport opened (99?). IIRC it had no walls, was a roofed building with no security, one check in desk/bag drop off area. You then waited at the side of the runway for the plane. Loved it. No queues, no bag X-ray, no baggage belts.

I had to demonstrate what a tampon was to a security guard in Sri Lanka before.
Im sure they knew and were just having a laugh at the tourist

Hasn’t changed much when I visited in 2016

Kefalonia, circa 1988, it was just a shed, they threw the bags out on the tarmac and some random bloke drove up and put them on trailer to the ' arrivals ' 😂

Manila domestic terminal. It’s a wonder we didn’t catch a disease from the bathrooms, and the terminal had run out of drinking water…not even sure how/if that’s legal.

1. Luton
2. Mumbai
3. Addis Ababa

Yep I agree, and I generally think what Irish airports have above many others is that the security/border control staff don’t treat you like you’re a terrorism suspect for going on holiday.

Came here to say that. Absolute unmitigated chaos, broken kit, incredibly rude staff, queues such as I had never seen before.

Never, ever again.

I didn't like Athens much, either, but that was a very long time ago.

Absolutely! Definitely the best airport I have ever used by a million miles 😊

Yes!!! I came on to say this. There was an actual shit on the floor of the women’s loos.

Unfortunately many airports are not large enough to accommodate mass tourism / business activities. Even at Sydney Airport, a fairly modern airport, an early morning flight it took me over an hour to get through baggage drop, security and passport control. Then you still had to walk to the gate, and there was no clear directions.

Brussels Airport, not enough seating at the gates and massive queues for the toilets. Maybe it was an unusually busy day.

As someone who has traveled to Kos regularly for the past thirty odd years and is very well acquainted with the old porta cabin of doom, I feel the need to announce that it has finally been updated and is actually quite lovely these days 😘

(gawd it used to be dreadful though!)

Manchester terminal 3. It’s a charmless mix of crap bus station and shit depressing shopping mall. Last time I was there most people seemed to be on pints at 9.30 in the morning and I can see why.

best was mpumulanaga in South Africa but this is purely because they had bats roosting in the terminal ceiling.

Kathmandu

Frankfurt Hahn on account of it a) being the size of a shoebox and b) being nowhere near Frankfurt.

Luckily I'd wiki'd Frankfurt on the day before the work trip in question but was shocked at the distance. Luckily there's a cheap shuttle bus but still stressful to find as very little English signage which is fair enough of course.

That’s what Guernsey is still like.
Sometimes you take your own luggage off the tarmac and carry it through as well, not sure why only sometimes…maybe it’s the drivers day off.
If you’re island hopping you put your own luggage in the hold of the tiny planes aswell.

Athens. Was a fair while ago and it was just crap, totally disorganised, rude, unhelpful staff and dirty.

Scrum at the luggage carousel because there were no clues as to which luggage from which flight was on which carousel, in fact they just mixed all the luggage up from various flights and randomly slung it on whichever carousel they fancied. It was clearly some kind of game they had invented for their own amusement.

Same, wasn't quite as cheap as EMI but easily one of the most efficient airports.