worst airport?
 

On the U.S. board there's a thread on the worst U.S. airports - am curious about opinions on the worst airports in other parts of the world.

my experience last week leads me to nominate Heathrow. There just isn't enough room there for everyone who checks in, so passengers are left standing in line for hours, then running frantically for the gates.

Athens was pretty bad.

On this side of the ocean, JFK without reservation. On the Europe side, Athens. <BR> <BR> <BR>

For some reason, my worst experiences have been at Heathrow. I just hum a few bars of a semi-obscure Monty Python tune (the refrain ends with " and I'm so worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow") and try not to panic. It's just soooo much.

Florence airport.

top <BR>

Malpensa (the new Milan airport) -- hands down the worst ... at least in Italy. A vast, incoherent space. Information booths never staffed -- and, if you ask a policeman a question, you get directed to the nearest (empty) information booth.

Shermetivo II in Moscow . . .

Athens gets my vote. Guess I've been lucky at Heathrow - I've been through it 13 or 14 times and I've never had a hitch. It just seems like a big shopping mall that happens to have airplanes taking off! I just wade through the smoking section to the Pret a Manger for a sandwich and I'm all set.

Athens new airport was opening tomorrow so hopefully it will be better

Charles De Gaulle - I will never accept a layover of less than 2.5 hours there - you need a minimum of 1.5 hours to change planes there. What a disaster.

Mary, I totally agree with you. <BR>The worst airport in Europe has to be CDG for connecting flights. You have arrows pointing in all directions for the same terminal. It is the most confusing airport I have ever been.

yes, and at both of our originating destinations the check in clerk told us we could walk between gates but all the signs at CDG point you to buses which are horribly inefficient - we never did figure how to just "hoof it". Oops guess I shouldn't use that terminology.

Sheremetyevo I in Moscow. It is like taking a trip back to Brezhnevian Russia. Wonderfully dismal connection to Sheremetyevo II as well.

My vote is for CDG, terminal 1 I think, it's the older part. That had to have been the most disorganized place for checking in, then finding the proper gate. All the signs said one thing, but then the airport employees were saying something different. After a while of just hunting around we finally found our gate.

Not in a Moscow class, but anyone arriving for the first time at "London" Luton Airport is probably pretty underwhelmed, and then probably gets really steamed after schlepping halfway across southern England to get to London proper.

Arriving at Malpensa at 11:30 at night was one of the worst arrivals ever!Luckily a wonderful policeman going off duty helped me out. <BR>But Heathrow is my all time worst! Its like they're herding cattle! Does anyone know a way to beat the gate announcement system? 'Cause there's plenty of room to sit at the gates. <BR>Favorite? Coppenhagen. Well planned, great resting cabins, food and shopping.

Worst to get in and out of via car: Logan Airport, Boston (will the construction ever end??); JFK runs a close second. <BR> <BR>Worst facilities and for killing time: Athens <BR> <BR>Worst for connecting for a newbie: CDG. It's not hard once you've been there a few hundred times. <BR> <BR>Worst for getting help with anything: Milan (Malpensa is not a misnomer) <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Rob wrote: <BR> <BR>"A vast, incoherent space." <BR> <BR>That isn't an airport. It's my bloody life!

Faro. <BR>Last twice I waited over an hour for baggage & queued outside the terminal building to check in.Its too samall for the number of flights it hosts.

By far - CDG!!! <BR>It takes about 1.5 hours from the minute your plane lands till you are able to reach your connection. <BR>It is the most inefficient airport in the world! <BR>Ada

None of the European airports can compare to Chicago-O'Hare. It has the worst signage and rude employees of all the airports. I've even had some bad experiences in Schipol-Amsterdam, but it still is a piece of cake compared to O'Hare

Oh yeeeeeeees. O'Hare. <BR>The only GOOD thing about living in Chicagoland is that I never have to change planes there. And it's miserable enough without that. The politics of O'Hare ensure it will continue to be the mess that it is for the foreseeable future. <BR>On the foreign front I second [third... fifth?] the vote for CDG 1.

Whether or not Heathrow or Gatwick or Stansted are themselves reasonable airports, being booked with a connection that involves a transfer from one to another is an enormous hassle. There has got to be a better way to connect through "London" airports.

Outside of Eastern Europe, NOTHING is as bad as Heathrow. It takes about 6 weeks to transfer from an international to an internal flight, the ENTIRE airport shut down in December because an inch of snow fell! The sad part is that I'm probably overestimating the amount of snow. <BR> <BR>Also, I was once stopped at security for about 30 minutes because the security guy didn't know what an e-ticket was (for our flight onward from Heathrow). <BR> <BR>In the international departure lounge, there are no good restaurants or even fast food, and about the only decent food option is to buy sandwiches from the Harrod's store.

The London airports are not intended to share flight connections. If your agent suggest such a connection, then you should refuse it. The road distance between Gatwick and Stanstead, for example, is over 70 miles, around one of the worlds largest cities.

Anna, you must have been to a different Heathrow than the one I fly from every month. The international departure lounge has a plethora of restaurants and fast food outlets.

In defence of Heathrow. Never had a problem with a lack of food or good service and I am talking about cattle class. Just last week I checked in at Paddington station rather than the airport. Took about 30 seconds. With no luggage you can check in one hour prior to departure and two hours with luggage. Not sure where else this can be done!

We also have never had a problem at Heathrow in the 6 or so times we've been to London. A couple of times we've had to transfer to Gatwick, and we've had no problem doing that either. We do always allow PLENTY of time to check in, make connections, etc. so maybe that's why we haven't experienced the frustrations others have.

Heathrow is a lovely mall, and I am, personally, fanatical about plenty of time to make flights and connections. But I've gotta say that it is a horrifying place to negotiate during peak season when your flight from Amsterdam was over 2 hours late and you've been sent down secret staircases and nobody seems to know what to do at the counter to which you've just been sent. (There was also the time when the late unlamented PanAm had overbooked by about 100 people and we had to run through miles of corridors in order to get on the plane to which we were finally assigned.) It really is lovely; it's just that it seems to be a nightmarish universe of its own at times. (OK, other times no problem at all, but the problems are memorable ones.)