St Petersburg Airport Passenger Reviews and St Petersburg Airport Traveller Reports   No Star Ranking Awarded         Add your St Petersburg Airport Review   St Petersburg Airport Ranking     Customer Review scoring : St Petersburg Airport 30 reviews

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  4 March 2013 by Susie Evinger    (USA)
	Rating : 10/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	Extremely accommodating! We booked a last minute flight to bring my elderly father home to Pennsylvania and from the minute we walked through the doors, we were treated with nothing but kindness! What we feared would be a high stress nightmare, couldn't have gone smoother! My one recommendation would be the addition of a family restroom. Because my father could not go into the restroom alone. However, again an airport employee came to the rescue and actually closed the men's room to allow my mother to accompany my father. Highly recommend!

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  28 December 2012 by Karl Stumke    (Kuwait)
	Rating : 5/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	This airport just would never handle any volume. We arrived and immigration wasn't too bad. We had heard horror stories but maybe 20 mins maximum. The horror is luggage collection. No trolleys and a single conveyer belt handling a full plane. I wasn't sure how I was going to drag the 4 bags across the terminal without a trolley. At the last minute a passenger gave his up so we were saved. Taxi system is wired but seems to work. We had a very adequate BMW that was reasonably priced. The terminal looks awful though.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  7 November 2012 by Yevheniy Kahanovych    (Ukraine)
	Rating : 2/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	Several flights to and from terminals 1 and 2, all international. The airport is not good at all. Even coming in and out with public buses (frequent and reliable service) is trouble, because all buses have to queue at a single gate which serves as parking entrance and general terminal access altogether. Strange queues at entrances to terminals with security search done with no idea of what line management is. Check in desks in two terminals are located before (Terminal 1) and after Customs (Terminal 2) which makes confusing departure procedures even more painful. Secondary security search is done before passport control at Terminal 1 and after passport control at Terminal 2. Confusing again. The security search procedure is deliberately inefficient with lack of manned lanes. Passport control didn't delay me these times, so I was lucky both going in and out. Duty free selection and stores appearance is laughable there. The best places to eat are Burger King in Terminal 1 and Costa Coffee in Terminal 2 (both landside). Everything else is much less inspiring. Such a strange facility for such a great city. Shame!

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  26 October 2012 by Andrew Wilkes    (UK)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	An unimpressive airport to say the least. Very difficult to take a school group of teenagers through from the first moment to the last. Queuing to get into to the airport to have your bag screened is bad enough. Simply no help once through customs about check in for BA. 3 desks allocated with no indication when we arrived [3 hrs prior to flight], which desk was for Club, bag drop etc. Half our group, therefore, were in the wrong queue and local staff were unhelpful to say the least. Massive queue then for passport control [had they not spotted several European flights leave at the same time?]. Then further security in a very cramped space at the gate, the queue for which made it hard for other travellers to get by. Facilities very limited. I believe the airport is in line for an upgrade. Can't come soon enough!

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  11 October 2012 by P Attwell    (Australia)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	Absolutely no system. Arriving from Helsinki the immigration hall was already full, there was no sign of queuing at all and so it became a chaotic rugby scrum with each person protecting their space. Unfortunately people barged their way through, others sneakily tried to take advantage and families invited others to join them, putting one back several places. The whole process took over 80 minutes. I felt sorry for the children who were getting hot and fractious and for older people who could have become very uncomfortable. A trip across the hall to get a drink or go to the toilet was out of the question. This chaos could easily have been solved by using the 'extendable queuing tapes' that every other airport uses.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  17 September 2012 by Robin Sheppard    (UK)
	Rating : 5/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	Very helpful Lufthansa staff who managed to check me in after the check in desk had closed. Try to avoid Friday afternoons at this airport if you can. Book a Taxi inside the arrivals area and you not get overcharged RUB 900 into the city, compared with RUB 4,000 charged by Hotels.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  8 September 2012 by Simon Gilmore    (New Zealand)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	My wife and I arrived on a Rossiya Airlines flight from Istanbul in July. We parked at a hard stand. The flight attendant had to phone the airport authority to send a set of stairs out. This took twenty minutes. We were bussed to a dingy concrete Soviet era terminal which was a disgrace to this beautiful city. Slow surly immigration who won't even return a greeting. No inbound duty free. Average toilets. A new terminal is under construction but in the meantime avoid like the plague.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  9 July 2012 by N White    (UK)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	If ever you are thinking of treating yourself and your partner by travelling business class, a flight departing from St Petersburg Pulkovo 2 terminal is probably a good time to choose. As others have said the airport really cannot cope with the volume of passengers it receives and is total chaos at check-in and passport control. However, if you are flying business class you can skip ahead of the rest and reduce your queuing time and head straight upstairs and try and grab the spare seat in the cafe. Yes this really isn't the greatest airport to travel to and from and the sooner they finish the new one the better.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  4 July 2012 by J Ho    (USA)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	I have travelled all over the world, this airport is far and away the single worst airport I have ever been through. It is thoroughly and utterly incapable of handling the tourist capacity that St. Petersburg generates. The log jam at passport control was 3 hours long, in part the fault of overly laborious Russian exit procedure but mostly the lack of lanes. Every single departing flight was delayed by at least two hours by passport control. Folks were getting squeezed and crushed in line, causing yelling, pushing and shoving to the point of near fights. We were traveling with a 1 year old child and have the advantage of speaking Russian, so we were able to escape to the relative safety of the business class line. In all honesty, you would be better of leaving the country by train (Finland or Pribaltika) or ship, or taking an internal flight or train back to Moscow and leaving from there. This is a sad state of affairs.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  18 June 2012 by Debra James    (Ireland)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	There was nearly a riot in Pulkovo Passport Control yesterday. Every flight in the afternoon was marked 'delayed' on the information display, and it was all down to the bottleneck at Passport Control. Standing in the queue for two hours, watching all the flights getting delayed, people with connecting flights were getting very upset. An English couple around the same age as me was standing in the queue for the same flight as I was, they too had a connecting flight, and together, being right at the front of the line waiting to get into the the numbered passport control desks, we confronted the girl who lets in people, strongly complaining that we were going to miss our connections. The mood of the crowd was turning very ugly, and I think the people running things realised this, so they let us and people for another delayed flight through ahead of the crowd. It was apparent that privileged (like first class) people were being let in ahead of the rest. But what good would that do them when the other passengers on their flight were still waiting? It was outrageous. Same thing happened a few days earlier to a couple I met at the hotel - this might be what happens every day in the busy tourist season. And the Russians didn't seem to care. My flight was delayed, I missed my connection and so got separated from my luggage. Passport Control bottleneck can be a serious problem for people visiting St Petersburg, travellers should be warned about it so they don't make bookings for short connections on the way home.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  22 March 2012 by J Allen    (UK)
	Rating : 5/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	In the middle of Russian winter we were made to queue up outside the terminal to get through Security! Once past security we were shepherded into an area with a few overpriced facilities. Then through a small passport check, and we arrived in a small cut off area they liked to call check-in. Don't go through the double doors unless your flight's check-in area is open - it's dingy and there is nowhere to eat. Massive queues, you had to self check-in (2 of 6 machines were broken), then queue to put bags through. Border control - another queue. Walking distances short and long but moving queues. By the by, though, I enjoyed my little back-to- front Pulkovo airport experience.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  19 March 2012 by Denis Vasilenko    (Russia)
	Rating : 4/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	If flying to Saint Petersburg, use western airlines. At least they arrive to tiny, but more or less working Terminal 2. Departure to Terminal 1 - is another story, there are no words to describe this chaos at passport control, baggage claim and even the exit. Totally uncivilized. Looks like airport authorities and management gave up to create any order until the new airport building will be completed.

	St Petersburg Airport customer review :  24 February 2012 by Yevheniy Kahanovych    (Ukraine)
	Rating : 1/10 Queuing Cleanliness Facilities Recommended	The facility of Pulkovo 2 is bad in every aspect. To get into the building you have to go trough security screening. Waiting to be screened is going on outside the building. Today it was -21C. The screening is chaotic and disorganized. In the building landside they have a couple of eateries (8USD per cup of coffee) that look unimpressive to say the least. To get to check-in you go through customs. Check-in is depressing and claustrophobic, but passport control facility even worse. On departure from this tiny terminal I waited for 30 minutes to get to the departure gate. Duty free options are limited. Free WiFi, however, is appreciated. Overall impression is depressing. Staff are nice, but can do very little within overall chaos. Strange for such a small airport.

St Petersburgh Airport customer review :  28 August 2011 by Jennifer Bentley   (UK)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Flew in and out of Pulkovo 2 (international). Arriving was not a problem: we were the only flight in at the time which was just as well as the arrivals hall was tiny. Arrivals process was completed without any undue delay. Departure was a different story altogether: total chaos. Signage is poor. Construction work is going on. About 5 flights were checking in and the check-in hall was crowded. People didn't know which queue to join. Once arriving at the gate, there's another security screen (so more long queues) and the gate only seated about 60 people - seating capacity for only 1/3 of the plane. There are hardly any facilities such as decent cafes, just a rather paltry duty free and a couple of bars.

St Petersburgh Airport customer review :  24 August 2011 by J Blanchard   (China)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Flew into the domestic terminal and out of the international one. Both were tiny and in desperate need of replacement. The international terminal, despite its small size, was very efficient, staff were surprisingly friendly and the standard of English much better than expected. This beautiful city is in desperate need of new terminals, which I understand are in the works even if there is no sign of any construction.

St Petersburgh Airport customer review :  5 June 2011 by S Powell   (USA)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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It is really sad that a city as beautiful as St. Petersburg has to be handicapped by an airport as bad as Pulkovo. Arrived at Pulkovo 1 and entered the customs area and felt like I was at the circus. The customs area is open to the 2nd floor and people are shouting back and forth the noise was unbelievable. There are no real lines and everything was chaotic. Leaving was from Pulkovo 2. It was almost as bad. It took over an hour to check in and then after clearing security and customs there is almost nothing available to passengers. There was one restaurant and a few snack stands all of which took cash only. It was crowded and the restrooms were dirty. This place is a real black eye to a beautiful city.

St Petersburgh Airport customer review :  23 September 2010 by Chris McQuaid   (New Zealand)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Flights from and to Moscow using Pulkovo 1 - inbound easy, as I only had cabin baggage. Bus to terminal, then straight outside. Note that the ordinary bus terminates at Moskovsky Prospekt Metro station - you also have to pay double (38 roubles instead of 19) if you have a suitcase (same on the Metro - 44 roubles instead of 22, and you get a different coloured token to operate the luggage gate). From what I could find out (but I may be wrong) there are no longer any buses from the airport right through to Moskovsky Railway Station. Outbound also easy - quick check-in unless you're using Aeroflot, whose queues snake around the building. No-fuss security was quick (English-speaking security officers). Landside flight announcements are all made in English as well as Russian, but airside I could only hear Russian. Landside has all the usual shops - news-stand, gift shop, cafes, etc. Food prices are extortionate - 135 roubles for a croissant that costs 20 in any local bakery. Airside only has a bar, gift shop (closed - my flight was 7.30 am) and news-stand. WiFi apparently available as plenty of people were using laptops. Be careful if your flight is from Gates 1 to 6 - these are in the satellite terminal in the middle of the tarmac, so you have to go downstairs from the departure lounge, use a travelator out to the satellite, then upstairs into the gate area. There are escalators at each end, but these were not working when I was there. From there it is a short walk to the aircraft.

St Petersburg Airport customer review : 5 August 2010 by Henrik Gustafsson

Customer Rating :  2/5

The airports organization has improved lately and is now more efficient. The main problem with the international terminal (Pulkovo-2) is that is too small to handle all passengers, especially during the tourist season. They have lately opened up more security controls before check in which speeds things up, although long queues to check in and passport control remain a problem. After the passport control several new restaurants have opened up like TGIF, big tax free shop and a new smoking room (to avoid smoking at the toilets). The biggest annoyance is the security check before boarding. Unfriendly, inefficient, to small and they shout at you that you have to take your shoes off. A very post Soviet experience, not like St Petersburg itself which has changed a lot.

St Petersburg Airport customer review : 18 March 2010 by R Xemblinosky

Customer Rating :  3/5

Inbound is still easy (although it was a little cold being bussed in from the plane). Outbound much easier this time. Mostly, no doubt, because it was the second week of March and the high tourist season was a couple of months away. The previous commenters are right that you have to know when to queue up (2 hours before flight is announced) and have to recognize the name of your flight in Cyrillic. On the bright side, it was much cleaner this time around, you could actually purchase snacks and drinks at 6 am, and they actually offer free wifi. Pulkovo isn't paradise, to be sure. But at least it's not a seething, roiling, surly hell like CDG.

St Petersburg Airport review : 20 July 2009 : by Jim Tranthorg

Customer Rating :  1/5

If you want to retain your sanity avoid departing from this airport. The queues started outside the building when I was leaving yesterday. You have to go through security before you can even check in! I had plenty of time though and stood in line for an hour inching forward whilst people joined their friends in front of me, a real case of one step forward two steps back. The sun was beating down through a glass roof and everyone was dripping with sweat. People told me of having had to wait outside in the winter in the snow! When I reached the security woman she growled something in Russian to me and refused to let me through. Lesson 1. You are only allowed into the airport if your gate has been announced. So I went back to the end of the queue and started again, immediately the gate for my flight was announced. Another long session of queuing and I eventually made it through security, the rest of the procedure was relatively easy for me but I bet they could screw things up elsewhere at this airport if they put their minds to it.

St Petersburg Airport review : 23 February 2009 : by B Vincent

Customer Rating :  3/5

First thing to note is that there is no direct public transport from the city and if you are thinking of doing that, allow plenty of time - you have to first get to Moskovskaya metro station (which probably means two trains) and then find the right exit, near Macdonald's, where you need to catch a #39 bus or mini-bus. Thankfully a kind person guided me because I would not have found it myself. On the mini-bus you will have to pay an extra fare if you have a bag. From the outside Pulkovo 1 looks quite imposing - there are only a couple of doors and I saw no signage to identify where was arrivals and departures, but by fluke I picked the right door. Inside is quite dimly lit. There are just a few check-in counters and all the destinations are in Russian, so if you need to catch a flight here make sure you can read your destination (or at least your flight number) in Cyrillic. My flight had only one counter open, but it was very efficient and although the queue was long, I had my boarding pass in just 10 minutes or so. Next, security was very diligent and I was glad of this - everyone takes their shoes off, no exceptions. The departure lounge has an open bar area and a few shops - beer is a little cheaper in the shops than the bar but expect to pay upwards of 100 roubles for a drink. It is a basic airport, but it did the job.

St Petersburg Airport review : 31 December 2008 : by R Xemblinosky

Customer Rating :  3/5

Inbound is, as previous commenters observe, a snap -luggage, customs, and all. Outbound can be a pain, especially for international flights, which tend to leave between 5:30 and 8:30 am. I recommend you just hover around the gate until right before your flight is announced (two hours before flight time). Worked for me every time. You can expect surly attendants, sparse and expensive drinks, and nowhere to sit. The Soviet-era is somewhat of a downer too. All the same, Pulkovo is nowhere near as expensive, snotty, or dreary as say CDG. No reason to look forward to it, but nothing to be afraid of there either.

St Petersburg Airport review : 28 December 2008 : by Y Ren

Customer Rating :  2/5

I could not believe St Petersburg airport terminal 2 is an airport, it worse than a bus station in some countries. you can not check in unless you pass the security and security wont open until 2 hours before your departure time. so if you arrive early, sorry you can stand outside in the snow. business lounge is nice enough for only an hour resting. the only problem is smoking, everyone smoking inside the lounge. before boarding, you have to go through security check again. two minutes ago you were doing the same thing, i dont know why they have to check twice. probably people upstairs dont trust colleagues downstairs. such a weird process and strange airport experience.

St Petersburg Airport review : 10 December 2008 : by Nick Fortuna

Customer Rating :  2/5

LED Terminal 2 now holds my record for speed of disembarkation, passport control, retrieving luggage, passing customs and getting into the car - 10 min from the moment the aircraft doors opened. Full marks. As for departure, the rot sets in. For an early morning departure, there was surprising amount of passenger activity. Everything is screened just to enter the check-in area. And they do insist on sighting your ticket, whatever form it has. When I could not be bothered to dig in my luggage for the ticket, the attendant finally let me in, figuring I wasn't at the airport at 4.30am with luggage just to loiter. Check-in was quick enough, but the airport offers absolutely nothing once inside. Overpriced duty-free, hardly any seating, expensive and poor coffee. And to add, a gloomy pre-Perestroika Soviet interior ambience, grumpy staff. Another security check at the gate in a poorly lit environment that can't cope with the nr. of passengers. An embarrasing way to leave such a stunning city.

St Petersburg Airport by C Hellberg

1 December 2008   Customer Rating :

Milan Malpensa airport held my vote for worst airport ever. But LED has now taken that dubious honour. The airport is a tiny shoebox, vastly underprovisioned for security checks, passenger numbers and any suggestion of passenger comfort is a joke. There are three security scanners for the whole terminal (Terminal 2) and the average waiting time was 40 minutes on a Sunday afternoon (I shudder to think about peak business times). After customs, you are fed into a second security scanner (only one of these). In the waiting area for your plane, there are only a few available seats, nowhere to go for food or drink (you can look through the glass to the land-side cafeteria) or duty-free (that is in the previous area) no power points for laptops and no Wifi. On the plus side, the arrivals area was ok (clean, spacious and enough shops) , but is also the only airport I've found that you need to go through a security scanner for the arrivals area. I'll make every effort to avoid this airport and advise anyone else to do the same.

St Petersburg Airport by Sally Fraser

31 July 2007   Customer Rating :

Pulkova 1 and 2. Arriving at Pulkova 1 from Frankfurt by Lufthansa. Many pax without baggage and total chaos ensued. No English speaking local or Luft. rep. to explain procedure (ie first fill in customs declaration for your missing bag and only afterwards they will attend to it). One tiny little office with a long queue where they log your suitcase and give you a printout with a telephone number on. However, this number is never answered and even if they find your suitcase, no one bothers to let you know. On the occasion when this number is answered, if you cannot converse in Russian, they simply put the phone down. You have to keep going to the airport to see if your case has arrived. These people do not speak any English and couldn't care less about your plight so if you cannot speak Russian, do not lose your suitcase! Leaving Pulkova 2 for flight to Moscow was a total joke. There are no signs to tell you even how to get into the airport or where to go once inside and checking in to Aeroflot is a free-for-all. Airport is dingy, grim, very confusing and to be avoided if at all possible.

St Petersburg Airport by Yevheniy Kahanovych

17 July 2007   Customer Rating :

Arrived to and departed from Pulkovo 1 on domestic flight. The facility is old, shabby and very disorganised. It especially concerns to security staff and procedures. Non-working sliding doors, lots of steps up and down on the way of people with luggage, no understandable signage, no escalators, outdated fleet of buses, no airbridges, dark and tiny departure lounges... My bag arrived damaged. Lost and found desk gave no explanation on how to claim for compensation, just asked me to wait for about 30 minutes, because they had "shift handover", then they told me that I shouldn't fly to Russia with expensive bags. On departures you can only find a tiny bar airside with lots of vodka, but with no apple juice. Two coffee machines were also working. Very poor building condition, very poor management, very shabby facility from old soviet era. This is the only big airport in the city, so you have no choice but to use it.

St Petersburg Airport by Hartmut Grünheid

6 September 2005   Customer Rating : n/a

As i travelled on regular base nearly 30 years to Russia, i see the development of "Pulkovo Airport" very positive. Dont worry if you see long lines in front of the passport control: when you'll ready there it takes only a few steps behind them to get your baggage from the belts, take just the green way out and you will be in Russia and in a Brandnew Receiving Hall. Small ist beautyfull in the way that it is a airport of very short distances.

St Petersburg Airport by Eric Norton

6 September 2005

The international departures hall in use at Pulkovo-2 before 2003 was smaller and more cramped than desirable for one of Russia's most-visited cities, but operations were still efficient, despite the lack of space. In 2003, a brand-new departures hall was built for the airport, which is stunningly beautiful, clean, and efficient. Security is done before checking-in and passport control, but all desks (even passport control!) were quick and easy to get through. Ample space for everything, and beautiful construction inside. The arrivals hall is well laid-out and easy to follow, even for travellers worn out from their journey - it's impossible to make a wrong turn, even on your first visit. (Of course, those who don't understand Russian may have more of a disadvantage.) Passport control can be long, but manageable, because at least the line keeps moving. Luggage pick-up is immediately beyond passport control, and from there, it's a short journey to the exit hall, which is smaller than it should be, but still fulfils its purpose. There are three entrances at Pulkovo-2. On the far left is the arrivals hall where you wait for the passengers. In the center is the entrance to the old departures hall, and on the right is the direct entrance to the brand-new departures hall. The only major complaint I have is the road to the airport itself - once you turn off from the main prospect, it is only a two-lane country road that desperately needs to be expanded to deal with all the traffic that uses it. Also, micro-bus drivers will stop only at Pulkovo-2 if specifically asked; otherwise, they will simply drive only to the domestic-flights Pulkovo-1 terminal instead.

St Petersburg Airport by S Jackson

9 June 2004

St Petersburg airport is quite unlike any other airport I have used. The unfamiliarity is intimidating, but in fact it is well organised, once you get used to the system. The system is back to front: the key lesson is that you cannot do anything until your flight is called. You pass through passport screening and security checks before being allowed into the departures hall, and then go direct to the check-in desks where you will be processed immediately. There are only 6/8 desks which means a queue - but you don't have to walk far, and the queues are always moving. Russian border controls have a bad reputation, so the feeling of disorientation adds to a feeling of nervousness. Add to that the characteristically brusque and sullen staff and it all feels quite intimidating. But don't panic. It's actually very well planned, and efficient: just unlike anything you've done before.