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?

Another vote for Miami and its endless lines.

Gets worse every time in a variety of ways.

Last time I was there I had to walk miles to reach a connecting flight because I couldn't find the way to the skytrain as there were no signs.

When I got to the right terminal discovered the lift and the escalator weren't working.

Dragged heavy suitcase down a flight of stairs only to find there were no signs to the airline check-in I needed, so there was yet another round of suitcase-dragging while I searched for it.

Catania, absolutely grotty,no facilities, eugh!

Paris CDG by a country mile!

The budget airline terminal at Marseille was AWFUL. I would rather walk if I went again 😂

Anywhere in the USA.

Santorini

Bali internal departures. Cockroaches everywhere.

Johannesburg for sure! Lifts don’t work!

Chambery with it’s single baggage belt and endless delays. Last time I was there with (French) DH he got talking to some airport staff member who then said we could wait in the helicopter area to ‘get away from the all the English’. I was pretty insulted but the thought of a place to seat and a toilet queue that wasn’t 100 ladies long incentivised me to keep my mouth shut.

Burgas in Bulgaria. Hideous ... overly officious and rude security, far too small for the amount of people passing through so only enough seating for a quarter of people there. We went up to the rooftop terrace (literally the flat roof) which was the smoking area and sat on the concrete. We dont smoke and had a small child but that is how squeezed the indoor space was!

Also not a fan of Luton (mayhem) or Corfu (also totally undersized). Never flown from Birmingham but my son lives there and the queues are legendary.

Favourites: Dubai, JFK.

US airports are stressful if you are only using them for transit because of having to collect your luggage, go through security, get rid of your luggage and panic about missing the second flight.
But I've found the actual airports themselves ok.

Worst was Tashkent - gross toilets and too many smokers.

Oh god flashback there

Heraklion, just AWFUL. Cancun departures was OK, arrivals was just a total mess and chaotic. Schiphol is far too big and I swear we walked a mile to the gate.

Best airports - Belfast International, Menorca.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius. They dumped us on the tarmac in horrendous heat and humidity and made us walk to the terminal like sweaty refugees after spraying us with insect repellant.
There was next to nothing there snd we waited 5 hours in the blistering heat for our baggage.
Mind you I was 9 at the time and it was 1972.
I hear it is much improved now.

Late night flight delayed. Dirty toilets, people sleeping everywhere , no where to get food or drinks as they were all closed . No staff and no information . Nightmare end to a holiday.

Charles de Gaulle. No question

JFK, the staff were disorganised and rude. With a giant queue of non-US travellers, and staff sat doing nothing at the US specific desk. I asked if we could go to three empty desks and was told it ‘wasn’t for foreigners’.

Didn’t believe my son was the same baby in his passport photo so held him and my husband for an hour in an immigration office.

Made my elder son cry they were so rude! Just awful. The air traffic control is really poorly done compared to Heathrow as well, so it’s prone to delays.

Someone said Dublin? I've flown in and out many times and the only problem is delayed flights. At least there are toilets, shops and other facilities near the gates.

Naples, it was such a stressful experience and we nearly missed the flight because it was absolute chaos. It was also dirty. After this , Zante which was a tiny building and we had to stand outside in the baking sun waiting to check-in.

Ah no I have spent many happy hours in Dublin. If you walk to the International terminal its lovely and you can even sneak a sleep in the childrens play area.

Poppendetta, PNG.

Basically just a one room shack on the side of the runway.
No power.
I don't remember any toilets.
You were weighed with your luggage.
And most of the time the Dash-8 was cancelled, usually 2 Twin Otters came instead but on one memorable occasion the contact I was staying with cadged me the jump seat next to some crates of chickens so I could fly out.

The toilet queues at Chambery are awful. I went to the mens last time I was there! It was that or piss myself.

i also gate crashed the mark warner lounge back in the day even though we hadn’t skiied with mark warner. Was busy but slightly better and toys for the kids. Some rep was very suspicious we hadn’t been with MW and was sweetly asking me which chalet we’d been in. Luckily I knew the name of their chalet In Courchevel 👍

Beijing 1990.

Yep.

Antalya - utter chaos and ridiculously overpriced food & drink