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?

Naples

I third Dublin. It smells. We were decanted at a gate at 4 in the morning and it was deeply unpleasent.

Singapore. Everyone loves it but their new system for the passport is CRAP. Took them 5 attempts to realise the system wasn’t working for my 6yo son until they sent us to an official. Made us lose nearly 1h with this. They also failed to verify me as my pic is from 10 years ago. I’ve changed but not as much. It was really stressful experience

@orangecreamdream I have never met anyone else who has been to Taba airport, but it was definitely our worst experience!! Guns pointed at us by security frequently, being barked at to sit down, stand up etc. and then the ‘terminal’ (if you can call it that) with its tobacco shop, and not much else. No information displays whatsoever, and a man walking through the hall shouting (very unclearly) the destination of each flight boarding. I have never been so relieved to get on a plane and know we were getting out of there!!

Dublin is busy and parking bad but staff are very helpful and food options and Duty Free are fab.. I generally fly from Shannon and I love it!
Have had awful experiences in Stanstead where every second bag is pulled for securityand it takes AGES for them to be looked at.. People getting very stressed and staff SO unhelpful and aggressive. I would never use this Airport except it is the most convenient for my daughter to fly into Shannon, 20 mins from home.

Yes, apart from US airports, CDG is the pits for a main hub in a developed country.

Marrakech - had a form we needed to fill in before boarding. No pens to be found and no one particularly cared. Had to go around canvassing for a pen because we were going to miss our flight due to not being able to fill in the form!

Came here to say I've been 'in' a few airports that are nothing but a shed and a runway, no facilities at all except maybe a bench. Distinctly uncomfortable and also quite charming!

The one I hated most was Houston. Massive, regimented, unfriendly, with loudspeakers issuing orders and warnings every few minutes. Felt like a product being processed in a factory with angry employees.

On the other hand, I loved Doncaster airport when it was open. The staff were all lovely and when adult child went on to do the redundancy interviews, Adult child said they'd never had so many people cry at the thought of leaving their jobs. This feeling really showed in their service.

I'm so happy that Doncaster mayor and SY mayor are doing their up most to get it reopened.

My favourite is Copenhagen!

This summer it was a nightmare queues through security where hours long in the morning. Seems to be better for the evening flights. You’re right looks like a building site should have just left it as it was.

Chamberly. Put us off French ski holidays completely.

Innsbruck at least is warm.

The worst I've been in recently was Kathmandu. Arriving was bad-ish, departing was worse and on the way back through Kathmandu (from Bhutan) we only needed to change planes but we couldn't just transfer we had to go all the way through arrivals and baggage claim and back through departures again. It was a bureaucratic nightmare. The airport in Bhutan was a gorgeous, quiet, little gem which only made Kathmandu even worse by contrast.

Balfast - we flew through there in April and it was fine, very friendly staff, the bags were offloaded quickly, there was a nice lounge to wait in, bus transfer efficient into town, loads of parking. Dublin - again we transferred there, flew Scotland to Dublin to New York, thought it was fine and being able to pre-clear immigration is such a bonus.

Heraklion - agree with others, we had a midnight flight hone which was delayed by 90 minutes, everything closed by 10pm, the place was manky, staff totally absent, just awful place.

East Midlands!!!! Eveyone was drunk and vomiting

Definitely will avoid Luton,once was enough.

Why?

My stopover was fine. They did a transit in less than 1 hour.

And JFK is shit

When we landed at Carcassonne there was a bloke chasing chickens away from the runway. It didn’t give a very professional image

Heraklion - absolutely awful. Hardly anywhere to sit since, thanks to brexit, uk flight passengers have to be in a non Schengen area which is tiny. The toilets are gross and the shops (all of like 2 of them) shut promptly at like 10pm. So if your flight is delayed there is jack shit to do/eat/drink

Another one for Luton. I have so many stories about being there. Horrible Airport.

Frankfurt
Cairo International
Kiev Borispol
Beijing Capital
Male

I’m someone who’s pretty relaxed about airports, I don’t typically find them too stressful, but just thinking about LAX stresses me out. It’s just physically too small for the sheer number of people who pass through it.

Oooh I loved Doncaster too. I’m desperate for it to reopen. There’s nothing better than I being back through the front door 20mins after the plane touches down.

Gatwick really confused me as I'd never been before and massively underestimated it's size. Nearly missed my flight by seconds.
I do that a lot though sadly. I always get pulled by customs as I look do nervous! 🤣