Best and Worst Airports

[MidnightShambler]

Riga: some charmingly old touches which add to the Baltic experience I suppose.

Vilnius: modern enough inside but not much to look at outside. All aspects of the bus and rail connections are unnecessarily confusing

Did you find Vilnius difficult? I just walked about 300 yards to the train station, went down the steps and got on the next train to the centre. If I'm remembering rightly the train that stops at the airport is only going to the centre so you can't get the wrong one. And you pay on it.
Although obviously that may have not always been the case.

[ToneLa]

Rajiv Gandhi International in Hyderabad was really good, huge, modern, even to a surprising extent. Course, it was mobbed, and I suspect perpetually, so it was difficult finding my way out of the bloody place, but aye, easily better than some British airports. On the way back I got into the executive lounge (was a work trip for a few months) and, yeah, a nice airport, very low hassle by that point, drinking beer by a window watching planes leave in an air conditioned lounge on my bill.

[MidnightShambler]

Rajiv Gandhi International in Hyderabad was really good, huge, modern, even to a surprising extent. Course, it was mobbed, and I suspect perpetually, so it was difficult finding my way out of the bloody place, but aye, easily better than some British airports. On the way back I got into the executive lounge (was a work trip for a few months) and, yeah, a nice airport, very low hassle by that point, drinking beer by a window watching planes leave in an air conditioned lounge on my bill.

Just out of interest, did you fly into Dubai to get a connection to Manchester? And was it 2016? I only ask because my life has been full of strange coincidences lately and it's highly possible that I sat next to you on the Dubai-Manchester leg. The guy I was talking to was from my neck of the woods and had been working in India, which isn't all that common. Or maybe it is!

[ToneLa]

Just out of interest, did you fly into Dubai to get a connection to Manchester? And was it 2016? I only ask because my life has been full of strange coincidences lately and it's highly possible that I sat next to you on the Dubai-Manchester leg. The guy I was talking to was from my neck of the woods and had been working in India, which isn't all that common. Or maybe it is!

Not me sunshine! Unless you owe him fifty quid :)

I went from Heathrow, only a ten hour flight direct. With a crying baby on the way there, magic, magic! Probably is somewhat common, I loved the experience but was out there working for a couple of months, never heard of anyone hitting Hyderabad for tourist fun!

Haven't been to Dubai, did mull over a stop but preferred to bang a load of melatonin and sleep through the direct flight. Worked (eventually)!

[MidnightShambler]

Not me sunshine! Unless you owe him fifty quid :)

I went from Heathrow, only a ten hour flight direct. With a crying baby on the way there, magic, magic! Probably is somewhat common, I loved the experience but was out there working for a couple of months, never heard of anyone hitting Hyderabad for tourist fun!

Haven't been to Dubai, did mull over a stop but preferred to bang a load of melatonin and sleep through the direct flight. Worked (eventually)!

No I meant on the way back. Anyway, I doubted it would be, we only spoke for about 10 minutes at the end of the flight because, as we both confided, we were fucking knackered. But he'd been doing something in IT out there and he was on his way home, via Dubai. I'd just left my girlfriend in Dubai for the final time (I didn't know it then), causing much upheaval in my life. It'd be kinda cool if it had been you!

And he was just as skint as me, so no the £50 too :)

[buttgammon]

I like Dublin and Prague, and also thought Amsterdam Schiphol was alright for such a big airport. It's probably the biggest one I've used that seemed vaguely navigable.

As has already been established, Paris CDG is the arsehole of the world. Messy, sprawling, confusing, slow and grim, definitely the worst airport I've ever used. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to get from one terminal to the other. I seem to remember my cousin saying she once booked a connecting flight from Orly despite flying in to CDG as the time taken to get from CDG to Orly would be roughly the same as getting from one CDG terminal to another.

JFK is weirdly dated, with oddly patterned carpets everywhere giving it something of a grandparents' house theme. Berlin Schoenfeld is a bit crap too.

In Britain, I don't like Stansted and hate Manchester. The security queues are often very long and I'm often waiting at least 45 minutes for my bags to arrive. Several experienced flyers have said the baggage reclaim at Manchester is the worst they have ever experienced.

[BlodwynPig]

Worst: Any airport that doesn't provide a water fountain, twice as bad if it doesn't provide one after security

Seattle was pretty fucking boring and had a feeling to it that made it impossible to feel okay sitting in one spot for more than about 30 minutes.
Vegas too, although that one had a kinda cute super tiny airplane museum bit to it too, and was only about a 30 minute walk from the strip iirc.

Quebec çity airport was like that. Total discomfort - like discovering that island in Call of Cthulhu, all mad geometries.

[BlodwynPig]

Not true, as I found in October when I grabbed one for free from the several black dispensers near check-in.

Additionally, pretty much every airport you go yo will dole them out for free at the actual conveyors just to help save time.

Pro-tip, don't bother. Just fuck that shit off.

[BlodwynPig]

Dublin airport: Can't remember much about it so it's probably alright.
Brussels Charleroi: Nice enough airport but maybe struggling with capacity and short on seating, also expensive long bus journey to Brussels
Schiphol: Slick right up until anything goes wrong, then an absolute cluster fuck. Enormous, perhaps too big ultimately to ever be good
Cologne/Bonn: Modern, clean, pleasant but a but soulless, also not enough ticket machines for the ubahn - common problem
Hannover airport: Literally cannot remember a single thing other than difficult to get ubahn tickets into town
Nuremberg: Nice airport but be careful not to go through passport control too soon. Sometimes slow with customs. Shops are surprisingly shit given its Bavaria.
Frankfurt: Slick. A decent operation

What do you reckon to Ljubljana. I'd been a couple of times to visit, but the strangest experience was a stop before hopping over to Skopje (which is a really modern Black Mirror airport, oddly). In comparison, the Ljubljana airport was like being in the back room of Oxfam. The aforementioned tressle table was there with seemingly discarded clothing piled on top. There did not seem to be any partitions in the security area - everyone just milling about. I felt like I was in a run down Swiss chalet.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Nice airport was shite.

Well, make your mind up, mate.

[a duncandisorderly]

Well, make your mind up, mate.

excellent.

[dex]

Bristol airport is good as far as UK airports go.

[hamfist]

Manchester. Wankstain of a place. Luckily they're building a new one.



Terminal 1 departures used to look like this - when you had passed airside, you entered this hall with high ceilings, really airy and spacious, *those chandeliers* and a clear view out onto the apron.

This area now has low oppressive ceilings, feels liks a shopping centre.

Arriving in manchester is depressing. Stained carpets. Stained seats. Bits of wall peeling off. Separation of departing and arriving passengers was bodged onto old infrastructure so you're up then down then up again then down again. 'Authority' signs everywhere. Officials barking at you about your passport as they herd people through.

Arriving in other countries is very different - eg Frankfurt - it's tidy, no bits hanging off, coherent signs only where needed, no barking officials.

And Zürich is my favourite airport. The airside centre and dock E are lovely places to hang out and record christmas songs about clownes in your bedroom

[jobotic]

Not been to many, unlike you moneybags on here. Plovdiv when i was kid was memorable, bloke tending a field next to the runway. Vitoria was like the Home Ec block at school.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

What do you reckon to Ljubljana. I'd been a couple of times to visit, but the strangest experience was a stop before hopping over to Skopje (which is a really modern Black Mirror airport, oddly). In comparison, the Ljubljana airport was like being in the back room of Oxfam. The aforementioned tressle table was there with seemingly discarded clothing piled on top. There did not seem to be any partitions in the security area - everyone just milling about. I felt like I was in a run down Swiss chalet.

Not used Ljubljana (Kranj really) airport as went from Budapest through Croatia and Slovenia to Trieste.

Duly noted though.

Shame you can't get to Ljubljana and Tallinn from any Northern airports.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Did you find Vilnius difficult? I just walked about 300 yards to the train station, went down the steps and got on the next train to the centre. If I'm remembering rightly the train that stops at the airport is only going to the centre so you can't get the wrong one. And you pay on it.
Although obviously that may have not always been the case.

There was no info at all regarding the trains and I just missed one that was setting off for town because I was looking around to make sure it was the right one. Then when looking it up they were relatively infrequent so went to the buses.

Then the bus stop was less than clear either. Almost got on a marshrutka or whatever the Lithuanian equivalent was.

I don't understand why they don't just have a big idiotproof sign saying "Bus 6 to Centre" or whatever at every single airport exit.

[Ferris]

"Bus to centre" signs are thin on the ground wherever you go. The cynical part of my thinks this is because taxi companies do some lobbying to make their services more unavoidable.

[greencalx]

I cannot BELIEVE the energy going into Frankfurt here. One of my least favourites and the only place where I've had to pass through security twice to transfer between flights, or had to undergo additional at-gate queues and passport checks just to enter the UK. Add to that long taxis, bus rides and walks (particularly if you enter/leave the Schengen area), crap restaurants and no showers, it's a really miserable place to be routed through on a long haul flight. Well connected to the rail network though.

I used to like Edinburgh back when there were only about 10 gates. But like every other airport it's now outgrown the amount of traffic it can reasonably handle. Departing used to be ok, with a reliably short wait at security. I used to reckon on 45 minutes from my front door to the gate. But since the latest reconfiguration, security has become less friendly, less efficient and you're made to walk through the duty free snake just to get to the departure area.

On the other hand, arriving has always been dreadful, particularly international arrivals. The routine after landing seems to be: taxi via Fife to a remote stand, with a delay while you wait for a bus load of nuns and a truck of manure to be driven across the taxi route, then another delay as you wait for a plane to get out of your stand. Then it turns out they can't find the steps, so another delay as they bring those over. Repeat that for the bus to take you 100 yards to the arrivals door. Then get locked into a corridor because the paths of arriving and departing passengers cross. Finally, on my last arrival, I had a long wait for a taxi, in part because the airport now only allows one of the black cab firms onto the site. I think it was something like 90 minutes from touch down to getting inside a taxi on that occasion, which is ridiculous for a small airport and when I was travelling without baggage.

London City is quite nice.

[Blinder Data]

Surprising lack of Stansted hate in here. Fucking despise that massive cow shed. Horrible staff. Saw a security man reduce a young lady to tears once because, even though she was clearly running late for her plane, he took his sweet time to open up her bag and tell her not to carry 110ml of liquids in a patronising tone for the nth time.

Worst airports tend to be tiny foreign ones in Ryanair season, especially if you're travelling with stressheads who simply must go through security as soon as you arrive, even though all you'll find there is an acute lack of seating, one broken vending machine and 500 small children bouncing their heads off of concrete walls

[steveh]

Hong Kong I like best - lots of space, big windows, some good eateries and even an IMAX. People from the nearby town go there for a night out apparently. Because it was done by Norman Foster at the same time as Stansted many of the fittings are the same in both airports.

The worst airports I've been in have always been American. Horrible, cramped domestic terminals especially where no matter who they work for the staff seem to be universally having a bad day. Then there's Las Vegas with its slot machines crowding the baggage carousels.

[buttgammon]

Surprising lack of Stansted hate in here. Fucking despise that massive cow shed. Horrible staff. Saw a security man reduce a young lady to tears once because, even though she was clearly running late for her plane, he took his sweet time to open up her bag and tell her not to carry 110ml of liquids in a patronising tone for the nth time.

Nasty airport with rude staff (though not quite as aggressive as they are in Manchester). It isn't just the security people - a member of Ryanair staff once tried to stop my girlfriend and I from boarding the plane with the permitted amount of hand luggage, insisting we had one bag too many (we didn't), so we had to stuff one bag inside another just as we were boarding.

[BlodwynPig]

"Bus to centre" signs are thin on the ground wherever you go. The cynical part of my thinks this is because taxi companies do some lobbying to make their services more unavoidable.

That explains it. Toronto Pearson, landing in Terminal 3...last time I just paid 115 dollars for a taxi instead of haul myself through to Terminal 1 and then the bus. An awful hike with luggage. And the static...the static!

[BlodwynPig]

I cannot BELIEVE the energy going into Frankfurt here. One of my least favourites and the only place where I've had to pass through security twice to transfer between flights, or had to undergo additional at-gate queues and passport checks just to enter the UK. Add to that long taxis, bus rides and walks (particularly if you enter/leave the Schengen area), crap restaurants and no showers, it's a really miserable place to be routed through on a long haul flight. Well connected to the rail network though.

I used to like Edinburgh back when there were only about 10 gates. But like every other airport it's now outgrown the amount of traffic it can reasonably handle. Departing used to be ok, with a reliably short wait at security. I used to reckon on 45 minutes from my front door to the gate. But since the latest reconfiguration, security has become less friendly, less efficient and you're made to walk through the duty free snake just to get to the departure area.

On the other hand, arriving has always been dreadful, particularly international arrivals. The routine after landing seems to be: taxi via Fife to a remote stand, with a delay while you wait for a bus load of nuns and a truck of manure to be driven across the taxi route, then another delay as you wait for a plane to get out of your stand. Then it turns out they can't find the steps, so another delay as they bring those over. Repeat that for the bus to take you 100 yards to the arrivals door. Then get locked into a corridor because the paths of arriving and departing passengers cross. Finally, on my last arrival, I had a long wait for a taxi, in part because the airport now only allows one of the black cab firms onto the site. I think it was something like 90 minutes from touch down to getting inside a taxi on that occasion, which is ridiculous for a small airport and when I was travelling without baggage.

London City is quite nice.

Travelled to Frankfurt Hahn a few times back in the day. This is nowhere near Frankfurt and was one of those prototype sheds. If you have a fetish for muddy fields its a good spot to travel to. A bit like Namur, but that doesn't have an airport.

[Ferris]

That explains it. Toronto Pearson, landing in Terminal 3...last time I just paid 115 dollars for a taxi instead of haul myself through to Terminal 1 and then the bus. An awful hike with luggage. And the static...the static!

It is $8 on the train to Union (about 20 mins), then onto a GO train headed for the Hammer for another few $. Taxis in this city are robbing fuckers, & they have a fair bit of power in city council (a number of prominent councillors are bought and paid for by them) which is why I suspect lobbying. It's also why it took so long to formally adopt uber/lyft, and why taxi companies get significant municipal tax breaks.

They also provide a service which is universally shit, so there's that.

[BlodwynPig]

It is $8 on the train to Union (about 20 mins), then onto a GO train headed for the Hammer for another few $. Taxis in this city are robbing fuckers, & they have a fair bit of power in city council (a number of prominent councillors are bought and paid for by them) which is why I suspect lobbying. It's also why it took so long to formally adopt uber/lyft, and why taxi companies get significant municipal tax breaks.

They also provide a service which is universally shit, so there's that.

No, there is a direct bus from Terminal 1, which I normally take, but this was after Christmas, I was tired and cold and had a big suitcase, fuck it I'm *rich*, straight out into terminal 3 and into a *luxury* taxi - fucking ripoff though, I agree.

[seepage]

"Bus to centre" signs are thin on the ground wherever you go. The cynical part of my thinks this is because taxi companies do some lobbying to make their services more unavoidable.

Malaga has a nice big animated neon arrow pointing to the bus stop, which is good.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Frankfurt Hahn has to be up there as one of the shitter liar name airports. It's a long bus ride away.

Where else.. Dusseldorf Weeze... fucking ages away. Paris Beauvais? Wank, not even to avoid CDG airport.

Oslo has a couple that are miles out, I think.

[seepage]

Frankfurt Hahn has to be up there as one of the shitter liar name airports. It's a long bus ride away.

But isn't that near the really picturesque town the Hairy Bikers visited? You could go there instead.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/06/which-airports-are-farthest-from-city.html?m=1

[kngen]

Ah, Frankfurt-Hahn. Spent a lovely evening (and early morning) there waiting to kick off my old band's European tour because the driver and van we'd enlisted had gone to Frankfurt International instead (not unreasonably), then gone home, and had to be coaxed away from his dinner by the promoter to embark on another three-hour round trip to pick us up at our flugenshed instead.

Gave us lots of time to enjoy the amenities, which consisted of absolutely nothing apart from a payphone. Then the airport closed (at 11pm) and we were papped out on to the road. And then it started to rain. So we pressed ourselves back up against the glass frontage trying to use a six-inch ledge as shelter from the weather, while our drummer moaned that his cymbal cases weren't waterproof.

Rock'n'roll!!!