Does anyone have a favourite airport?

[poosemon]

Try going through Łódź airport, closest to my wifes family, i'm sure it could give Modlin a run for it's money on the crap scale

We only went via Lodz once, can't remember the airport so much, but remember the link to the city itself was atrocious with very minimal services to get to the city. (this was a fair few years ago).

Have been via Modlin a couple of times - yes, it was miles away from Warsaw itself, but I don't recall having too much problem with it. Just annoying they didn't extend the train line to get to the airport so you have to shuttle for a couple of km between train to warsaw central station. Have flown in and out of Poznan since 2006 and thats a pretty easy one to get in and out of and has a very frequent bus link to the City. We just got caught out by fog once back in the day when Ryanair did 99p flights, so our flight was cancelled, and were left to our own devices to get home. Lets just say a bus ride from Poznan -> London Victoria -> Bristol Airport is one of lifes least pleasent experiences.

Thinking back...Bergerac airport in France (no idea how it is now) was akin to literally a farm shed. The baggage collection was a rudimentary ramp where they airport staff would pull up to in a knackered old tractor with the luggage on the back, chuck the baggage onto the top and everyone who was waiting for their luggage had to work as a team to drag it down the ramp as wasn't automatic.

 

[poosemon]

Keflavik airport, properly chilled out. We even got told "This is not Heathrow, not need to be in a rush here" , a very relaxing experience.

Top tip for anyone landing at Keflavik on a visit to Iceland....make sure to buy your beer/wine in the airport supermarket on the way out!

Or...like me, found out the hard way that you can't just buy alcohol easily in Iceland, there are special shops with limited opening hours which sell alcohol - nothing in normal shops/supermarkets.

 

[Troezar]

Top tip for anyone landing at Keflavik on a visit to Iceland....make sure to buy your beer/wine in the airport supermarket on the way out!

Or...like me, found out the hard way that you can't just buy alcohol easily in Iceland, there are special shops with limited opening hours which sell alcohol - nothing in normal shops/supermarkets.

Yes and it costs an absolute fortune! Luckily I don't drink a lot. Nice place, calm but slightly otherworldly feel to it, once you get away from civilisation it is like being on another planet.

 

[poosemon]

Yes and it costs an absolute fortune! Luckily I don't drink a lot. Nice place, calm but slightly otherworldly feel to it, once you get away from civilisation it is like being on another planet.

I was driving a lot of the time, and they have uber strict drink driving laws so wasn't in it for a drinking sesh...but one evening we just fancied kicking back with a beer back at the apartment and was a bit alien that you couldn't just go and buy one...to be fair, hadn't really looked into it as not a big drinker either so could have found that out ahead if I was so inclined!

However, the Gull Beer served in the poolside bars at Blue Lagoon was particularly well received

 

[Parsley]

Aarhus in Denmark is my favourite. It's tiny and currently having expansion/modernisation work done on it, but it takes minutes to get in, and out of it if you get off the plane first. Parking is still free as well.

It's no way near Aarhus but I go to Rønde, almost right next to it .

Manchester is a hole, Stansted is fine but I have been stung many times by gate changes and the resulting force march across the airport (or being trapped and having to use an assistance phone to be led through some back corridors). It's also very cramped, too many people in the space they have airside. Security has always been quick though. Fast track is pointless.

I don't mind the Heathrow terminals I have been in, and haven't used EMA for a long time now.

I think my worst ever experience was Grenoble during peak skiing season, so very nearly missed the flight and we were there in more than enough time. There was no space to move at all, just lots of angry people.

 

[jaybee]

It's like asking if you have a favourite cancer.

 

[Rotty]

Lyon, Hong Kong , Phu Quoc and Phuket are all good

Worst are Manchester and Dubai, the latter resembling a refugee camp and the toilets are disgusting

 

[arknor]

Zurich - borderline painful, how did the stereotypically safe and organised Swiss get an airport so wrong?

Geneve is much better.

Zurich seems like it's designed to trap people inside, I've never flown their though.

We just wanted to take the kids to the observation deck/playground area on the roof.

Has it's own security checkpoint with metal detectors and everything...

 

[embalse]

Flew from Bournemouth this year. Painless and easy to get to for me at least

.

 

[imtoooldforthis]

Lukla aka Tenzing Hillary airport

 

[cheesefest]

Try to fly from East Mids, Brum, Stansted and Luton for ease.

Manchester- My Dad got cut up by a couple of taxis, which forced him to go into the drop off area and was charged £6 for this. It was 4am and he’s not been to Manchester for a good 15-17 years.

Several European airports are pathetic. Take Rhodes. Main airport lounge has a huge floor to ceiling window which the evening sun glares through it. Had to resort wearing my sunglasses inside. There was (in 2014) only one poxy cafe which sold minging looking burgers for €10. My flight was delayed by 2 hours and relieved that I bought some food at the supermarket around the corner earlier that day.

 

[cheesefest]

On the subject of airports. Why do most of them have a luggage shop - selling suitcases and bags too large for cabin luggage after passing security?

I find that bizarre

 

[cheesefest]

I've not exactly been to many
But I rate East Midlands based on recent experience; it's local to me and parking charges are a fair portion cheaper and better standard than many of the other UK airports.

East Midlands has its moments. Quickest time from leaving plane to collecting suitcase- 30 mins.

Then had it where 3 flights landed at once - passport control a nightmare as E gates were out of action. Then waited an hour after the carousel moving for luggage to start coming. Another time another flight - different airline landed 20 minutes after mine. The airport decided to use the same carousel for both flights!

My colleague’s son landed from Turkey at 4am. The luggage trucks turned up at the place where the luggage handlers offload bags and buggered off. About half a dozen people, including colleague’s son went through the entry through the flaps to the yard after an hour after the handlers buggered off. The half dozen off loaded the trucks with another 8 at the carousel, passed the luggage onto the floor. I know that my colleague’s son and the others shouldn’t gone into the luggage truck yard but goodness knows how long they had to wait if they didn’t do this! Most of the passengers were very tired and just wanted to go home. BTW it was the only flight in arrivals. This was about 8 years ago.

 

[cheesefest]

Had the misfortune of flying from CDG halfway through a 10 day cleaning staff strike! It was awful.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Several European airports are pathetic. Take Rhodes. Main airport lounge has a huge floor to ceiling window which the evening sun glares through it. Had to resort wearing my sunglasses inside.

Must have been traumatising wearing sunglasses in an airport, hope you got over it.

 

[CaPtBlaCk]

Liverpool without a doubt, in, air-side less then 20mins, on plane, take off no drama. Coming home, land, out, in car travelling home less than 30mins.

 

[Shadowness]

I’ve probably flown through 120-150 airports in my time.
Favourites definitely are Incheon (Seoul), Hong Kong and possibly Sydney (for the Qantas 1st class lounge experience)

 

[Raymond Lin]

I’ve probably flown through 120-150 airports in my time.
Favourites definitely are Incheon (Seoul), Hong Kong and possibly Sydney (for the Qantas 1st class lounge experience)

oooh, Incheon is nice, I forgot about that, although my experience is mixed with the start of Covid and Korea was already in full pandemic protective mode with temperature sensors, masks mandate and all that jazz.

 

[Trifid]

Athens - terrible

It would have been great if it was built in the 70s, good in the 80s and clearly never been refurbished since but I was surprised to just see on Google it was opened in 2001! I'd have never of guessed that when I visited.

HK is getting a lot of mentions and it is very good for the size it is, controversial but I also quite like Heathrow for a big airport but I've never seen it bad and from the news it very easily backs up when something happens.

And to add a new one, Southend. Small airport which was doing really well before Covid hit and starting to gain traction again.

 

[VaderDSL]

Keri Keri airport in New Zealand isn’t bad. Currently waiting for a plane and there are only 5 people in the entire terminal, 2 of us, an Air New Zealand employee and another passenger.

It’s a pretty dead end regional airport to be fair, half a dozen or so flights per day.