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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
"A filthy lobby, sullen-faced employees, no place to sit, and a vague sense of danger all add up to the World's Worst Airport." Funny, I thought the article was going to be about Lambert/St. Louis airport. Portal to Hell.
For a wonderful airport, go to Glasgow, Scotland. It's small (I always feel it's actually been made out of Legos!), clean, pleasant, and staffed with efficient and polite employees. Although like many Britons in service jobs they still, to a certain degree, exhibit that resigned and exasperated resentment that seems to come with the impostion of inferiority those sorts of jobs STILL carry in that STILL class-raddled country, the staff are generally patient and attentive, and actually have a sense of humor (of course they do, they're Scottish!). OK, I love Glasgow airport because it's my gateway to Scotland, my home land. But check out the airport and especially the charming, well-maintained ladies' room -- every female traveler's first requirement on disembarking! The dear, clean little rooms are adorned with tiny bouquets of fresh flowers over the sinks! Oh, yes!
I have to concur with the previous assessment of ATL - Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is a black hole. Yes, I'm badmouthing my home airport because it is everything a modern airport should not be - dark, dank and a relic from the 70s. Every time I visit some other destination like Montreal, SeaTac, Detroit, O'Hare (and even Midway and Reagan Internation) I sigh in dismay. How did we get stuck with an airport reminscent of a waiting room in Purgatory? ATL - where the the staff is surly (so much for southern hospitality), your flights are never on time, and you get to check your luggage in customs TWICE!
Yes, they're currently laying down travertine tile in the foyers and they've erected dinosaur bones in the atrium. Heck, Delta just got new digs and they were under bankruptcy protection! But what's the old southern saying? You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
I know ATL is limited to what it can do considering its status as one of the busiest airports around; but couldn't they at least pop out a few skylights?
Thank you, Patrick, for including the photos of your trip! I'm not eager to fly into Dakar, but if it means traveling to a place captured by the photos, I'd endure it.
I wanted to get a vote in for a local American airport: PIT, Pittsburgh International Airport. It has a beautiful terminal built in 1992 with tons of good food available, excellent by airport standards. Last time I was there, I couldn't get over how clean, sleek and new the whole airport seemed. Lots of nice shopping, too, and plenty to do during layovers.
Also, I was recently at Jorge Chavez International in Lima, and was very surprised by how easy it was to find my way around, how much English was excellently spoken by much of the staff, and how efficiently baggage check and security were run. My companion and I both expected LIM to be absolute mayhem and to spend hours figuring out how to get from place to place, but we had no trouble because everything was so clearly marked and the staff was so helpful.
And I heartily agree with those lamenting CDG's existence. I've flown in and out of there at least 12 times, and it's the only airport I've ever been to in my life where I've gotten there 5 hours before my flight and actually used every minute of that time moving from terminal to terminal, waiting to check in, etc. Enormous, poorly marked, very hard to find your way around if you aren't familiar with the place. Gargantuan, poorly laid out and very, very ugly with its attempt at "modern" design.
Buffalo’s airport is surprisingly nice in a functional way: cheap parking with prompt (and free) shuttle to the terminal; short lines at the counter and security; compact terminal so you don’t have to walk two miles to get to your gate; plentiful seating; relatively quiet. Sometimes the pilots will even circle Niagara Falls a couple of times after takeoff, to the annoyance of most of the business passengers but to the delight of anyone willing to open their eyes. Patrick would hate it because it has no history and limited livery, but its pleasant for real passengers.
My contribution to the bad airports list: Sofia International. Anyone else been through that one? I think the terminal is right on the runway because it smells like jet fuel. It's a glorified hangar...wires hanging from the ceiling, people crowded on floors and huddled in blankets. It's like a scene from Children of Men in there. Okay, maybe not that bad, but certainly not good. And then you have the culture shock of flying out of a former Soviet Bloc country where the black market rules everything, including how much baggage you can take on the plane.
Patrick,
Have you never been to Lagos' domestic airport? Dakar to a power of 10. Not only that, but Lagos has seperate airports for domestic and international flights. I discovered this to my great surprise only after arriving from Dubai on a luxurious Emirates flight. Fortunately a friendly Australian election monitor (talk about a lost cause in Nigeria) gave me a lift to the filthy, criminal-ridden shanty that serves as the domestic airport in time for me to catch my Bellview Airlines flight to Abuja. The same plane on the same route crashed a month later, killing all aboard!
As for CDG, that has my vote for Worst First World airport. On a recent connection through there we arrived at one terminal, deplaned, took a circuitous bus trip to the terminal where our connecting flight was supposed to board. Went through security again, walked a couple of miles through empty corridors, got to the gate, checked in, THEN BOARDED A BUS THAT TOOK US BACK TO OUR ORIGINAL TERMINAL, where the plane was actually located. Tres gallic..
And a general comment: Why do airport concessions close well before flights stop departing?
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
