Nominate your favourite airport and why...

[HardieBoys]

Just seeing what airport(s) people nominate as their favourite and why.

 

[shillard]

Belmont - BEO

Free parking, check-in 5 minutes prior to departure, 15 minutes from my home (8 when you're pressed at 5:45am) :wink:

No lounge, but you're never there long enough to need one. Only $35 in a hire car, too.

 

[arun]

Changi, Singapore - for their efficiency and facilities. And the convenience of going to the city.

Second - Hong Kong.

 

[QF WP]

My favourit airport...BNE of course (particularly on the inbound sector), the joys of coming home cannot be beaten....particularly now that I am married again... :wink:

Second and third, I would agree Singapore and Hong Kong - facilities, cleanliness, orderliness..comes close to Godliness

 

[Rossmurdoch]

HKG for its effieciency, cleanliness and ease of transport, the CX lounges are very good too.

JFK & CDG just because I love New York & Paris

 

[rormad]

SYD for the same reasons as Lindsay - nothing much to do with amenities - except familiarity - more to do with getting home after a trip (domestic) or going away somewhere exciting (international).

Favourite off shore airport - how can you go past Lord Howe Island after a flight over the open sea for 2 hours in a Dash 8? Also LHI is THE most beautiful place in the world.

 

[ffhound]

Rotorua

HI

My choice would be Rotorua. Its a single runway which you have to climb down between the local mountains to land on.

Its quite a neat little airport and so close to the town centre - and in quite a nice mountain setting.

cheers Peter

 

[Gabs]

It would have to be Hong Kong for the excellent first class lounge. Fre buffet with table service!

 

[clifford]

Sydney - I'd like to nominate this as my least favourite airport.

As someone that lives a few hundred Km from SYD, I usually have to transit this airport when flying overseas, which I do several times a year.

I strongly object to having to pay $3 or $4 just to transfer from domestic to international or vv (yes, that's right, I don't fly QF). I'm not aware of any other airport in the world (apart from BNE) where one has to pay for inter-terminal transfers.

Anyone that thinks SYD is anything other than rip-off is deluding themselves.

 

[Gerri]

Just seeing what airport(s) people nominate as their favourite and why.

BIRMINGHAM, UK. - IT IS SMALLER, LESS HASSLE (Less passengers) quick to depart and arrive in and less of a terrorist threat than other major airports. Quite the BEST way to enter the UK - Gerri

 

[youngflyer]

HKG for its effieciency, cleanliness and ease of transport, the CX lounges are very good too.

JFK & CDG just because I love New York & Paris

If you mentioned HK I reckon the Old Aiport in Kowloon City was great as well, mainly of the location and the way the planes landed.....drove pasted it 1 month ago...only a golfing range.

Paris is great too...Architecture

Egypt was the worst dirty dirty dirty

Dubai is the best, I purposly book our flight so we get to stay for 9hrs.........I kidd you not for the 9hrs I was doing something, wasn't just waiting.

 

[NM]

Those who know me won't be surprised by my response. LHR for the scotch oferred in the BA First Class lounges in T1 and T4 (JW Blue, The glenlivet 18yo, Glenfeddich 18yo and more). I also like the F check-in at T1 with its own security checkpoint - beats the zoo in the rest of the terminal.

 

[sully]

Without doubt it has to be Amsterdam Schipol. I won $400 at the casino a couple of years ago between connections. Also I was a Royalwing member and never used the business class lounge there (1st Class had Heineken on tap)

Another serious contender is Dubai. The Emirates lounge has a buffet like a top class Arabic restaurant.

Singapore for proximity is very good.

Speaking of connections, while KL is well served by a very fast train I find it bleak and cavernous.

For the worst one, Sheremetyvo 2 in Moscow takes the cake. Oh, the toilets :shock:

 

[NM]

For the worst one, Sheremetyvo 2 in Moscow takes the cake. Oh, the toilets :shock:

Sounds much like KBP (Kiev Borispol). Their squats are not for the feint hearted - or for those that travel sans-paper :shock: .

And the "friendly" officers at passport control and customs make for an interesting arrival and departure.

Trying to find an airport employee who speaks English so we could lodge a missing baggage claim also proved interesting. Apparently there was only one person there who understood enough English to complete the form (in Russian) for us.

But there is a business class lounge that BA passengers (CE and OneWorld Emerald) can use prior to boarding. Now that was one lounge with some beers I have never seen before!

 

[sully]

NM, a fellow visitor to KBP!! When were you there as I don't have too many bad memories of that aspect of the airport? Note the emoticon is not embarrassment but simply a flush :wink:

I agree that the welcoming committee at passport control is not one that makes one feel at home. In fact I do remember one poor Canadian kid who decided to 'visit' some of his relatives on a whim (there are many Canadians of Ukrainian background inview of the former's generous immigration policies after WWII). He arrived sans invitation and visa, which he thought he could get upon arrival. As he didn't know exactly where they lived (they were waiting for him on landside) he was refused a visa and told to go back on the flight he had arrived on. He was not even allowed to speak with them to let them know what was going on :evil:

The lounge is a bit quirky, you would have had some Obolon, Slavutych and maybe Zhiguli. There is also a pretty good Irish bar at departures.

 

[cardenio98]

I have to say Hong Kong is the best. Wide open spaces and it's easy to get around. Also Cathay has a great club lounge there. If you're with a girl then shopping is good for them. It's a well designed and modern airport which shows the rest of the world how an airport should be done.

I know some people bag out Sydney (I have to say that it is very bad and the staff are the most unfriendly I have come across in an airport) but it's not as bad as the old Guangzhou (China) international airport....

Cheers!
Simon

 

[pomjim]

K.L.

Modern, generally fairly empty, and a great terminal to terminal transportation sysytem!

Can't stand Frankfurt.

 

[QF WP]

pomjim, have to agree with you about KL, except for the immigration queues...that's why getting an APEC card would be so handy.

FRA - great hub, little else going for it apart from tthe Sheraton and U-Bahn connection underneath.

 

[NM]

NM, a fellow visitor to KBP!! When were you there as I don't have too many bad memories of that aspect of the airport?

Sorry for the delay in responding. I lost track of this thread. I have been to KBP three times, in 1999, 2002 and 2003. Last visit was July 2003.

I agree that the welcoming committee at passport control is not one that makes one feel at home. In fact I do remember one poor Canadian kid who decided to 'visit' some of his relatives on a whim (there are many Canadians of Ukrainian background inview of the former's generous immigration policies after WWII). He arrived sans invitation and visa, which he thought he could get upon arrival. As he didn't know exactly where they lived (they were waiting for him on landside) he was refused a visa and told to go back on the flight he had arrived on. He was not even allowed to speak with them to let them know what was going on :evil:

The airline should not have let him board if he did not have a Visa. One one of my flights from KBP, there was an English woman who had been refused entry and was turned around on the same flight. She had the standard 3 month visa (same as I used), but didn't realise it was a single entry visa and was trying to re-enter Ukraine within three months of her initial visit on that visa.

Gaining a visa and subsequently entry has some quirky and stringently enforced rules. On my first visit in 1999, we had to visit the "Office of Visas and Passports" in Kiev city to have our passport stampted. We were only there 4 days, and two of them the weekend. This stamp could not be obained at the airport, but only at the specified office in down town Kiev. Without that extra stamp, exit processing would have been somewhat interesting. With the new sticker visas, there is no longer a need to have it validated down town, simplifying things a little.
[quote="sully]
The lounge is a bit quirky, you would have had some Obolon, Slavutych and maybe Zhiguli. There is also a pretty good Irish bar at departures.[/quote]
I didn't visit the bar (probably the most expensive bar in Ukraine), just the quirky lounge where the drinks are free. But it does have a western syle toilet complete with electric shoe shiner. And yes, several beers which I could not spell, let along pronounce. So some of those you mention were likely consumed .

 

[arun]

Linsay,
."....except for the immigration queues...that's why getting an APEC card would be so handy. "

How do you get the APEC card and what is it? I have seen it in the immigration queues, but never bothered to check it out.
Arun