Lanzarote airport actual chaos or exaggerated drama

[Halfblindbunny]

So I have booked for us to go to Lanzarote first week of summer holidays. Massive treat for us all and post DS2s GCSEs. We rarely go abroad and haven't even been anywhere in the summer holidays or as far a field as Lanzarote.

But all I've heard since is how horrific the airport is. Ryanair leaving passengers behind because they can't get checked in, through security and through the EES system in the 2 hrs and can't start the process earlier than 2 hrs as bag drop doesn't open until then.

It's really causing me anxiety but I don't know if it's really horrific or not. People are blaming EES but a lot of the queues are before bag drop so nothing to do with EES.

Anyone been recently or knows more about it than me. Do I need to be trying to cram everyone's stuff into hand luggage only so we don't have to do the bag drop part?

Thank you everyone for your comments. I think due to my anxiety (which I appreciate is my problem) and the fact we have 30kg hand luggage allowance between the three of us and we have a villa with a washing machine, and we are light packers anyway I am going to go hand luggage only just as I know this will eliminate a lot of stress for me.

It seems hit or miss. We went on a Thursday last month. We swanned in and out on arrival in minutes, but coming back we had to queue for the plane for a while. Families were boarded first, but only if your child was 12 or under
it took 1.5hrs for them to board my parents few weeks later.

on the way back, go to gate 6 after security to do the scan thing. Don’t confuse the gate 6 flight queue for this. That seemed common.
when your gate is called, don’t mess about , go immediately.

the Lanzarote Facebook groups are helpful and the locals break everything down so you know what to expect

One thing that helps enormously with Ryanair is to use their app and self service scales.

I once arrived to huge queues at the serviced drop offs.

Now I avoid apps where possible and will stick with paper boarding passes unless forced not to, so the first time I wasn't prepared but after standing in the queue for a few minutes, I downloaded the app, signed in, found my booking and moved to the self service tills, which I now always use, all while the serviced queue had barely moved.

Then all you have to do is wait for all the people who make a quick and simple process take about 5 minutes so you can take your turn and drop your bags off in about 30 seconds.

Landed last night and got through in an hour with luggage. Had braced for 3 hours so didn’t seem too bad!

Do they have self service at Areceife? I had been told it was manned bag drop only.

So I think there are times when it’s very busy, same as it is flying back to the UK at peak times.

I went a few weeks ago though (during term time) and it was easy peasy. We went from the plane to the taxi in less than 15 minutes. No queue at all at passport scanners. Flying out, you scan your passport again (no queue and there were literally like 20 empty machines). This is in departures in front of the shops not at the gate. Then the whole plane was processed through and boarded directly in 15 minutes. It was the fastest ever boarding I’ve had coming back from the EU! Normally, you have to queue for 30 minutes at passport control and then another 20 minutes after to board. This was much easier and faster.

If I’m honest, the only people who struggled were older people who seemed not to want to follow directions and drunk people who were bumbling about as it was. For everyone else, it was very clear. Just don’t spend 2 hours in the bar and then get angry because you haven’t left enough time to scan your passport and make it on the plane.

Tenerife (I know, not Lanzarote but close) was chaos because we left the EU and therefore had to queue for hours to get passports checked by a load of malfunctioning machines.

make sure you allow as long as possible.

We went to Lanzarote at new year and the airport was pretty awful. The immigration machines weren't working on arrival and there were no taxis, which we needed to get to the car hire place (there were no courtesy buses). Then on departure there was no self check-in or bag drop, it all had to be done by agents, so the queues were really long and they were pulling people out who were about to miss their flights. AFAIK though there has only been one case where a plane left without half its passengers - but I'm amazed it isn't more!

We have just come back, it was fine it is busy but you just have to wait your turn i think we were through in 30-45 minutes, coming back there is the self scan once you are through there is signs telling you where to go, do that as soon as you are in departures is my advice, there was a lot of mutters in queues about brexit,but it is what it is, just be patient.

It is manned yes.

We went at the end of January and our flight arrived at the same time as another flight from the UK. Everyone had to queue and it took over two hours to get to passport control. Suitcases had all been removed from the conveyor belt to make way for more flight arrivals. Spent half an hour locating our cases which were randomly dumped in various places from both flights in the baggage reclaim hall.
Absolute mayhem; children crying, one elderly man fainted, couples bickering.
However talking to people who arrived the following day the queue was only half an hour long. It seems to vary day to day.

We go to Lanzarote every January but will probably consider going somewhere else if they haven’t sorted things out with regards to moving people through the airport system more efficiently.

We went in November there was a mad queue at the check in next to us. Think it was easy jet. Not sure though. The TUI line was fine and we got through with no issues. The departure lounge isn’t bad at all

My daughter, son in law and their two children all missed their flights because they spent 2.5 hours in the line for passport control

10 other people missed that flight too for the same reason

We’ve been to Lanzarote 6 times over the last 3 years.

sunday and Thursday are the busy airport days.

the problem isn’t the new system , it’s more that the airport can’t deal with the amount of flights that land within a short period of time. In November we got through with the machines within 30 minutes however the summer before was chaos with long queues , staff not really communicating well and the arrivals is so warm with 5 flights all arriving within a short period of time.

id say we have queued for longer at their check in desks on the way home than we have any of the 6 Times we have been,

however I have heard that most of these small island airports are the same due to the amount of flights landing .

Came back from Canaries on Sunday and it was same with the immigration gate being in a different place and the queues were there. So get there just before bag check opens and then don’t faff in duty free or the shops, go straight to your gate area and the queue there. Then you can sit close to your gate and not be in a flap

I flew back from Lanzarote last July. It was obviously before the new system.

Thurs and Sun are the busiest days.

We waited an hour at the check in desk. Massive queues. But not horrendous. We were there long before they opened the desk, but according to our easyJet information we were on time at the desk.

For the latest information I follow Mr TravelON on Facebook. He gives the weather daily and shows you around the area. Talks about the airport queues. He’s very knowledgeable. Used to be a travel rep, and lives there permanently with his family.

I agree with @2chocolateoranges flights coming/going at the same time is obviously going to cause disruption to a small airport,

We had a nightmare after landing at Prague airport recently because of the new system. It took us 2.5 hours from landing to get out of the airport. It was very unclear what to do. They have machines where you do fingerprint/ photos etc but then still have to join a huge slow moving queue for checks/getting passport stamped. We had a pre booked transfer and the poor guy kept calling me asking how long I'd be although he was aware of the chaos. He did wait for us though thankfully and got a hefty tip!

That's not a Lanzarote thing - that's a Brexit thing.

We’ve travelled to Europe (France, Austria and Switzerland) three times since November and we’ve had no problems at all. This definitely sounds like a lanzarote thing…. (Not a Brexit voter)

@garlictwist i appreciate it is caused by Brexit, but the process at Lanzarote seemed to be a bit more disjointed than at other destinations I’ve been through since Brexit. It may just be that I haven’t travelled since there’s been a change in process. I’d consider myself an experienced traveler who’s usually on the ball and one thing that was definitely missing, was a clear directive on where to go post security, and before boarding at the gate. Telling people this clearly at check in, and at security, would have made a huge difference.

@PatChaunceysFruitCake this is always the case - I agree. Coming early doesn’t help as all you do is join a queue that doesn’t move. Would save you max 20 mins.

I've just got back from Lanzarote yesterday, arrivals were fine straight through security but we did have a child so got escorted to the family passport control but our return experience was very different. Due to fly at 12:05 with easyJet, bus picked us up at 8:45, at the airport at 9:30 to the chaos as EasyJet had yet to open the check-in desk you can check-in 2 hours prior to your flight but they use the same 6 desk for all their flights so everyone was is the one long que that went all the way to the entrance blocking people from entering and then looped back around on itself. When they finally opened the desk a worker was calling for all Liverpool passengers (our flight) to come forward as the qué was so long we only had 50 minutes until our flight left, security was slow we literally just got through and straight onto the plane. I know some other post comment to arrive early but we used the booked referral bus so not much more we could do. I've flown from Lanzarote a lot over the years and never experienced this but on the plus side Jet2 and Ryanair had no ques it was only easyJet passengers in utter chaos.

Went last May. It’s a bit dull but it was fine (the airport I mean)

We’re going in May half term but landing on a Friday so hoping it won’t be too chaotic!

The outside terrace is nice if you can find a seat away from smokers. I had a last beer and tapa in the sun while waiting for my flight home last year.

Lanzarote airport is also the only place where we've ever had the shame of the 'last call for passengers Mr and Mrs Bjorkdidit please go to gate X' announcement.

In our defence it was something ridiculous like an hour before take off but it was the last flight before the afternoon siesta and for some reason the flight was half empty so I think the airport workers were seeing if they could get everyone through the gate so they could finish early for the afternoon.

So we were having lunch and had to rush onto the plane to find everyone else waiting for us. Normally getting to the gate an hour before take off means you're sitting around for about 50 minutes and the incoming flight hasn't even arrived (usually use Ryanair or Jet2, which I don't think this flight was, where the plane travels from the UK to Europe and back for the day).