GENEVA AIRPORT review : 3 July 2008 : by K Popkens

Customer Rating : 4/5

Easy, well organised public transport from/to the city. Friendly staff, clean interior. Check in / security/gate taken 12 mins only - maybe lucky on that Sunday noon, the airport was very silent. Well priced duty free, less well priced cafes and all accepted euros.

GENEVA AIRPORT review : 27 June 2008 : by H Albright

Customer Rating : 4/5

All arriving passengers now receive a free Geneva transport ticket good for 80 minutes on the train, bus and tram network. This covers the entire canton of Geneva. The machine for the tickets is in the baggage hall, next to the left-most green channel. Just press the button and take your ticket. You will also need to present and air ticket or boarding pass with the day's date if your ticket is checked by an inspector.

Geneva Airport review by David Lloyd

28 March 2008  Customer Rating :

Geneva Airport has to be one of the most badly signposted airports if you want to go directly into France. Had I not asked a fellow passenger who travelled there frequently I would have never found the way. The instructions on the airport web site are not correct! Returning, the check in desk in the French area wasn't labelled so I had to ask. Poor signposting from their to the departures area and an immovable glass door between until you realise there's a tiny button to press. Customs then let you through at their leisure. When you eventually find your way to the departure area you can't proceed through security until your gate is showing. The shops meanwhile are expensive and the seating are hard to find. Security takes at least 20 minutes and then there aren't enough seats at the gates. Not recommended.

Geneva Airport review by D Gyton

27 March 2008  Customer Rating :

My partner & I had the misfortune of travelling through Geneva airport on 10 March. Inbound no issues & would agree with comments elsewhere re easy access to the rail network etc. Travelling home was a very different story, the lounges are not airside of security & there was no indication of the length of time to get through the security checks. So we were called for the flight and then faced with just two open security channels and very long queues. Other customers waiting indicated this was often the case & no effort ever made on the part of the airport authority to improve things. There was no effort on the part of the staff to speed things along and their attitude was simply one of why should we care. We did make the flight I believe only as result of BA being prepared to wait and we were not the last on board. Overall a very unpleasant experience

Geneva Airport review by Anne Kenwright

17 March 2008  Customer Rating :

Avoid Geneva airport on Saturdays in the ski season unless perhaps you travel by scheduled flight; on the way in there was a problem with baggage that took almost 2 hours to unload. boots and skis did not arrive - it transpired that they were actually at Geneva but could not be found - eventually arrived in resort on Thursday. Inghams rep told us that there were often luggage problems and some lost/delayed nearly every week. On journey home terrible queues for security - so bad many had to be sent through different gates (very much worse than Gatwick but can't comment on Heathrow) and after boarding we waited for at least an hour on the tarmac for baggage to be loaded - we were told one vanload had gone astray. There seems to be a new charter terminal that only opens weekends and quite clearly cannot cope with the volume of traffic; maybe it will be better next winter

Geneva Airport review by Sebastien Morard

2 March 2008  Customer Rating :

One exits usually directly in the terminal even with budget flights, short walks in quiet corridors with travelators, non-fussy passport controls, and direct connexions (and now free: free ticket delivery just after the luggage belts) by train to the city center (train/bus 5/10 make virtually all important conference venues and hotels reached in 10 to 15 minutes). The only drawback may be the baggage handling, which is slower than, for example, in Zurich. But this is largely compensated by the short distance to town. Departing from GVA is a bit less enjoyable - not agreeable on saturday : long queues, expensive shops that are too rarely open and small (especially the duty free shop, right after the passport control). Airside zone A is very modern. zone B seems to be reserved to easyjet and charter flight, so it is often crowded and lacks shopping facilities. And the french side is a nonsense: use it only if you arrive from France and rented a car with a french agency or if need to avoid Switzerland for visa reasons. The only advice would be to better manage peak times, learn proper english, and scrap the french side to add some space and shops.

Geneva Airport review by Alexandre Glauser

26 February 2008  Customer Rating :

Geneva is a very pleasant and efficient facility, and there is very easy access to the train station. Loads of shops/cafes in the main terminal or at the railway station. Selection is more limited airside but this will change soon as the airport is being expanded. The negative comments below refer to the times when flights from all over Europe converge to Geneva, bringing thousand of skiers heading for the nearby ski resorts. On these days, it is true that the airport is stretched to limits and facilities inadequate for the number of people visiting the airport.

Geneva Airport review by Neil Cooper

25 February 2008  Customer Rating :

Once again spent an uncomfortable 2 hours sat on the marble foor waiting to depart. The gates seem to serve three flights but only have enough seating for one! You have to go through to the gate early as this is where the security checks are done. I don't know if its just the extra ski holiday traffic, but the airport always seems to be absolutely packed to capacity.

Geneva Airport review by D Cribbins

19 February 2008  Customer Rating :

In my opinion, Geneva airport rates poorly in comparison to other European airports. Going through can be a major hassle. We arrived and exited via GVA this week on our way to a Swiss ski resort picking up a hire car from the French side. Here are some practical steps that we will take next time: Arrival - Have a 2CHF coin or 2Euro for the luggage trolley. Pass through customs to the French side in the arrivals hall. Get ready for the very small and slow lift down to the car rental parking area. Stop at the border and buy a 20CHF motorway sticker. Departure - Arriving from the north via the A1 look out for the Ferney sign as already posted if you are returning a French hire car. There is a gas station just by the access road to the French side of the airport. You can't take your check-in bags to the Swiss side so check them in at the Swissport desk diagonally opposite the car rental desk and there appears to be no signage to help you with this! Cross over with hand luggage to the Swiss side and prepare for wholly inadequate facilities, which are even poorer airside and, in our case, young and stroppy security personnel who handled their obviously new-found responsibility with no common sense or maturity. When a sensible airline rep was trying to get passengers through in order of flight time, their response was to suspend all security checks for >20 mins, declaring that everyone should be at security >2h before departure time (I thought that was check-in and in any case unusual for a European flight) thereby making all the flights from terminal B late that afternoon. Oh yes, they also refused to speak any other language than French (despite their perfect English) to some poor Norwegians that had been called forward and then sent them all to the back of the queue. Not sure the English would have put up so well with that!

Geneva Airport review by Chris O'Hanlon

30 January 2008  Customer Rating :

Travelled through Geneva on a weekend - what a nightmare! On arrival at GVA the baggage collection area is terrible - no where near enough room for people to wait with their bags. We had skis & boards and these were delivered at the back of the carousel our regular bags were coming off on meaning that people from other flights were all standing round making space even more at a premium! When the skis are delivered they are bought out on large trolleys that are simply dumped by the door - no ground staff to even tell you which flight they are from!! The result of this is that everyone searches through all the bags to find their skis. We found ours ok, but there must be a better way of distributing oversize baggage, especially as Geneva is so popular for winter sports? The link from the train station is the only positive thing I can say about GVA airport, with it being well signposted and relatively easy to find with our numerous bags. On the way home we were on Easyjet - the check in area is at the far end of the smallish terminal and it was a real struggle to walk through the terminal building as the queues from the check in desks stretched right back to the opposite wall. Easyjet check in at GVA consists of self service check in machines which print your boarding pass and baggage labels, which you attach yourself before dropping them off at the check-in desks. It worked OK, the queue to drop bags fluctuated from being nothing to horrendous. As we were just about to step forward to drop our bags a coach party were herded in and the queues were out the door! After check in I was looking forward to some shopping - oh dear. Duty free is a very small shop which gets very hot and stuffy. I got a few bits and bobs then had a wander round the other shops which were very poor in comparison. The only seating available was upstairs near the airline lounges, which was very smoky and no view of the tarmac which was disappointing. Our flight flew from Terminal B which is a round building out in the middle of the apron. You go through security on the way out there and then there is no way back with just one small coffee place to keep you watered - don't go there before your flight is called! Overall, a very disappointing airport, unable to cope with numbers of people at weekends, shopping was poor, seating poor and the gate lacked facilities.

Geneva Airport review by T Vetter

9 December 2007  Customer Rating :

EWR to GVA on Continental with my wife and daughter. Other than significant delays due to New York airspace, GVA was a breeze. We cleared customs in minutes, walked across the street to the Swiss Rail Station, validated our Swiss Railpass, and were on our way in less than 20 minutes. The return effort was similarly benign (except for a two hour Continental delay with the inbound aircraft from EWR). We took the train right to the GVA airport station, and check-in took all of 10 minutes. Cleared security in 10 minutes tops. But admittedly boring and very limited selection of airport eateries and shops. Compared to LHR or CDG, GVA is a great gateway.

Geneva Airport review by John Oram

19 November 2007  Customer Rating :

I had the briefest but nonetheless favourable experience of this airport on arrival from LGW on a recent Thursday evening. Light and airy but confusing sign after departing the aircraft which said Geneve Transit - not actually mentioning arrivals and thus more clearly indicating which way to go. Baggage return was swift and the station is easy to find for the short journey to the city. The train was particularly easy to use with the Swiss Pass I had for the holiday.

Geneva Airport review by Nick Fortuna

20 June 2007  Customer Rating :

Airport generally small and a bit messy. Check-in lines for Star Alliance flights on a weekend are huge. Passport control was interesting - on the way out, they did not even open our passports (and we're not Swiss!). The small pod-like stores upstairs are not open for early morning departures. Airline VIP Lounges are well-hidden upstairs. Ensure you have enough time to get to the departure area - the travelators are long and not all worked when I used them. Once away from the main terminal building in departure area B, there is only a small coffee shop and no way back. Don't go there until your flight is ready since there is no going back.

Geneva Airport review by Jack O'Brien

8 May 2007  Customer Rating :

I am a frequent traveller to Geneva Airport. I was dissapointed with the lack of organisation that went into baggage collection. Those of you who have been there will know that there are 7 or 8 baggage collection carousels and most of them are in use at the one time. If you take skis or snowboards away with you there is a total lack of organisation when you try to reclaim these items at the airport. There is always a rugby scrum/free for all when you try an collect your items. Most of the items, after being taken off the aircraft are just left on the floor in the middle of the room with the carousels in (which is not very big as it is) and with the floor space being taken up by skis and snowboards there is never any room to move. There is also a significant absence of baggage trolleys available, and usually these are not available for quite some time after you leave the plane, which causes a lot of frustration and inconvenience especially for those who take small children away with them. When flying out fromt he airport on the return journey I found the experience slightly more pleasant than when I was arriving. Although i would say that a little more thought could have gone in to naming and numbering of the gates. There is a very complicated system of numbers and letters which results in a very large hike round the airport just to find the correct gate. Apart fromt this lack of organisation, the airport has lots of duty free shops selling a range of items and plenty of bars and restaurants. I would describe the overall service provided as fair.

Geneva Airport review by T Higgins

31 March 2007  Customer Rating :

Also in answer to Ali Dan, Harry Albright is quite right about the best way to do it. The whole point is to avoid having to go through Swiss customs and immigration if you are staying in France. This is particularly true if you are coming from an EU country and remaining in the EU. There are baggage handlers on hand to fetch your baggage for you, and it only takes a few minutes. In the meantime, you are doing the paperwork for your car rental. I can guarantee that someone who went straight to the French side would have been in his car and on the road while Ali Dan was still going through French customs from the Swiss side. Going through Swiss customs and immigration is an unnecessary step. It's also quite easy to get landside if you find yourself airside. You don't have to ask anyone. Just go through immigration normally as if you were an arriving passenger, out to arrivals and up to departures to check in. I often go back landside if I find my flight has been delayed as there are many more amenities landside.

Geneva Airport review by J Bertani

31 March 2007  Customer Rating :

Answering to Ali Dan, there is no other way to the swiss sector from the french one than the way he described. I live in Geneva and flying from its airport (french sector and swiss sector) almost once a month and saw many times passengers with suitcases having to go through the french police desk, french custom, swiss police and finally swiss custom in order to check their bags in the swiss sector. One option is that sometimes there's one check-in desk open in the french sector for flight departing from the swiss side (ie all flight not going to france). When it is not open, there's a phone I guess to be used to call a check in agent.

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