LYON ST EXUPERY AIRPORT  Passenger Reviews and Traveller Reports

LYON ST EXUPERY AIRPORT customer review : 2 February 2010 by Paul Van Alsten

Customer Rating : 4/5

LYS is a very modern and efficient airport. As an Air France transit hub, intra-Schengen flight connections are much faster than a few months ago as the security check for transit passengers has now been suppressed. Arrival is easy but it is quite a long walk from the turboprop terminal to the baggage claim area: disembarking from an ATR42 it took me nearly 15 minutes to reach the exit! All corridors and toilets facilities are spotlessly clean. Lyon airport has a very developed bus network to the city centre but also to farther regional destinations - in winter bus shuttles connect the airport to various ski resorts.There is also an impressive cathedral-like (!) highspeed train station - surprisingly only a few TGV trains stop there, so you have to plan your train schedules carefully. It is much wiser to spend your waiting time in the airport main building as the train station has no facilities at all - not even a kiosk or a heated waiting room!

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by J Béchaux

25 June 2008   Customer Rating :

I usually fly from LYS as it is my hometown airport. It is a small but nice one, with 3 terminal buildings. The 2nd one dedicated to Air France, the 1st one for international and european flights, and the recent 3rd one for low cost carrier (easyJet only at this time). It is clean, well indicated inside, with convenient facilities (bars, shops, duty free) At least you don't spend 1 hour to go through security checks and ground staff is nice. They recently refurbished car parks, terminal buildings and a direct railway to the city center is being built (end 2009). The only drawback is terminal 3, because you have to walk for at least 20 minutes from car parks and it offers nearly no shops and bars and not enough seats! But I assume they will modify it a bit. As a frequent airport user, I can tell you that this is one of the best in europe, conserving human scale even though traffic is growing. LYS is now hub of Easyjet with many european destinations and a direct route to New-York will be opened this July (with 5 flights a week!). Do not hesitate to use it as a gateway for France (French speeding train TGV has a stop in the airport offering various south destinations as well as paris).

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by L Wiesenfeld

27 March 2008   Customer Rating :

I fly from LYS many times a year, usually on flights towards large HUBS and intercontinental flights. This rather small airport is very convenient for arrival and departures, never long gangways, finding your ways is obvious. Ground transportation is remarkable (lots of busses going everywhere in the region from 5am to 11pm). A a local, mid-size airport, it is highly to be recommended.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by K Greeley

9 October 2007   Customer Rating :

I fly weekly through LYS on Air France. All AF arrivals to this hub seem to be timed to get in at the same time and depart 30-45 minutes later - great in theory. However, the ridiculous security procedures would drive you crazy. All inbound transit passengers must queue again in order go though security/Xray once more before going back down to the gate again. As everybody is on a short connect, everyone seems to be irritated and close to panic in case they will miss their flights. The only ones not in stress are the security guards. So, my question that nobody at MRS can ever answer is; if I have cleared security at a French airport (MRS), why do to I have to clear security again 10 mins after landing ? Either they don´t trust the other French airports (in my case Marseille or CDG) or this is just a way of creating another few unnecessary civil service jobs. Otherwise airport is clean and modern and staff at the gates are usually friendly.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by Matt Battersby

30 March 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

Fly into here 2 or 3 times a year for family visits. One recent improvement is an airside bar near the small duty free shop. This sells sandwiches, soft drinks etc and is probably a better alternative to the dirty landside coffee bar. On latest visit queues were small, check in and security well organised and it was very hassle free, but at busier times it quickly grinds to a halt both in and outbound.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by Michael Jones

2 October 2006

An interesting "feature" I encountered is that while the airport has check-in kiosks, there are no bag-drop facilities! I had to wait until the counters opened for normal check-in to give them my bags. What's the point of having kiosks available if you can't use them? And why do they only open check-in 1.5 hours before the flight?

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by Jörg Ludewig

2 January 2006

Was surprised that the new terminal for inland flights has been finished now. Compared to previous procedures - bus from and to the plane - the new airport is very convenient and allows short layover times. No more busses. Just walk from the plane into the terminal (still not nice when it rains but ok) and vice versa. Still do not understand why you have to pass security again when you just transit from one plane to the other, but even that worked fairly fast. Good airport after all.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  Alain Takahashi

22 August 2005

Lyon airport has an interesting feature: taxis drop off passengers on the arrival floor, and pick up passengers one floor higher in front of the departure hall. And if you have luggage, there are (best case if none are broken) two microscopic elevators. When I asked the information counter why this was so, the answer was "for security reasons".

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  Tom Neyrinck

13 May 2005

Lyon St Exupery is great when flying Air France (T2) but a very different story when on another airline and passing through T1 (Lufthansa, SN Brussels). The Air France terminal is modern, clean and airy, with many shops and restaurants past security check. However, when disembarking at the other terminal one feels like arriving in a Third World country. Bad signing, where-is-the-exit-search, no taxis until you get the feeling that there might another floor with more activity,... When departing from Lyon T1, be aware that there is not a single shop after security: a cramped area where one can only sit down and wait. had to beg security to be let through to the main hall again in order to buy a newspaper and a snack.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  Andy Petty

7 February 2005

Possibly the most disorganised airport in the world? Have just returned from a snowboarding holiday in the Alps flying in and out of Lyon. On arrival at the start of the week, we found that luggage from four different planes was all pushed out on the same belt, which then subsequently broke and caused a two hour delay for all those on our transfer whilst we waited for a few people's bags to come through! On departure at the end of the week, although arriving more than two hours before the flight, we queued for an hour and a half to check in (with no discernable attempt at keeping order - passengers for half-a-dozen planes all stuffed in to one big cattle shed!), then queued for another twenty minutes to go through security & passport control and finally got bustled on to the plane with no time to take advantage of the airside conveniences - not that a duty free the size of your local corner shop and a snack machine really count as conveniences!!! I'd like to think that this was a one off, but having encountered much the same service last year too, I fear not! Will definitely be flying to Geneva next year!

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  Ramón Fretz

7 September 2004

Lyon airport is very disorganized and I have not yet found out why arriving passengers cross in the corridors with other passengers boarding aircraft via the aircraft bridges, causing congestion and sometimes also chaos. Signage is poor and finding your check-in desk upon departure is quite an adventure. The TGV station may be a landmark to see but the rest of the airport can be avoided by transferring somewhere else (but please, not in CDG).

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  Nick Way

25 June 2004

Flew into Lyon for a skiing holiday a couple of months back. Discovered they'd moved the rental car off site, meaning we needed to get a bus there. Trouble is the one bus only arrived every fifteen minutes or so, which was absolutely hopeless in the skiing season with so many passengers, all with a lot of bulky luggage. Same problem on the return - we reached the rental car depot an hour and a half before the flight, but nearly missed it because of the time spent waiting for the bus to take us to the terminal. So if you have to return a car at Lyon, allow LOTS of time.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  F Marangia

22 June 2004

I recently visited St Exupery Airport for a transfer to Barcelona. All shops were already closed and the b-lounges were situated on landside. It was very warm and there was almost no air conditioning in some parts of the terminal. I don't know why such an important airport is that bad.

Lyon Saint Exupery Airport review by  J Benedicto

3 May 2004

Very small airport: BA Executive Club members have to use the Mont Blanc lounge, which has a very limited selection of drinks and snacks and gets crowded very easily. It's almost depressing to stay in that dark room (often left unattended in the late afternoon), but the departures area is even more lacking in amenities. I would have advised arriving at the airport close to your departure time, but I've seen what happens when the security line backs up because of extremely slow processing. I say don't risk it.