Your favorite airport?

CaptainSkidmark

Personally i love Schiphol!

Last time i was landing there i got a real treat! a Lufthansa A319 or A320 landed on the far off runway parallel to us and then we did a complete lap of the airport so we got to see everything that was parked up! great terminal also, there's a great buzz about the place! Not to mention the forward section of the DC9 and the engine of a DC10/777. Not sure what its off!

Its one airport i wouldn't mind having to spend a few hours waiting for a connecting flight!

Kevster

Interesting topic... ...I can't really choose my favourite airport, but my mind keeps coming back to Dublin for sme reason! I've been to quite a fe scattered around the world. Outside of Dublin, I've enjoyed passing through a small airport in a place called Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, but then I've also enjoyed Barajas in Madrid...

I dunno!

projectmayhem

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

Personally i love Schiphol!

+1

It should be the template of every Airport worldwide. Great buzz, atmosphere etc. Blends the pain of waiting with the wide-eyed joy of seeing aircraft, and shopping for wimminz.

Oh... and a nice handy Starbucks. Also, the fact that trains are there every 10 seconds to take you right into Centraal Station is great!

CaptainSkidmark

projectmayhem wrote: »

+1

It should be the template of every Airport worldwide. Great buzz, atmosphere etc. Blends the pain of waiting with the wide-eyed joy of seeing aircraft, and shopping for wimminz.

Oh... and a nice handy Starbucks. Also, the fact that trains are there every 10 seconds to take you right into Centraal Station is great!

And its not just the excitement about what lies ahead in amsterdam... when im packing my bag's to go home im always looking forward to a hour wandering around schiphol!

Steyr

For me in Ireland it has to be Shannon as you NEVER know whats going to come in between the scheduled flights. Outside of Ireland it has to be London Heathrow, its a spotters dream.

Does anybody here actually like being in an Airport while waiting for your flight? I cant stand check-in but as soon as it's done im all good and just love looking around at the movements outside and its a bonus if there is a cafe/food hall in there too.

Grease Monkey

Got to be Singapore for me,the new terminal 3 is just amazing,free wifi,free computers with internet if you dont have a laptop,butterfly garden,viewing area,quiet areas for people with connecting flights,its more like a hotel than an airport:D

Neworder79

Well predictable as it may seem to pick your local airport, Ireland West Airport Knock!

Why? (Compared to a 3.5 hour drive to Dublin):

Easy road access, quick car parking, no fuss friendly check-in, and the modern new departure terminal facilities are all I need, free wifi a bonus while waiting. And a growing selection of scheduled and holiday charter services close to home makes me more likely to travel. The convenience of going on holiday from Knock and being back home within an hour of landing has no comparison with the trauma I still remember from previous holidays out of Dublin.

OPENROAD

Has to be Heathrow for me always full of life with comings and goings from all over the world and of course flying into Heathrow for me is still such a great experience from flying over Arsenals Emirates stadium, the incredible views over the City of London especially at night,and of course spotting all the landmarks along the Thames, and all the way into Heathrow, brilliant

alpha2zulu

Heathrow for myself too. While there are several hubs with the same if not more diversity of operators as LHR, and most of the terminals are nothing to write home about, just watching the pressure that the two runway operation is under daily is fascinating. The airport just seems to have a character of its own, something which places like Paris-CDG seem to lack.

Particularly on approach seeing the holding patterns around you and as OPENROAD mentioned, the approach from the east is excellent.

JFK airport is special too for similar reasons, the evening international rush brings a great buzz to the place.

homerjay2005

these are the airports i have been in, and i have added a few comments on them.


Best - Bangalore
Worst - Paris cdg

Dublin - airport is a mess, very badly designed!
Shannon - nice airport but nothing to do there if flight is delayed!
Kerry - love it so easy to get in and out of!
Belfast
Manchester
Birmingham
Stanstead
Heathrow
Gatwick
Liverpool
East Midlands
Bangalore - really new, very clean and modern and simple to get around
Chennai - a dump
Leeds
Paris CDG - horrible place
JFK - very disappointing!
Agadir - not really nice.
Malaga.
Riga
Copenhagen
Moscow Shar
Berlin SO
Eindhoven - very short runway!
Tampere
Faro
Bratislava
Prague

will have a few more new ones coming up soon.

alpha2zulu

Paris CDG - horrible place

Not all of it, depends which termial your in I feel, and public transport to CDG isen't too bad.Terminal 1 for instance which is used by Aer Lingus is a awful building that looks like its ready to be demolished in my experience, can't think of a good thing to say about it.

The modern terminal 2 on the other hand is a incredible structure from an architectural point of view and watching the AF long haul operation from Terminal2E is a great way to pass the time there.




The 20minute bus trip out to the cityjet parking stands give you a great view of the airport also.

Slice

I love Paris CDG for reasons that are totally clear in the pictures above however Singapore is absolutely amazing and unlike any other airport I've ever been to. Terminal 1 of the main airport that serves Manila is also quite impressive as being a product of its time.

Brian

Cork - because there's never anyone at the customs desk =P

CaptainSkidmark

Baza210 wrote: »

Cork - because there's never anyone at the customs desk =P

except when ya come back from amsterdam! haha

peter1892

Best:

Copenhagen - I was only there as a transit passenger but it was very efficient.
Helsinki - similar to CPH, good design, easy to get through.
Geneva - not the most aesthetically pleasing airport in the world (although the view on approach & departure is stunning) but it works well and any airport where you can be on a mainline train within 30 minutes of landing wins my vote.
Zurich - see Geneva

Honourable mentions to Birmingham & San Francisco for both having interesting aviation museums. Barcelona & Prague were good too.

Worst:

Bergamo - hell on earth. The worst organised, dirtiest airport I have ever been to.
LHR - awful, awful airport. Especially T1 & the plastic tube the EI flights go from.
Manchester - always in a state of reconstruction.

Once upon a time I would have added JFK to the worst list but last time I was there (2004) it had improved beyond any recognition of how it was in the 1990's.

APM

Best:
SFO - Love watching the parallel approaches onto the 28's mixed with the departures on 1L and R. Nice place from a pax point of view too

Worst:
Dublin purely for the organisation or lack thereof, waiting for stands/groundcrew etc when you land most of the time

L.O.F.T

Punta Cana, this is where you enter the airport after you get off the plane! You know your on holidays

http://impressive.net/people/gerald/2002/02/16/07-55-13-sm.html

Hookey

Best: Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Bangkok (the new one).

Worst: Heathrow (by a long, long way), Moscow Sheremetyevo (mainly because of the security and the queues), Rio De Janeiro (total kip).

I can't believe anyone lists Heathrow in the favourites. Maybe T5 is changing things (haven't been through it yet), but the other four terminals are awful and BAA make me want to cry.

mikedragon32

Favourites:

Munich: I love the way there's a hub between the two terminals. Something about it that it has the feel of a train station. Dunno why...

Chicago O'Hare: came in and out on internals there (United), very laid back for such a busy terminal.

London City: Love it. Great approach and brilliant for getting to the City in a hurry.

Havana: For the VIP lounge. $20 for as much rum as you can drink and food too! Otherwise it's not that good...

Worst:

Lyon. Seriously? Parts of it would be at home in Soviet Russia.

Heathrow: It's just not a nice place to be. Poorly thought out layout, terrible for connections and I truly hate the tube thing for flights home. I do concede it's great for the approach, esp if you're on something small coming in behind a few heavies and you can spot the nervous flyers.

Boston (can't remember which terminal - Air Canada to Pearson), it's just not nice. Cramped, old and populated by some of the most belligerent workers I have ever come across.

shanel23

Favourites

Dusseldorf - Loads of space - always appears empty for such a busy airport.

Enontekio - basically a big shed but a cool place

Frankfurt - just for the shops




Worst

Dublin - I hate it !! I fly once a week and dread the security queue and then the queue for a coffee and then the hike down to pier D..

LHR - Terminal 1 - as already posted by a previous poster the tube where the Irish departure gates are.

Fratton Fred

Heathrow isn't too bad, the only thing that annoys me about that place is the walk, but even that isn't too bad.

Tobago airport is a dream. on a global scale, it would probably be termed "Basic" as far as an airport goes, but I love it.

The drop off area is under cover and is about 50metres long. once out of the car, there is no need for a trolley as the check in desk are on the side of the road. There are no conveyor belts because they only check one flight in at a time, so they just take your bags off you and place them on a trolley behind the desk, until the plane arrives and they can load them on.

Landing did make me smile. Two guys unloaded the luggage onto a trolley, pullled it across the tarmac to the terminal, took it up a ramp and dropped it over the other side, where it slides through a flap and onto the floor of the baggage hall. when the trolley is empty, they go back to the plane and fill it up again. it would be quicker and easier if the passengers just waited at the side of the plane for their bags, as if getting off a coach:D

Carroller16

shanel23 wrote: »

Dublin - I hate it !! I fly once a week.

Swit Swoo!!:p

Run_to_da_hills

Knock international is my favourite. When you arrive or take off from it you usually have the whole lounge to yourself.

Delta Kilo

I think St Maarten deserves a mention here, definitely an airport that I would like to visit one day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo

jt123456

Heathrow is a bit of a mess but everything is well sign-posted so its not hard to find your way around. Spotting in terminal 3 makes up for any transit headaches.

Singapore is by far the best ive ever been in. They realy know how to do efficiency. Just ignore the €9 price for a pint in the bar.

StephenM_smc

I flew through Orlando this weekend, its actually quite a nice well laid out airport from what I saw. Not too busy, but a nice variety of aircraft.

DOCARCH

Reykjavik (Keflavik) Airport is lovely inside, all timber.

Honk Kong airport is impressive - very clam! (this is probably added to by the fact that you can check in your bags in the centre of Hong Kong in the train station).

Neworder79

"Reykjavik (Keflavik) Airport is lovely inside, all timber. "

That reminds me of Ushuaia (at the tip of Argentina). Stunning location to land in over the mountains and the terminal is like a ski chalet - all timber A frame.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/0729599/&sid=3235cee99731fc93036d1160d79e3628

ednwireland

any airport i can get out of in less than 10 mins from picking baggage to getting in a car is fine by me so derry errr cant think of any others, their all rubbish to be honest i prefer to spend as little time as possible in them

Fratton Fred

ednwireland wrote: »

any airport i can get out of in less than 10 mins from picking baggage to getting in a car is fine by me so derry errr cant think of any others, their all rubbish to be honest i prefer to spend as little time as possible in them

If you land at dublin's pier B you can do it.

Several times my flight has landed at 19:45 and i have caught the 20:00 bus from the bus station.

then there's last week, where we arrived at pier D, then I had to wait 25 minutes for my bags......:(

dogmatix

Likes -
1. I've always had a soft spot for Gatwick - I like the location (it appears to be surrounded by forests when your flying in), handy for overnight accomodation (The travel inn by the north terminal is always good value) and an uncrowded train station for direct links to Victoria. Plus lots of very happy memories of flying out to various holiday destinations down through the years.
2. Vancouver international - clean, well laid out and functional, not bad looking and good facilities. But the airside facilities for international travellers are very poor so grab a bite to eat before security.

Dont likes -
1. Dublin - Ugly, overcrowded and poorly planned.
2. Heathrow - dirty, overcrowded, ugly, confusing. And those hideous, hot, claustrophobic narrow tubes for Dublin bound passengers.

JMcCR

I fly from Dublin to Schiphol and back once a week... and I do love Schiphol.

Thing is though that there are 2 completely separate departure area's from what I see. I go through gate D when coming home which has a good mish mash of shops, restaurants etc but when I fly to Germany I go through B (I think!!). This has way more and better shops and restaurants. It's so much better.

I think they are separate because there is agreement between some countries to be able to travel with no passport checks.

It is cool though when I have an hour to spare and can walk down and see the long distance jumbo's etc

sonyair

Shannon is my fav as it is local and simple, plus it has that fighting feeling to stay alive.
My worst would be Bodrum in Turkey as it was smaller than the old Cork terminal. Extension on the cards this year.

mikedragon32

JMcCR wrote: »

Thing is though that there are 2 completely separate departure area's from what I see. I go through gate D when coming home which has a good mish mash of shops, restaurants etc but when I fly to Germany I go through B (I think!!). This has way more and better shops and restaurants. It's so much better.

I think they are separate because there is agreement between some countries to be able to travel with no passport checks.

That's the Schengen Agreement...

Fratton Fred

dogmatix wrote: »

and an uncrowded train station for direct links to Victoria.

because it is half the price and just as quick to go to london bridge or Waterloo

BuffyBot

I quite like Heathrow - for the variety if nothing else. It's got issues, and can be frustrating - but that's part of the charm for me also. It is a hodge-podge, sure, but it's got some character. Big new shiny terminals can be great but they can also be quite dull and sterile.

CDG T1 - I also quite like. If nothing else, I love that they tried something so different with it. I like the space-age style of the terminal and I love the tunnels to the sattelites.

SFO is nice, but the International Terminal is quite sterile as I mentioned above. It works extremely well though. HEL and CPH are quite good too.

highlydebased

Shannon is alright, it just being my local. Odd stuff turns up regularly enough. Alright to fly through, only if the flight is not delayed!

Faro is not bad, one of the nicer airports I've been through

Worst- Reus, a dump. Might have improved since I was there, but generally awful, croweded and horrible.