Best and worst airports

[Tight minge]

Best for me would probably be Singapore as it's decent for a wander round when stuck for a while and facilities are good.  Worst would be Nairobi or Delhi.  Both overcrowded, chaotic and run down.

Would agree with Singapore, very easy to get around and enough to do while waiting and would agree with Nairobi as being the opposite.

Two astoundingly crap airports are Pudong in China and the new KL airport In Malaysia. Both large with nothing in them.

Bangkok should be a great airport, but clearing immigration in or out is a nightmare.

The new Shenzhen airport in China is quite amazing.

The worst for a major airport is Manila Terminal 1. So bad it has won awards for how crap it is and major airlines like Qatar, Cathay, etc refused to fly into it.

Quirky airports would be Bandar Lampung in Indonesia, Catarman airport in the Philippines (which is in the centre of the city and the main road crosses the runway) and Ukunda In Kenya.

In general the airports in the middle east and Asia are far better than Europe and America purely as air travel has only 'taken off' in recent years and many major airports are new builds/designs.

[welshbairn]

My main criteria is size, smaller the better. So long as you have a bar and a newsagent I don't much care about the rest. For bigger airports it's the speed of security and how quickly you can get to the gate. Schipol falls short on that one for me, arrived over an hour before my flight last time and barely made the gate on time. And ones where you have to take a bus to the plane. Airside beer gardens are good, Dublin's is particularly nice.

[Guest JTS98]

Depends on the criteria you use.

I like Schiphol as - when I was there at least - the security check was done at the gate, making it much less hassle and much less of a wait to get it done.

Singapore is great as it is very well connected to the city (something Europe in general trails Asia on by miles) and it's a good place to just have a wander around. If I'm going to be on a plane for a long time, I want to be able to have a good stroll around before I get on.

KL airport reflects the city itself. It's not particularly exciting, but it's easy to use and is pretty low-hassle in general. Again, very easy to reach from the city.

In the past I found Heathrow to be a chore, but I was at the new terminal a couple of times last year and it was a breeze.

Bydgoszcz in Poland was tremendous. Tiny wee airport with one gate (and a big sign helpfully saying 'Gate 1'). After the Hearts - Hibs cup final in 2012 I flew back to Bydgoszcz on the Sunday and was in my flat less than half an hour after we touched down. Perfect.

Madrid airport was a bit of a pain in the baws.

All I want is something easy to use and with decent space to walk around.

[welshbairn]

Madrid is fucking enormous although its saving grace is the tube into town. Dulles is another massive one. When I arrived at Birmingham last week on a delayed flight I had 15 minutes to catch a train connection after the wheels hit the ground, and just caught it. Having something to do if you're waiting for a connection is important but I've never been in an airport I'd like to spend much time in. Gatwick, though horrible, is good for a few hours in that you can get to either London or Brighton in half an hour, £10 return to Brighton, cheaper on the slow train. 

[doulikefish]

Best for me is Singapore and Schipol

Worst is any african airport apart from Addis Ababa which is surprisingly good

[Rugster]

Prestwick is shit, Gatwick is shit, and London City is shit.

McCarron is good, Schipol is great, Newark is ok.

 

[hk blues]

My top 3 would be Singapore, Hong Kong and Vancouver. Like Vancouver because it's relatively easy to navigate through and enough facilities to pass a few hours.

Worst would include Charles de Gaulle and Bali - latter just because of the ballache getting the visa on arrival. Think that's stopped now?

[KnightswoodBear]

I used Edinburgh for the first time in years on the Friday before New Year.  What an absolute shambles their security hall is.  

Also, and I realise this isn't really the fault of Edinburgh Airport, but those self tag stations that Fucking Ryanair have set up are an utter pain in the hole as well.

Abroad, Malaga airport is an absolute mess trying to get through security, especially if you happen to be travelling with young kids.

[LongTimeLurker]

Worst I have been to are Istanbul and Moscow Sheremetyevo (somebody needs to tell them that the Soviet Union is no more, because Domodedovo is very different and a lot more modern at least in my limited experience). In general I find large continental European and Asian airports much better than American ones, because they tend to have been built or modernised more recently and there is less misplaced paranoia from the staff about security. Best organized I have been at recently would be Munich, Dubai and Hong Kong.

[Tight minge]

My top 3 would be Singapore, Hong Kong and Vancouver. Like Vancouver because it's relatively easy to navigate through and enough facilities to pass a few hours.

Worst would include Charles de Gaulle and Bali - latter just because of the ballache getting the visa on arrival. Think that's stopped now?

Very good shout on CDG, abysmal airport and Air France make it a shocking combination.

Bali, is okay, but the VOA is a hassle, but has been stopped if you are entering for tourism less than 30 days.

[hk blues]

Very good shout on CDG, abysmal airport and Air France make it a shocking combination.

Bali, is okay, but the VOA is a hassle, but has been stopped if you are entering for tourism less than 30 days.

Good to hear Bali have relaxed the visa rules a little. Just arriving from a long flight the last thing you want is to queue firstly to get local currency and then to queue to get the visa. I love Bali (mostly) but the first impression i.e. the airport, was poor.

You mentioned Manila earlier - I've never had to pass through it but I've not heard one good or even neutral report from anyone.

[Tight minge]

Good to hear Bali have relaxed the visa rules a little. Just arriving from a long flight the last thing you want is to queue firstly to get local currency and then to queue to get the visa. I love Bali (mostly) but the first impression i.e. the airport, was poor.

You mentioned Manila earlier - I've never had to pass through it but I've not heard one good or even neutral report from anyone.

I avoid terminal 1 at all costs in Manila. It was voted, I believe three years in a row (checked 2011-2013), the worst terminal for business travel. That's when the major airlines started to refuse to fly into it and moved to terminal 3, which was a decent terminal that's now overcrowded because of the additional airlines.

Terminal 1 was the location for the laglag-bala scam at security (bullets in the luggage).

Also once was on the FREE shuttle bus transfer from t3 to t1, where the driver was charging 20php per person.

I do believe it's improved, but I'll only fly in and out of t2 or t3 now, t1 is not worth the hassle.

[MONKMAN]

Worst - Bangkok

Best - Singapore

[Honest_Man#1]

3 hours ago, Rugster said:

Prestwick is shit, Gatwick is shit, and London City is shit.

McCarron is good, Schipol is great, Newark is ok.

 

I love London City. I live fairly close so (unless flying at a peak business traveller time, which I rarely am) can leave my flat 45 mins before the flight and stil get through and have a wait before the gate is called. It does seem to get a lot of cancellations and delays though but luckily for me so far I've avoided them. I'd love to go in and out of City for every London flight but they are annoyingly expensive.

[Savage Henry]

Worst - Bangkok

Best - Singapore

That's a couple of folk who have mentioned Bangkok. I presume you mean the old one, rather than the new fancy one?

[Karpaty]

10 hours ago, JTS98 said:

Depends on the criteria you use.

I like Schiphol as - when I was there at least - the security check was done at the gate, making it much less hassle and much less of a wait to get it done.

Singapore is great as it is very well connected to the city (something Europe in general trails Asia on by miles) and it's a good place to just have a wander around. If I'm going to be on a plane for a long time, I want to be able to have a good stroll around before I get on.

KL airport reflects the city itself. It's not particularly exciting, but it's easy to use and is pretty low-hassle in general. Again, very easy to reach from the city.

In the past I found Heathrow to be a chore, but I was at the new terminal a couple of times last year and it was a breeze.

Bydgoszcz in Poland was tremendous. Tiny wee airport with one gate (and a big sign helpfully saying 'Gate 1'). After the Hearts - Hibs cup final in 2012 I flew back to Bydgoszcz on the Sunday and was in my flat less than half an hour after we touched down. Perfect.

Madrid airport was a bit of a pain in the baws.

All I want is something easy to use and with decent space to walk around.

Rzerzow airport was excellent when I was there four years ago. 15 minute drive into the city centre as well. Shame Prestwick stopped the route. 

Boryspil was a bit of a pain in the arse, metal detectors everywhere you turn and the queue at immigration was long. Much prefer Zhuylyany. 

Charles de Guelle was a fucking nightmare. Had just over an hour to find a connection, one terminal to the left, but of course it's the last stop on the shitey wee bus route that takes about half an hour. They also failed to put my luggage on the flight. 

Schipol was a breeze apart from a short wait at the gate to get onto the plane. Has a nice wee boozer up the stairs with the friendly staff and the smoking room. The Irish bar was alright but had your typical Landan kants all over the place. 

[MONKMAN]

1 minute ago, Savage Henry said:

That's a couple of folk who have mentioned Bangkok. I presume you mean the old one, rather than the new fancy one?

No. Suvarnabhumi international is a fucking nightmare, on the 4 or 5 occasions I've been through it. Don Mueang isn't too bad at all for internal flights etc.

[drs]

2 hours ago, KnightswoodBear said:

I used Edinburgh for the first time in years on the Friday before New Year.  What an absolute shambles their security hall is.  

Also, and I realise this isn't really the fault of Edinburgh Airport, but those self tag stations that Fucking Ryanair have set up are an utter pain in the hole as well.

I've never had any problems with the new security arrangements in Edinburgh. Never had more than a 5 minute wait.

The self tag stations are a pain - the only issue I've ever had at Edinburgh security was when my self printed boarding pass from the machine downstairs couldn't be read by the scanners which wasn't a security issue as the boarding crew couldn't read it either, flew KLM out of Tegel and they were placed right between the check in counter and the security entrance - and as the whole fecking terminal is only about 8ft wide it made it an utter pain in the arse to get through.

[mizfit]

Zante Airport is the worst ive ever flown from, the departures lounge only had a capacity of 200 or so but was overcrowded. a case off too many flights for the airport. 

[Tight minge]

No. Suvarnabhumi international is a fucking nightmare, on the 4 or 5 occasions I've been through it. Don Mueang isn't too bad at all for internal flights etc.

Suvarnabhumi I was referring to as well, although purely refering to immigration. The airport itself is great. But the queues to go through immigration are inevitably horrendous (in and out). Currently fly direct to Chiang Mai, then via Khon Kaen and leave via Bangkok when I need to head up there.