Which airport has the most "checks"?

[Raymond Lin]

By checks I mean anytime you have to stopped by an agent to even check your passport or ask a question.

My nomination goes to Rabat in Morocco. I have been there twice now and the steps are as follows.

1 - Getting to the door of the building. There is an X-Ray machine and metal detector.
2 - Have to go to the Baggage drop to collect boarding pass even if you are only doing carry on. I was flying with Air France which has digital boarding pass, but it would not allow me to collect a digital one, has to get a physical one. (I've been twice now, both times the same)
3 - After boarding pass, I need to go upstairs to departure lounge. There is a guard to check your boarding pass before you go upstairs.
4 - Immediately there is a lady there who ask if you have anything to declare. Like on arrival, you have to declare anything to bring into the country, same thing but now the opposite.
5 - Now upstairs, they check your passport and stamp it at immigration.
6 - Another guard 2 meters behind the booth of where you just got stamped, he checks that your passport did get stamped.
7 - Now to take out your liquids and laptops for the actual X-ray machines and metal detector.
8 - At the gate, boarding pass checks to get onto the plane.

Any airport can beat that?

 

[malachi]

By checks I mean anytime you have to stopped by an agent to even check your passport or ask a question.

My nomination goes to Rabat in Morocco. I have been there twice now and the steps are as follows.

1 - Getting to the door of the building. There is an X-Ray machine and metal detector.
2 - Have to go to the Baggage drop to collect boarding pass even if you are only doing carry on. I was flying with Air France which has digital boarding pass, but it would not allow me to collect a digital one, has to get a physical one. (I've been twice now, both times the same)
3 - After boarding pass, I need to go upstairs to departure lounge. There is a guard to check your boarding pass before you go upstairs.
4 - Immediately there is a lady there who ask if you have anything to declare. Like on arrival, you have to declare anything to bring into the country, same thing but now the opposite.
5 - Now upstairs, they check your passport and stamp it at immigration.
6 - Another guard 2 meters behind the booth of where you just got stamped, he checks that your passport did get stamped.
7 - Now to take out your liquids and laptops for the actual X-ray machines and metal detector.
8 - At the gate, boarding pass checks to get onto the plane.

Any airport can beat that?

Same at Marrakesh airport when I was there last month.

 

[mid_gen]

Slightly off topic.... But wasn't there talk of this stupid liquids rule being abandoned at some point?

 

[CapitalOne]

Any international airport in India between 2000 and 2015 (last time I was there). So many “armed guards” who were so old with ropey rifles you’d think to yourself “I think I could take him out if needed” also the subcontinent is the home of needless bureaucracy.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Slightly off topic.... But wasn't there talk of this stupid liquids rule being abandoned at some point?

Heathrow is waiting to install the new X-ray, delayed until the summer apparently.

It is still being enforced in Paris.

 

[Delta3D]

Shanghai was rough to get through in Nov 2023 for me!

Lots of waiting and queues in different lines for different checks... none of it was very obvious either

 

[explicit4u]

US By far, staying in 3 different hotels in the same city seemed to raise an alarm. Explained how I forgot to book the day covering the time I was alone and the time I met up with a friend from the city and they were not having it.

3 hours in security and a deep search later and they were happy to let me through. So much for a British passport being worth anything over there.

US boarder guards are also a lot meaner than the British equivalent. Proper rude and suspicious from the off. This was at SFO but I managed to breeze thorough LAX on my connecting journey.

 

[drakulton]

Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG)

 

[Shadowness]

Amateur Raymond.

You got to the building without any security checks?!

Most in Africa have security screening before you're anywhere near the terminal building.....and then have security/screening at the door, normal security etc

 

[Minato]

Definitely the US, both at airports and even crossing the border from Canada. A lot of little knob syndrome with their big assault rifles and sunglasses, and fairly extensive checks and "random selection" if you have a bit too much melanin in the skin.

 

[chrismscotland]

Heathrow is waiting to install the new X-ray, delayed until the summer apparently.

It is still being enforced in Paris.

The drive to scrap the liquid rule with new scanners is a UK thing so we'll still be doing the 100ml bag for some time

 

[Rroff]

Definitely the US, both at airports and even crossing the border from Canada. A lot of little knob syndrome with their big assault rifles and sunglasses, and fairly extensive checks and "random selection" if you have a bit too much melanin in the skin.

I've not found the US too bad personally, few years back they even helped me skip the queue. (Though they definitely have a different attitude towards people based on skin colour and/or nationality).

Once crossing from Canada they did turn my friends car inside out and go through all her stuff though - literally emptying every bag, etc.

 

[randomshenans]

Not most checks, but most ******* anal about their liquids policy - Manchester. They're the most picky people ever. Basel are like whatever, just chuck it in a bag. Manchester - if the bag doesn't seal, can't take it. If you have more than one sealed bag, can't take it. I think they just like ******* with passengers to brighten their miserable days.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Not most checks, but most ******* anal about their liquids policy - Manchester. They're the most picky people ever. Basel are like whatever, just chuck it in a bag. Manchester - if the bag doesn't seal, can't take it. If you have more than one sealed bag, can't take it. I think they just like ******* with passengers to brighten their miserable days.

That was Paris for me. I had to throw away some stuff because I had carry on only and I was gifted some toiletries as a present and didn't want to throw those away. So a brand new tube of toothpaste had to go, some expensive acne cream had to go too.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Mumbai is similar, to be fair, most Indian airports are close.

1. Boarding pass just to enter the airport --- guards on each front door
2. Boarding pass to enter security queue
3. Boarding pass + passport to get air side

 

[randomshenans]

That was Paris for me. I had to throw away some stuff because I had carry on online and I was gifted some toiletries as a present and didn't want to throw those away. So a brand new tube of toothpaste had to go, some expensive acne cream had to go too.

Its stupid how inconsistent it is

 

[Raymond Lin]

Its stupid how inconsistent it is

Shannon Airport in Ireland didn't care either, I had just bought a Meal Deal at WH Smith at the airport and was about to down it and she said "you don't need to do that".

 

[Semple]

The drive to scrap the liquid rule with new scanners is a UK thing so we'll still be doing the 100ml bag for some time

Saying that though, they do seem a lot less fussy abroad. I've accidentally forgotten to take bottles of water out and never had them flagged up.

 

[bingham67]

The drive to scrap the liquid rule with new scanners is a UK thing so we'll still be doing the 100ml bag for some time

It been at Helsinki airport for some time now I went through last year it great, I don't bother to much on the liquid side anyway.

 

[wildman]

By checks I mean anytime you have to stopped by an agent to even check your passport or ask a question.

My nomination goes to Rabat in Morocco. I have been there twice now and the steps are as follows.

1 - Getting to the door of the building. There is an X-Ray machine and metal detector.
2 - Have to go to the Baggage drop to collect boarding pass even if you are only doing carry on. I was flying with Air France which has digital boarding pass, but it would not allow me to collect a digital one, has to get a physical one. (I've been twice now, both times the same)
3 - After boarding pass, I need to go upstairs to departure lounge. There is a guard to check your boarding pass before you go upstairs.
4 - Immediately there is a lady there who ask if you have anything to declare. Like on arrival, you have to declare anything to bring into the country, same thing but now the opposite.
5 - Now upstairs, they check your passport and stamp it at immigration.
6 - Another guard 2 meters behind the booth of where you just got stamped, he checks that your passport did get stamped.
7 - Now to take out your liquids and laptops for the actual X-ray machines and metal detector.
8 - At the gate, boarding pass checks to get onto the plane.

Any airport can beat that?

Ben Gurion Tel Aviv - and this was pre Gaza war.

You get stopped at a checkpoint on the airport approach road about a mile before the terminal for passport / passenger inspection and if you are unlucky you need to get out and open you bags up

then everything you listed as above plus additional security questioning before you get anywhere near the check in desk at which point your luggage is scanned again before you check in which is on top of the scan before you even walk into the terminal and if you look shifty you'll get pulled post check in as you walk thorugh to the barrier where you scan you boarding pass to get to the next set of bag scans before you hit the lounge.

I spend a lot of time there as my head office is in Tel Aviv, the operation is pretty slick so usually it's less than an hour before you can chug a goldstar in the bar. Entering is a lot worse, even with my security centre paper work that is issued by their own security services via my company its been a minimum 2 hours before I get landside after disembarking.