Airport thread anyone?
What's your local airport? Best airport you've been to, and the worst?
My local is Leeds/Bradford. In fact, not long ago I lived very close, to the point where planes would be flying ridiculously low over my house and drowning everything out. It's a standard provincial British airport, so nothing special, but you can go pretty much anywhere in Europe from there now, which is good as it saves me having to slog over to Manchester. Jet2 are based there, and they're always expanding by the year.
Best airport was probably Mahon in Spain. I just remember it being nice, clean, not many queues, nice and modern looking, and just easy. Skiathos in Greece is a cool little airport. There was a cafe we'd sometimes go to, right at the end of the runway, and the incoming planes would literally fly past us, rather than over us.
Worst has to be one of the many I've been to in Egypt. Cairo, Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Abu Simbel and Aswan. All utter shitholes. Corfu wasn't too great either. For the sheer amount of traffic the place handles, it's fucking tiny, to the point where we were told to queue outside in the midday sun until they could open a check-in for our flight. The place was just overcrowded.It was pretty great if you enjoy watching planes before you fly though, as there was constant movement outside.
Big airports I've been to like Heathrow and Amsterdam all just feel the same to me.
I'm within an hour of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham so I don't really have a local one. Favourite would be Changi, most disappointing was Vientiane although the restaurant was really nice
>>1049855
my local ones are istanbul ataturk and sabiha gökcen. atatürk is nice, sabiha is a pit of despair for me because i always end up being there way too early, i'll end up having my flight delayed (curse you, turkish airlines) etc. but i hear the lounges are really nice.
i recently flew to trabzon airport which is a beautiful regional airport, just one runway with the black sea directly on one side. very nice. photo related
>>1049855
Worst airport?
Far and away CDG in Paris. Design is terrible, staff are rude and condescending, you have to take buses to get around the airport, random construction half-heartedly going on, detour signs that lead to nowhere, and, to top it all off, they lost my luggage on a connecting flight. I'll never fly through Paris again if I can avoid it.
>>1049855
Local: Saskatoon YXE Worst: Somewhere in Jamaica near Negril Best: Honolulu or NYC or Toronto? Airports are all pretty shit.
>>1049855
>Local
My local is SFO, San Francisco International. It's just fine. Not great, not offensive. Easy enough to navigate, connected to city by trains (finally--for decades you had to take a bus to BART). Lots of options for nonstop flights to Asia if you like that sort of thing (I do). Newer Terminal 2 is quite swanky, but I barely use it.
>Best and Worst
Best is probably everyone's favorite, Changi. Worst is either one of the shambolic Pakistani airports (all of which seem to be simultaneously half-finished and half-demolished) or poor old Tribhuvan in Kathmandu, where nothing, including ATMs, air-con, and, often as not, electricity works. Security is grabby as hell, as well. Seems churlish to complain--desperately poor country, only recently finished civil war, etc--but still no fun to travel through.
I've been in the Frankfurt airport several times and always fuck it up.
>>1049855
I'm in HKG right now and must say it's definetely one of the better airports I've visited.
LGA was probably the shittiest one, but really most US airports aren't really great, apart from maybe HNL.
I like BKK the most though, the Airport of Smiles..
Local is Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Favorite US airports tho is Salt Lake City International, and Ted-Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Absolutely hate Atlanta-Hatsfield
changi airport ftmfw
free cinema
free massage chairs
beautiful gardens
awesome food
actual free wifi
clean showers
capsule beds
monorail terminal transfers
really good shopping
makes a long stopover so easy
easy to get visa to leave for a few hours
city tours etc
Local airport is Charles de Gaulle (Paris). It's ugly and it has a poor duty free. But it's not the worst, as you can take a train that leads you to Paris directly without having to change direction. Ok, I have to say, this is the worst train we have in France...
One of the best airports I've been is Stokholmes ! Its design is very nice looking, with an incredible choice at the duty free.
Oslo is nice too, BUT DON'T GO TO MAX'S ! Worst burger of my entire life omg.
Hong Kong : awesome design ; is there still a plane hanging at the ceiling ?
Bangkok : in 2006 they used to offer foot massages. Best idea ever. But then they made constructions and works and the massage spot died (or I couldn't find it).
Cambodia : lol just a box in the sand.
My local is Cork, waaaay better than it used to be. Lot of mixed feelings there, said goodbye to my girlfriend there for probably the last time, but also used to pass through it while I was living abroad (for coming home etc), so big sense of freedom there too.
Breakfast there is okay if you're there really fucking early.
Favourite would probably be Seoul or Schipol, both really nice, efficient airports with minimal hassle. I remember Taipei having a nice one too.
Least favourite has to be Guangzhou. I was unfortunate enough to have two stopovers there, it's a shithole. Smoking areas indoors with no windows, no atm in that section (so you were fucked if you ran out of money), really expensive food, etc.
>>1049855
>What's your local airport?
Santos Dumont- SDU
Pic related
>Best airport you've been to
Heathrow by far
>And the worst?
Fiumicino
Local is Schiphol. It's fine, not that special.
Worst I've experienced was Eindhoven. My flight from Lisbon to Eindhoven was delayed, causing me to miss the train from Eindhoven to where I live. I had to wait until 06:00, but the airport closes overnight. There's an expensive hotel at the airport, and I didn't have enough money for a room. Ended up sleeping outside the airport. Really lucky it was summer. The surroundings of the airport is all business too, and the only connection to the city and Eindhoven central station is by bus, which also only goes back and forth until I believe about 23:00. Besides all of this, the airport is small, and the queue for passport control is tucked away and chaotic.
Local is ATL Hartsfield-Jackson
It's also my favorite for things to do during connections, and it's the most organized busy airport I've been to. LGA is a garbage can, and Lima sucks, too.
>>1050102
Holy shit, me too. Are you from Cork or do you live in another county?
>>1050193
SLC is a relatively small airport, but from what i remember, its easy to navigate and overall very efficient.
My local one is London Southend, but I've never been there. I've heard it has expanded a fair bit in the last few years.
I've only ever been to three airports: London Gatwick (twice), Larnaca (Cyprus), and Copenhagen (Denmark).
All three were pretty painless in my opinion, though Larnaca is hilariously small. Dunno if its been expanded since 2009
>>1050177
From Cork, working in Dublin atm though
Local airport is Arlanda, Stockholm. I think Arlanda may be my favorite airport actually as it has a lot of shopping to offer, and nice architecture and layout. Worst one I don't know. Maybe Ben Gurion in Israel as there were so many guards and security booths to go through to get anywhere. Also while Heathrow is probably objectively amazing it's just so enormous and difficult to get around in, nearly missed my layover to NYC because of that.
Local airport is Detroit Metropolitan. It's really improved a lot over the last few years. The McNamara Terminal is one of Delta's hubs, and it has a lot of cool features, like a tram, fountains, a massive hotel, and a weird tunnel. The other terminal isn't quite as nice but it's not terrible, either.
My favorite airports so far have probably been Indira Gandhi (New Delhi), Keflavik (Reykjavik), DXB, and Bahrain.
Least far are Santa Marta (Colombia) and Almaty International (Kazakhstan). Fucking piece of shit Santa Marta - better hope you get a night flight, because the security line is outside in a fucking cement building in 37+ C temperatures.
Local and worst is Hartsfield-Jackson simply because it's such a damn monster at this point.
Best would be Ted Stevens because it's not too big or small, it's clean, and the people there are usually very polite and civilized. Also...
>The tunnel from baggage claim to parking and rental pickup
Cozy as fuck
Local airport is Akron Canton (CAK.) It's great to not have to drive all the way to Cleveland for domestic flights.
I live equal distance away from both Avalon airport (AVV) and Melbourne Tullamarine airport (MEL). Only ever been to Avalon once and it was very small but had a cosy feeling to it. It's literally in the middle of nowhere though so when you land you feel like you've just landed on farmland.
Tullamarine seems really dated. Compared to some of the other airports I've been to the facilities are all really old and the shops are all very small and shit. More than half of them just sell kangaroo/penguin plushies and ugg boots. Customs always takes forever to get through too and gets crowded quite easily.
>Local airport:
Juan Santamaria International Airport (Costa Rica), it's small but good!
>Best:
Las Barajas (Madrid)
>Worst:
Fumicino (Rome) & Ben Gurion (Tel Aviv)
>>1050144
Fumicino is the worst indeed! I walked til my feet hurt to get to the gate!
Local/Best airport PDX (Portland Oregon). Voted best airport in the U.S. a couple of times. The locals have this weird fetish for the carpet (don't get it, but whatever). Instead of your normal fast food and trinket shops we have a local wine carts and smaller versions of some of the iconic restaurants in Portland. A couple craft brew pubs and clean new places round out the places to eat. It's a relatively small airport, but security is extremely fast, the employees are friendly and everything is extremely clean and spacious.
As for the worst, I'd have to say Heathrow due to the fact that every time I fly through their the airport screws something up. The place is designed like a fucking maze and the distance between things is crazy far. I've missed layovers multiple times due to poor buss schedules and the employees have been smug and unhelpful. The signage is terrible and with the exception of the new wing and sky-clubs the facilities suck as well. It's not the worst airport in the world because it's well funded and quite large/busy, but for a city as important as London it's really kind of pathetic how awful it is.
Local: Zurich
Best: Changi, HKG, Zurich (no really, it's breddy good), Helsinki (small but efficient and has everything needed)
Worst: Fiumicino, Frankfurt (for transfers, what a fucking nightmare), Doha (the old one, the new one is nice)
I'm not counting the little quaint 3rd world airports as worst, since they at least do their job, only the actively bad ones.
Local: Currently Brussels, even if Maastricht/Aachen is closer. Somehow I feel as if BRU is very convenient when you're leaving, but if you're arriving there it's terrible. Suddenly you have to walk very very far.
Worst:
Probably Stockholm Arlanda. It's not terrible but there is also nothing good about it. It is constantly crowded. I've only been to terminals 4&5 though.
Best:
Probably Oslo Gardemoen. Quick, easy and convenient. The only annoying thing is if you're connecting to a domestic destination you have to pick up your bag, pass through customs and check it in again. And go through security once more.
Local: Berlin TXL and SXF. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with both, as I like TXL if you don't have any checked luggage (plane to curbside in 60-100 seconds or so) and I profoundly hate SXF for being shit, but it happens to be located so conveniently for me that I never have to spend much time there. Plus childhood memories.
Best: I really like Narita as an airport. Location is shit. Doha was good. SFO was unmemorable, which I think is good for an airport. Vienna, Madrid, Bangkok BKK, Budapest and Nice are also nice.
Worst: SXF, Cairo, Bangkok DMK.
Local is Stansted
Pretty sweet
Best would be Heathrow, though Innsbruck is fun because of how short the runway is
Best
>Singapore
>Kuala Lumpur Int
>Bangkok Int
>Amsterdam
>Heathrow
Worst
>Da Nang (new international terminal is literally half the size of a football field)
>Don Mueang (Bangkok)
>>1053873
Also, local would East Midlands, Luton or Birmingham.
All pretty meh.
>>1049855
My local is Boston
My favorite is Nagoya for the food court views of ocean and mountains and the plane porn watching anatov and the 787 cargo planes coming and going. Absolutely hate any for the Paris airports
Local is TLH in Tallahassee. It just went from regional to international, pretty sure its only like one flight to the caribbean or something. 95% of all flights are to Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, or Charlotte. Good chance you'll be flying in a tiny plane. On the plus side, you NEVER wait more than 5 minutes in line anywhere in the airport and there's usually no line at all through security. It's on the less populous edge of town so hardly any traffic either in the area.
I haven't been to that many airports. I like Ted Stevens in Anchorage, TF Green in Providence ( Dat sailboat), and Charlotte-Douglas (dem rocking chairs by the giant windows and skylights in the food court. I liked how you feel like you're going to end up in the bay when you land at Logan, cool views of downtown and the water.
I like Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta because I remember riding the subway there when I was 5 and thought it was the coolest thing ever. SeaTac, DFW, and Fort Lauderdale were pretty forgettable.
>>1053947
Oh and I forgot to mention JAX was pretty forgetable too.
>Local
Jyväskylä Airport. Only has 3 daily flights to Helsinki and some charter flights. Mainly used by Finnish Air Force.
>Best airport(s)
Might be a little biased, but I really like Helsinki Airport. It's convenient and everything works smoothly. I also liked DTW and MCO in the US. Riga, AMS-Schiphol and Alicante airports were nice too.
>Worst
Paris CDG, getting around there is painful and the staff is rude.
JFK was catastrophic, especially terminal 1 where staff were yelling at people and it was PACKED and had to wait over 1 hr in line for security check with angry people. Also everything was expensive and it was so dirty.
I don't really know what you guys base your judgements on. I've been to quite a few airports but it's not like I spend a lot of time there. Mostly just go from point A to B. If I can get to the airplane conveniently/get out from the airport with ease, then I'm happy. Bonus is if it has good wi-fi.
>local
I guess Tampa would be my local airport, though more technically it would be St Pete/Clearwater but i rarely fly out of there, and even more technically i would be closest to local municipal airport.
>best
Never had any complaints flying in/out of Tampa, also absolutely love flying through Logan
>worst
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta terminal C
