Your most hated “ski” airport?

A snowHead

This thread isn't about the "worst" airport. There are 100s if not 1000s of airports and I doubt many of us have used enough to know which is "worst". It is about your "most hated". That's an opinion question and Geneva is my "most hated". Even more than Luton.

I departed through the main terminal on the Swiss side on Swiss (the airline).

A snowHead

I cannot say worst for either but poor for both. Birmingham on a Wednesday morning - to start, poor signing of check-in desks and then huge queue for security, and grumbling staff at security - not a smile to be seen. +1 for Eurowings tho' including free ski carriage. Salzburg on Sunday morning - to start, a large poster outside saying Ryanair and EJ to Terminal 2 (next to Terminal 1) - go in there and find the check-in desks are in Terminal 1 - if I had been tight for time.......security at Terminal 2 was very slow - only two stations and an EJ, Ryanair and Jet 2 all within a fairly narrow time frame - again if I had been tight for time...........and then the joke of the lot - a coach drew up outside the terminal to take us all of 30 yards to the plane. I have to say arrival at Salzburg on a Wednesday was a joy - very quick passport control and the luggage already arriving after that. Oh and we did not have to get a coach to the terminal but walked the 50 yards on that occasion.

There is clearly a weekend factor here - and it is probably understandable that, in a highly regulated environment, trained staff are short at weekends especially when there is not much midweek business. What surprises me is an airport like Geneva that always seemed to be busy midweek as well seems unable to cope. Not as a ski airport, but I have to say my recent experiences put Gatwick as my Number 1 best UK airport.

I do agree with a previous commenter - Swiss trains are not all they are cracked up to be - if you put enough flex in the timetable then they have a good chance of being on time but your journey goes on for ever and.....

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@dogwatch, you must be the unluckiest person in an unlucky place.

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A lot does seem to depend on the day. And things may have changed recently.
Grenoble has always been our preferred airport: easy to get to from La Plagne, you can park and just walk into the airport building, and always been easy getting and speedy getting in and out.
But that was before all this increased Security, and Brexit.
And going through on a weekday.
Weekends it seems are different - at least it was last Sunday.
Queue for Gents toilet
Huge queue for Security - managed to bypass most of it coz on BA flight (not sure why).
Another big queue for passports (advice: stick to the right hand corridor which is short distance to a lone passport booth, and avoid at all costs being "guided" into the cattle pen queue for the other booths).
Then a 15 minute queue for coffee.
We missed our take-off slot due to passengers being delayed, so took off an hour late - very stressed American in seat behind who had Heathrow connection to USA (our flight to Gatwick). Hope he made it.
(Note: dealing with rush hour in London is excellent training for crushed airports (and long lift queues) - just chill-out and go with the flow. No worries if got phone/laptop and power)

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Having just returned via Geneva on Saturday, this has been reinforced as the worst I have ever experienced. Flew with TUI so had to use the charter terminal. Crystal reps were worse than useless & after finally checking in, we ended up queueing for security outside the building as the queue was so long. On the plus side, they ended up walking us down to T1 to go through security there so we probably got the best of it, avoiding the bus between terminals. With at least 2000 travellers checking in for the Sat morning flights, you really get a cattle class sense of customer service (on both arrival & departure). The only plus was the train transfer both ends so at least we didn't have to endure a coach transfer.

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@Chuckles3, if you will choose to travel charter...

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After all it is free

+1 for Geneva, aided and abetted by Easyjet. The queue for check-in yesterday afternoon snaked well over 100m around the departures area. Not winter peak season, nor summer, no bank holidays I'm aware of.
People shuffle along in 25c heat in queue for 1.5 hrs. Still 50m short of a check in desk. Then invited to leave queue, go to Desk No. 1, where they're rushed through. Then told flight delayed.
Farcical. rolling eyes

GVA Was a bit busy yesterday, the easyJet queue actually made it out of the terminal (was in the shade so not so bad)
It did get a bit fractious in the queue with people trying to push in, witnessed one scuffle. I think yesterday was a culmination of end of season and all the tour ops sending the seasonaires home, the holiday (sunny beach brigade) season starting and the shear number of easy jet flights. They (easy jet) could have more desks open but then how budget would your flight be, but they do have passenger numbers so could warn people to get there a little earlier I suppose. Who’d be a logistics manager at an international airport Shocked

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@WellySki0009, how hard is airport check-in planning?
You know, +/- a few %, how many clients/hr on a given day.

You know on average how long the check-in process takes.

You just need enough check-in staff on duty to get people through in reasonable time.

I suppose I should be relieved EasyJet and Geneva airport aren’t managing anything important, like a busy hospital Accident & Emergency Dept. 😀

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The easyjet/Geneva farce was vaguely useful in one way though, the chaos seemed to have led to a bit of laissez-faire from the check in staff who asked if we'd paid for additional bag weight, was told 'no' and then said 'well, I didn't see anything' and waved us on our way. Decent person working in very strained conditions.

It was a hideous queue though, bit too much like hard work for me Confused

All else ran smoothly so no major complaints.

@kittya, yes I agree, most of the staff working to manage a difficult situation were helpful, cheerful and firm when needed. Majority of passengers were reasonable too, though I wonder what the drop-out rate to other airlines might be in future.
I expect senior managers were sunning themselves by the lake or seeing their therapist. Nobody resembling that status was to be seen on the 'shop floor'.
Little Angel

You know it makes sense.

aside from the ski-specific airports (Chamberry etc.) i just hate ski charter flights, actually just charter fligths in general. I'm up in the north of scotland and would (and do) take a 2 flight KLM option ahead of a direct thomson flight to Chamberry, Salzburg etc.

If i was based in the south of england, i would the car every time.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Flew Easyjet out of Geneva this afternoon. It was, as is almost always the case for us, quick and painless. About 15-20 minutes in the queue for baggage drop, smallest queue I've ever seen for security (about 3 minutes) and flight left on time. I guess the difference is we always choose to fly back on a Sunday so we pack the car up on Sat morning and depart the apartment, ski the Saturday, drive down to cheap hotel in Moutiers and have a great meal (highly recommend Baie d'Halong btw) and have a leisurely drive to Geneva on the Sunday (stopping today for a swim in Lac D'Annecy on the way). An extra day on ski's and a lot less stressful experience than many here seem to have at GVA.

A snowHead

A snowHead

@johnE, nah it was a pleasure. Very refreshing after a week sweating my dangly bits off in Espace Killy Laughing

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@swiftoid, yes, Sunday’s by far the best weekend day to start and end a one week winter sports trip involving flights.

Can only be a matter of time before SnowHead bashes move to a Sunday to Sunday standard week. Decades, perhaps?

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Ive had plenty of hours lost in easyJet check-in queue at Geneva. Ironically on Sat I walked direct to the desk with just a bottleneck of people too early for their own check-in to negotiate. A coffee on the terrace upstairs and then straight through security with no wait there either.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

-1 for Geneva.

Mrs Kiteman and I were dreading the check in, but we were through in a few minutes.

I guess it does help that when the "official" told Mrs kiteman to wait for 3 minutes she just stood in front of him and in her scary Northern Irish accent said "OK" Toofy Grin

Security was also a breeze

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I know that Chambery is more vulnerable to weather/visibility problems first thing in the morning, many slot 1's into CMF choose to take a small delay ex UK to avoid circling too long. Saying that I suspect that there are less weather problems there later in the winter once the lake has got colder (I think that the mist/fog is caused by cold air meeting less cold water).
As pandora and others imply - being operational for only 30 to 40 days a year means that they cannot afford a Cat III radar system as used in many larger airports.
Incidentally it's not helped when some silly leaves a handbag or rucksack there and the place goes into lock-down!

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Geneva.

After all it is free

So far almost everyone has focussed on the DESTINATION airport.

I'd like to flag up LUTON AIRPORT as one of the NASTIEST!

One of the first, if not the first, to impose a drop off charge for letting passengers off near the terminal, this is part-owned by Luton Council who should be ashamed of themselves for encouraging more and more flights into what is already an over-crowded airport and the terminal itself is often over-crowded. New arrivals are treated to a distinctly "industrial chic" warehouse look - what on earth they must think of the UK with such a poor first impression I hate to think.

Despite years of being a continiously changing building site, UK passengers have to endure ridiculously long queues just to get to the airport because the last half mile is one single lane from the last roundabout that is fed by three roads coming to it! One sees many late passengers jumping out of cars and rushing their luggage on the road to the terminal on foot as they've been stuck not moving for 15-20 minutes ... and this is at 6am sometimes!

Then one has to fight to drop luggage off - especially skis - in a confused, crowded, jostling check-in area ... then fight through a long, slow security check (unless one pays £3 or £4 now I think for "priority security" (which is a travesty as this is a government required, security check - instead of a few people paying to get faster screening they should have more channels open for everyone!) and then out into the sea of heaving humanity near the Pret a Manger and the restaurants ... then finally a long walk without travelators to an often cold, draughty (in winter) waiting area by the door and then to walk outside across the apron to your waiting Easyjet or other plane.

Horrible. And Luton council and their Spanish partners/operators (Ferrovial) want to increase the number of flights dramatically.

Long gone are the days when airports were designed to be an efficient way to get passengers and their luggage onto a plane - they are now little more than a legalised holding pen where we suffer delays and are fleeced as much as possible!

I am now willing to pay extra to AVOID Luton airport like the plague!

@Ashridge, For the above you could also read Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham or most other provincial UK airports I suggest.....

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Trust me ... Luton is by far the worst of those!

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@holidayloverxx, our last trip through Stansted was only tolerable due to Fast Track and using our lounge pass. It really was like a cattle market otherwise. I couldn't believe how busy it was at 6am in late September.

@Hells Bells, thus was at 5am

You know it makes sense.

I can not understand why people are being nasty about Gatwick. I have flown out of Gatwick many times with and without skis and I can remember no hassles or prolonged waits.

I always travelled to and from Gatwick by train which was very convenient, the escalator from the platform takes you right into the airport.

The baggage handlers turned a blind eye to my ski bag being oversize. [ I used to ski on 215s ]

They never lost my luggage and only once was it delayed, skis only. Delivered next day and they stumped up for rentals. [ Skiworld and Monarch ]

They even have free WIFI!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Help!!

Your most hated “ski” airport?

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