Here's one for all you world travellers to sink your teeth into.

What are the best airports you've travelled into and out of and what are the worst.

Criteria could be things like:
Lousy or great service
Too big or too small
Ease or difficulty getting from airport to city
No bars
No area to smoke

I'll make the first nomination for worst:
Charles de Gaulle - Paris
Reasons:
Arrivals and departures on same level. There is a constant crush of humanity moving back and forth.
Check in areas are too small. Takes forever.

Had to dash through de Gaulle to catch a connector a few years back -- not a pleasant memory. Not crazy about airports in general but Heathrow also comes to mind -- frequent delays, sprawling layout, those inter-terminal shuttle buses that seem to take forever, going here and there and back and then here and there again... O'Hare's also not-so fun...massive and oppressive and crowded...

I would say that the one I hate the worst is Kansas City, Missouri in the U.S. The main problem is that there is a security checkpoint for every 2-3 gates and in order to go from gate to gate, gate to restaurants, gate to shops, and gate to restrooms you have to go OUT of the secure zone and then to come back to your gate you have to go through the security checkpoint all over again. Just plain wicked is that one. :(

Most UK airports especially Heathrow and Gatwick.

Totally put to shame by little Male in the Maldives. A third world airport that processes loads of passengers like clockwork.

Why hasn't some bright spark come up with an efficient, clear and dignified way to handle check-in? (I exclude those fortunate enough to afford first class) It's bad enough travelling like cattle without having to be treated like them before you get on the plane.

rant over - I fear a can of worms has been opened.....

I would say that the one I hate the worst is Kansas City, Missouri in the U.S. The main problem is that there is a security checkpoint for every 2-3 gates and in order to go from gate to gate, gate to restaurants, gate to shops, and gate to restrooms you have to go OUT of the secure zone and then to come back to your gate you have to go through the security checkpoint all over again. Just plain wicked is that one. :(

I fly out of MCI (Kansas City, MO) a lot, as it is the nearest airport to me. Bob is right about the gates, but the nice thing about MCI is you don't have to get there 2 hours ahead of time, as the lines are always short. If you have an E ticket, you can get there 40 minutes ahead of flight time and still have no problem getting in. DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) takes forever to get through security, the lines are so long. Logan is fun to fly into (Boston Harbor) but a cast iron bi*& to drive out of.

Seems a bit similar to asking which is the best McDonalds in the world to me - remember CDG on the way in - terminal 3 being a bit like a B&Q but don't remember flying out suggesting it s the same as the rest.

From what I hear, the Minneapolis airport is the worst....the only thing worse than being propositioned in a toilet, is being propositioned in a toilet by a republican senator! Ewww! ;)

A little unfair for me to enter this debate as my wife goes assisted passage, but Heathrow even falls below par there as you can get handed around and it has a reserved seating area with no facilities near by, however our recent passage through was smoothed by Japanese Airlines whom we were travelling with, as soon as the checkin desk saw my wife in a wheel chair it was off to the business lounge with us, then when the ladies there discovered that my mate had an artificial leg,(note we are a bunch of travelling medical cases :D), they organised an electric buggy to take us all from the lounge to the gate when the time came.

For the record although whisked through passport control etc when we arrived at Tokyo our cases still beat us to the carousel!!

Brian

I thought MCI was the best airport I'd ever been in when I lived / worked there...

But that was in the 80's :)

Two weeks ago, we were flying from Washington DC to Venice with a stop over in Paris (Charles De Gaulle). At Paris, we had to go through Passport Control (long line) and then Security. It took us one hour to get to the gate for our connecting flight. By that time, they already started boarding. We barely made it.

Things are not much better in Washington DC either. It took us almost 90 minutes to go through Immigration and Customs when we came back.

The worst I have been in was Kingston. 4 hours with 300 other people in a hot sweaty dilapidated abandoned school gym that was being used as customs clearing area...

rant...rant...

Things are not much better in Washington DC either. It took us almost 90 minutes to go through Immigration and Customs when we came back.

National (Reagan) or Dulles?

Pearson Airport in Toronto is excellent for getting into and out of but you're a long way from town and the public transportation to get into Toronto is terrible.

Dorval in Montreal was awful until a few years ago. They finally gave up on Mirabel (which was about 50 miles outside town) and renamed Dorval to Trudeau giving it a face lift and re-doing the infastructure. Now its pretty good with OK public transport to get into Montreal.

The one thing I will never understand about European airports is almost all of them have Arrivals and Departures on the same level. In North America most airports are two levels with Departures on one and Arrivals on the other. This halves the number of people wandering around on either level.

It has been a while but the airport at Honolulu Hawaii was pretty efficient.

I also have not experienced the long lines at DFW, which I have visited twice now in the last calendar year.

On the other hand, Flint Michigan's airport was really good at losing luggage.

The Denver Colorado airport's food service appears to vanish if you dare to take a night milk run. (Long flight that makes many stops.) From Seattle to New Orleans with three stops in between, I was STARVING by the time we got to Denver and still had Houston ahead of us. I had to make do with a vending-machine sandwich, and that wasn't what I would call a good choice.

But then, there is the Alexandria Louisiana airport where, for some of the commuter airlines, you cannot make a reservation while the pilot is in the air.

National (Reagan) or Dulles?

We came to Washington Dulles.

I wasn't a big fan of the airport at Frankfurt, Germany. Everything was dark and dirty looking, and like Bob said about the airport at Kansas City, we ended up having to go through security gates again to make our connecting flight.

Here in the states I would have to say one of my least favorites is the airport at Orlando, FL. It is pretty and modern looking, but the two times we've flown in there it has taken forever to get our bags and rental car and get out of there. In the meantime, we flew into the airport at Tampa, FL once and we had our bags and car and were out the door within 30 minutes of our flight being on the ground.

The Frankfurt airport is about 10 miles long.
There is an unwritten rule that you land at one end and your connecting flight is at the other.

The Ft. Myers FL airport is good, probably because very few people use it.

I agree with Tampa. Used it twice, never any hassles.

Hate to say it (as it is my home airport) but having spent 2 hours this morning from when I collected my bag to getting out the door, Sydney is now the MOST inept I have come across - absolutely appalling as reason is purely $$$$$ - allow 10 jumbos to land and only have staff to cater for 3

I have always used London Gatwick airport when I am going over seas, I have two small children and we have never really had to wait too long, amenities are good, security process has been slowed down a touch since the attempted plane bomb attack but is getting better.

On the flip side, my worst airport used is Corfu airport, check in is a joke, large hall numerous check in desks, no defined queues everybody just milling around jostling for position. On the day that I used it, we had a four hour delay, some bright spark at the airport decided to tarmac the runway using the wrong tarmac which subsequently melted in the heat and got all the outbound and inbound flights cancelled due to wheels getting stuck.

Absolute nonsense.

Currently PE Trudeau [Montreal] is the worst in Canada, taking the crown from Pearson [Toronto].
Just had a fun time at PET discovering thet I have to contact my carrier to be informed of departure and arrival times as their fancy NEW information system has the blue screen or death syndrome.
Zero human staff or warning on how the automated parking system works - use a credit card or debit card to get in to the parking, use the SAME card to get out. Makes sense, sort of, the clock starts when you enter and you pay for the time parked when you leave - in 1/2 hour increments. However if you lose your credit/debit card you cant have your car, the replacement card is encoded differently than the one you lost or misplaced.
And there is no staff to explain or assist. And you are holding up the line of people from leaving while you burn gaz trying to get out of a locked parking lot while the parking time clock is running.
Learn french [PERIOD]. No signage in any other language at that INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

It can always get worse.

They could make you go back to flying out of Mirabel.

I have flown into,out of and changed planes 3 times this year at Trudeau...no problems (so far). I agree that an English sign is a rarity. Being Federal turf they don't have to comply with the Quebec language laws.

Yeah, I have a couple of airports to add to the bottom of the list...

1) Detroit, Michigan, USA
2) Mexico City, MEXICO

I could say why they are on the bottom, but maybe some of you already understand... ;)

JFK takes the cake for bad airports where I come from. Signs are almost non-existant and the arrivals and departures use the same driveway making for a traffic mess also (at least at the Delta terminal).

I comuted to Birmingham, AL for 6 months last year from LaGuardia in NY. Birmingham is very convenient with excellent signs. LGA isn't bad considering how old it is but the Starbucks serves stale pasteries. It is hard to believe with all the people going through that stuff would hand around long enough to get old but it does.

I'm glad I don't smoke any more. Going to an airport would just p--s me off. There are no accomidations for smokers any more. Personally, I think people were a lot more mellow when everyone smoked.

I'm glad I don't smoke any more. Going to an airport would just p--s me off. There are no accomidations for smokers any more. Personally, I think people were a lot more mellow when everyone smoked.Pat,

If you go to a place like O'Hare, smoking can almost kill you, because if you're not standing next to an exit (literally), you have to walk a mile just to get outside!!

I remember listening to Dennis Miller's "All In" stand-up routine in '06. His sophisticated nature tells him that the reason there is a hole in the ozone layer now is because we make everbody step outside to smoke at work....TRUE?? :)

I wasn't a big fan of the airport at Frankfurt, Germany. Everything was dark and dirty looking, and like Bob said about the airport at Kansas City, we ended up having to go through security gates again to make our connecting flight.

Here in the states I would have to say one of my least favorites is the airport at Orlando, FL. It is pretty and modern looking, but the two times we've flown in there it has taken forever to get our bags and rental car and get out of there. In the meantime, we flew into the airport at Tampa, FL once and we had our bags and car and were out the door within 30 minutes of our flight being on the ground.


which airport - theres 2 of them - i been to both wasn't that impressed with either but been to worse ..

I have always used London Gatwick airport when I am going over seas, I have two small children and we have never really had to wait too long, amenities are good, security process has been slowed down a touch since the attempted plane bomb attack but is getting better.

On the flip side, my worst airport used is Corfu airport, check in is a joke, large hall numerous check in desks, no defined queues everybody just milling around jostling for position. On the day that I used it, we had a four hour delay, some bright spark at the airport decided to tarmac the runway using the wrong tarmac which subsequently melted in the heat and got all the outbound and inbound flights cancelled due to wheels getting stuck.

Absolute nonsense.


I try to use Gatwick - its local clean and as scot hasmentioned easy on the eye - but we always try to fly Virgin going stateside - so osmetimes we have to go to Hreathrow - not so pleasant-
virgin on the other hand - hve been very good -when a planes been delay - we have been told and given an estimated time and also vouchers to spend

A friend of mine was double book so the bumped him off onto another flight and gave him a free flight any where vigin goes - (not bad for a 6 hours delay )

flown in to Newark - and thats a bump ride ( a bit weird when you can see the Freeway and it looks like its above you)

Customs was a shit , but no more than anywhere else (I must admit do they employ people without humor - or personality ) in the UK and Spain I like to have a bit of a laugh and a giggle with people but everytime a real sour faced arse asking stupid questions.

Hi, Pat. Birmingham, AL airport was pretty good the last two times I used it. My aunt used to live under the glide path for that one. Many's the night we would be at her house visiting when a low-flyin' jet would come in over the roof. They eventually bought out some of the houses and more went to expanding a school. But I'll tell you now, the worst flight I ever had in terms of total disappointment was from N'Awlins to Birmingham when they lost my mother.

(OK, they misplaced the coffin...)

Since I went up there a day early, they had enough time to get it to where it eventually had to go for the visitation and funeral. It wasn't a pleasant little trip anyway (for obvious reasons) but losing Mom's coffin just totally frosted my cookies.

I thought that this item related to this discussion:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/071021/koddities/oddity_airport_identifier

SHADOW

which airport - theres 2 of them - i been to both wasn't that impressed with either but been to worse ..

Don't remember now, it was back in '02. We flew out of Chicago on Lufthansa and landed in Frankfurt, then had to make a connecting flight to Helsinki. I want to say it was the main one. :confused:

I recall a story not too long ago of a small airport somewhere in Minnestota. The snow plow was on the front of an old dump truck.
The airport managment learned of a Federal grants program to replace old snow removal equipment at airports. They applied and got a $50,000 grant. Then someone read the fine print. The new plow would have to be placed in a separate, heated building that met Federal standards. It would cost the airport about $75,000 to erect a building to the correct specifications.

They sent the cheque back.

I recall a story not too long ago of a small airport somewhere in Minnestota. The snow plow was on the front of an old dump truck.
The airport managment learned of a Federal grants program to replace old snow removal equipment at airports. They applied and got a $50,000 grant. Then someone read the fine print. The new plow would have to be placed in a separate, heated building that met Federal standards. It would cost the airport about $75,000 to erect a building to the correct specifications.

They sent the cheque back.I wouldn't have. I would have just contracted it out and let the peoples' increasing demand for travel in future years pay for the deferment. Are you saying they made a bad decision??? Maybe someone should have talked to the Accountant!!! :cool: