Best/worst Airports

[statsman]

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.

 

[pono1]

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...

 

[boblarson]

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.

 

[BarryMK]

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.....

 

[Friday]

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.

 

[Pauldohert]

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.

 

[CraigDolphin]

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!

 

[Brianwarnock]

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 ), 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

 

[KenHigg]

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

But that was in the 80's

 

[Jacob Mathai]

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.

 

[KenHigg]

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...

 

[statsman]

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?

 

[statsman]

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.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

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.

 

[Jacob Mathai]

National (Reagan) or Dulles?

We came to Washington Dulles.

 

[MrsGorilla]

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.

 

[statsman]

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.

 

[David Eagar]

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

 

[scott-atkinson]

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.

 

[statsman]

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.