SHARM EL SHEIKH AIRPORT review : 3 June 2008 : by S Hill

Customer Rating : 1/5

Sharm El Sheikh is an airport full of bureaucracy. In order to fly out from Sharm El Sheikh you need to go through not one but two x-ray machines. Your passport is checked twice and stamped. The staff in the airport can be rude and unhelpful. Baggage handlers do not treat your cases with any care or respect. If you pay in anything but Egyptian Pounds expect the total sum to be loaded - just because they can.

SHARM EL SHEIKH AIRPORT review : 29 April 2008 : by Lynn Mayo

Customer Rating : 4/5

Including getting the visa we were through the airport in about 25 minutes, from landing to getting into our coach. The staff were very friendly and polite and beat quite a lot of other airports I have been through. Just one word of warning for the smokers! Whilst waiting for the luggage I spied a door to the outside world and went through it for a cig, leaving my daughter to watch for the cases. I wasn't allowed back in. A lot of people were kicking off about it but when you think about it - if you left the baggage collection area at Manchester, went outside then tried to get back in, you wouldn't be able to. So, my feelings are - just go with the flow, don't fret about the airport and enjoy your holiday!

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by J Kennedy

23 April 2008   Customer Rating :

From reading previous reviews I can only think it is luck or the day you travel. We arrived 9pm Sunday and departed 5pm Wed. Avoid Thursdays if possible as it is known locally as 'crazy Thursday' with 25 UK flights alone. Arrival experience was 10 mins max from leaving plane to getting into car including getting a visa! No queues or crowds. All thanks to the swift service of Sylvia Tours guide. Departure experience also swift check-in, passport and security. Duty free and departure gates not crowded. No hassle. Toilets not brilliant, several loos out of order, but have seen much worse in UK. Asked by Ministry of Tourism rep to fill in a long questionnaire which we did so they are trying to put things right.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by L Norman

11 April 2008   Customer Rating :

Arrival was lots of shouting and pushing around. Departure very overcrowded both before and after security. Go into the departure lounge all seats taken and people all sat on the floor - didnt end up buying any duty free as far too cramped. The toilets had no loo roll and not very clean and the departure boards were showing the wrong information (flights showing as left when they hadn't).

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by M Scott

28 March 2008   Customer Rating :

Just arrived back from Sharm El Sheikh and found the airport a very pleasant experience going in and coming out. The airport staff were very niceand we had no trouble getting a seat in departure.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Sandra Asher

19 February 2008   Customer Rating :

Departure marginally worse than arrival. Waited almost an hour for luggage to appear and told several different carousel numbers. large numbers waiting to get visa's and through passport control. On departure long wait at check in, duty free shop and departure gate. No seats available, filthy toilets. Never want to repeat this experience.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Paul Bunker

19 February 2008   Customer Rating :

I travelled through this airport going to Newcastle on a charter flight, - just about the worst airport I have had the misfortune to use. The crowds to pass through security, checkin, passport control are disgraceful and you don't have hope of getting a seat in the terminal or cattle market as it can be described. The cost of food and a drink is also outrageous, use this airport at your peril.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by S Lovell

15 February 2008   Customer Rating :

Seems to be the luck of the draw, and mainly down to what time you arrive. On arrival, we were though the visa purchase and passport checks within 5 minutes. By that time, our baggage was on the carousel. It took about 10 minutes to get out of the terminal. Departure not as quick, but nothing to moan about. Certainly no worse than some British airports I've been to. The baggage boys and toilet paper sellers seem to have disappeared when we were there however.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by P Sammon

5 February 2008   Customer Rating :

Travelled through terminal 2 - a living nightmare. First queue outside airport to get into terminal - 45 minutes, 2nd queue to check in bags 45 minutes, 3rd queue Passport Control 45 minutes, totally disorganised and a free for all. Once through to Duty Free shelves empty, sample perfume bottles empty, and then another queue to pay for purchases. 20 minutes queue for toilets, Mens toilets had to be opened for women and they were an absolute disgrace. Nobody seems to take ownership or charge of anything. We wont be back, and from listening to most of the people beside us, they wont be back either. Management, get your act together. The worst airport I have had the misfortune to visit, never again.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by A Howe

16 December 2007   Customer Rating :

Travelled through Terminal 1 today, and found it to be an overall pleasant experience, I've been in the country for 2 months and find it disgraceful that people complain about giving a tip for a trolley being brought to me for my bags and such for my friends, 5LE? Thats 50 pence, hardly worth losing any sleep over, the security staff were prompt and polite, the check in staff friendly and polite, departure staff prompt and polite. Toilets were clean, a 50Pi tip was given (5 pence). Floors were clean, plenty of seating.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by S Bond

4 December 2007   Customer Rating :

I have also recently suffered the torment of terminal 2 at Sharm - utter chaos both arriving and departing. On a Thursday afternoon around 15 flights arrive and depart from/to the uk within the space of 2 hours and the facilities simply cannot cope. The departure lounge is heaving with nowhere to sit, little to eat or drink and appalling toilets. A real shame as Sharm itself is excellent for a holiday.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Phil Lambe

30 November 2007   Customer Rating :

Terminal 2 at this airport (the one used for most tourists) has been upgraded since our last visit a year ago. Unfortunately it is still an unremitting hell hole and is unworthy of a nation who say they regard tourism as important. Airport staff are officious, unfriendly and downright rude, the toilet facilities are appalling and dirty and every shop and stall treats its customer with utter contempt. The only food and drink available is of very poor quality and is priced at a level which would be a joke anywhere else. As an example, I paid 4 pounds sterling for a cheese sandwich that had been made the previous day, according to the label, and was packed in a non-airtight card box. Consequently, the bread was dry, stale and inedible. I drew the line at paying £3.70 for a Kit Kat and left this at the till. This airport takes a very cynical view of its customers and makes no attempt to provide any form of customer service. Instead, it wastes no opportunity to rip off the captive market in a way that I have never seen at any other airport (and I have seen quite a few). I would urge passengers to boycott all facilities within the airport and take in your own food and drink. (Incidentally, you are allowed to take liquids of up to one litre capacity through security, as opposed to the 100ml rule in UK airports.)

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Matthew McGrath

1 November 2007   Customer Rating :

I think this airport is now a tale of two terminals. The new terminal which opened earlier this year (now called Terminal 1) is light and airy with plenty of space and is clean and well airconditioned. I used the terminal last week to fly internally to Luxor on Egyptair and everything was clean and tidy. BA and other scheduled airlines (as well as charter flights to Moscow) use the new terminal. On the other side of the coin, I flew in and out of Sharm on Monarch and like other European charter airlines they come in and out of the old terminal (now called Terminal 2). On Sunday afternoon it was a bun fight with appallingly insufficient numbers of seats for the passengers hoping to depart, no semblance of a non-smoking area, toilets which were pretty foul and very limited catering facilities. Spent two hours sitting on the floor reading a book while waiting for the flight. The additional money to fly BA might be worth it to use the nice terminal and avoid pins and needles. Given that it is a tale of two terminals I would have to give the airport 3 stars as being half good and half ordinary.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by John Ramsbottom

21 August 2007   Customer Rating :

On arrival we went to a plush, clean air conditioned building and passed through immigration with a few Egyptian bureaucracy problems. At departures the security was as good as or better than Gatwick. Check in was smooth and the waiting area was spacious, air conditioned and clean. Toilets were clean and maintained. There were no “porters” looking for baggage tips in arrivals or departures. I would have no worries about using this airport in future.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by P de Leon

1 May 2007   Customer Rating :

We have just came back from Sharm and had the most horrific airport experience in our life! There is no non-smoking area. People smoke everywhere considering it is an airconditioned room! The female toilet is disgusting. There is a cleaner inside but all she does is giving out tissue paper and you must pay for every tissue that she gives you! The price of foods inside the airport are too expensive. A can of coke for £2.0, crisp for £2.50, and a small toblerone for £2.0! The flight announcer is more confused than the travellers.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Kevin Maslin

20 April 2007   Customer Rating :

First impressions were fairly promising. We were directed (by our travel rep) to a kiosk with NO queue to purchase our visas ($15 each) as we intended travelling outside the Sinai Peninsula. After that things got a little tedious as we then had to join an enormous queue for passport control. During the wait I nipped to the loo and encountered my first Egyptian eagerly holding out his hand for a tip (for simply turning on the hand drier for me, as it happens!). Once through passport control, picking up the bags from the carousel was fairly painless. We ignored the trolley attendants, as we'd previously been made aware of the charge. On the way back we were stopped by a 'jobsworth' airport policeman on passing through the first scanning machine who confiscated the razor blades from my toiletries bag. Quite what he thought I could possibly do with these stowed in the hold of the plane remains a mystery. Check in was reasonably quick and, having a few hours to kill, we headed for passport control (no problem) and the duty free shops, etc. Here I was faced with the one and only total rip off I had encountered during the whole of our stay in Sharm El Sheikh. £1.80 for a can of coke, £1.50 for a tube of sweets, £4.50 for a Kit Kat - surely some mistake! Alas, no. They certainly capitalize on their 'captive audience' status here. I complained very loudly to two of the shopkeepers that at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask, but it cut no ice with them. The lesson here is take your own snacks through in your hand luggage. Drinks are a litte more dodgy as liquids over 100ml are meant to be a no-no, but I did see one person take a bottle of water from her hand luggage on the plane which was not purchased at the airport departure facilities, so it is possible I guess. One plus point is that tobacco and spirits are exceedingly cheap here (200 B&H £9, 1L malt whisky around £12). All in all we found this airport to be reasonably clean and tidy with a large seating area for departures. Signage can be confusing, however, and long waits for arrivals are certainly possible. I guess it took us about 1.5hrs to get through, but I think there were only 3 plan loads of people to process. Multiply accordingly for more arrivals!

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by A Sandberg

10 April 2007   Customer Rating :

I for one have no plans to return to Sharm el Sheikh - the leaving process was horrific! On arriving, everything went smoothly until baggage reclaim - there was our flight number on a screen over a certain carousel - fortunately I spotted my bag on a completely different carousel or we'd have been there all night. The departure terminal was packed when we arrived there - fortunately our rep managed to get us through a previously unmanned station. No sign of our airline's check in desk (Monarch) but someone eventually told us to check in at XL. When we found the check-in counter, we were told our 11pm flight had been delayed till 1am, but there were differing messages from all the people we spoke to. Eventually found the right person - our flight was on time. Through the queue (?) at security (huge signs limiting liquids but no action taken at all) into what potentially was a reasonable departure area. Packed with people - always a difficult time for any airport - but unfortunately probably 80% of them were smoking and it was impossible to get away from the smoke. Even the smoker in our party was feeling ill. The toilets were disgusting; not only filthy but it was pretty shocking to see huge cockroaches running around. Not necessary in a properly maintained airport! The departure screens told us the flight was boarding 40 mins before the boarding process started - no wonder everyone ignores the screens! The screens then declared our flight had departed (on time) before they'd even started boarding us. Is this so the authorities can claim a good departure record? 2.5 hours in the departure hall with a lungful of smoke every time you breathed was seriously unhealthy. We had a great holiday, but I won't be going again.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by J Hagan

20 March 2007   Customer Rating :

Second time at this airport. What a dream! We were through passport control and had retrieved the luggage within 10 mins. Return journey was also pretty good, certainly comparable with Manchester airport.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Lynda Johnston

7 March 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

Just returned from Sharm el Sheikh. What a difference compared to last year. It took us just 10mins to get through passport control and get our suitcase. Instead of crowds pushing through they have organised a proper queuing system. Not before time. Flying home, noticed the Airport now has Cafes whereas last year there was workmen everywhere. Once our luggage was scanned, a rep met us and told us where to check in. We even had about 1.5hrs left before the flight to look around duty free shops.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Simon Chamberlain

13 February 2007   Customer Rating : n/a

I have travelled to many placed around the world but have never seen such a farce. Nobody knows where to go or what to do, after spending almost 2 hours waiting to go through passport control (no visa required for our stay, but they still try and sell you one) you then find yourself with the other 12 flights that have landed trying desperately to work out which baggage carousel you should go to. There are no signs telling people which flight baggage is on which carousel. Coming out of the airport is the normal hassling from taxi drivers and the like. The journey back to the UK was just as bad. Again, our flight did not appear on any screen in the airport so it was pretty much guess work & luck. Doesn't put you in the best of moods or give the impression of a country that takes tourism seriously.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Jenny Pearson

21 November 2006

This is surely the most disorganised airport I have been through. Especially bad on returning to the UK. Three lots of baggage xrays. Huge queues everywhere. No toilets in the final departure areas. No seats as several flights leaving and often flights moved from one gate to another after standing for ages. Come on Egypt you need our custom! Get some logistics people in to improve things.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Ian Lyall

5 November 2006

Total chaos reigned. You arrive, queue to get your visa form, then queue to have it stamped, which all takes about 1-1.5 hours. Departure was even more horrendous. We wanted the Manchester flight. The 'PA' system was one of may human voices calling our without even a megaphone. And the gate kept on changing. Eventually we got through, only to be taken to the wrong aircraft. All-in-all, quite an education.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Selina James

22 October 2006

I've been to two airports in Egypt and this was the better one! Staff? - where?! They didn't seem to or want to know anything and just laughed at you all the time! Don't get a trolley as you have to pay to use them. Signs don't exist, well not ones that make sense anyway. Always carry your own toilet paper with you as it is not given out for free as standard. The toilets don't flush, just dribble. If the airport is pretty busy when you're there just cork it until you get on the plane (trust me you'll appreciate taking the advice) Security is everywhere you get x-rayed upon going in, suitcase and all (hope you're strong!) then you go to the check-in desk get your tickets and to the departure lounge. You get x-rayed again, buy drinks, food maybe even a hashesh pipe or singing camel. The duty free shop is small, chocolate is 4 times the price of alcohol, the credit card machine didn't work and the legal tender of any country is accepted. Go through to the gates (they're just numbered doors - they all lead to the same place). Get x- rayed again. There are no toilets at the gates but there is a snack stand selling large packets of crisps at three times the price back home. If you really need to you can go back to the departure lounge but trust me it's not worth it. A generous 3 out of 10.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Adam Reid

7 April 2006

Renovation work is still going on here - the outside of the airport is vastly improved but the arrivals hall and visa area is a complete nightmare. Usually large queues for visas and passport control. As usual only the British queuing and all other nationalities esp Russians pushing in. Baggage reclaim is not always from the belt that has your flight number above it and many bags are taken off the belt and left lying around in piles. Returning for departure is an experience that could be described as something like 'Its a Knockout' Everyone runs off the bus into one building then through into another where the nightmare begins. Its a race to get to the queue for baggage screening. Whichever queue you pick is bound to stop for no reason then everyone moves to the next belt which also stops. No real security screening seems to take place although your case is put through the scanner none of the staff are actually watching the screen. Everyone is jostling to get into the queue and get their bags on first and tempers get frayed. Then suddenly out of the blue everything stops while a Sheikh gets through (unsearched) with his entourage. Once you reach check in it is a fairly slow process and you are not always advised you need to fill out an exit card for immigration before proceeding. Final passport check and into the duty free area which is a shambles. The renovations don't seem to have reached this far and there were several unattended gaping holes in the floor which posed serious injury risks. We were actually glad to get through to the final departures area to wait in the relative quiet until our flight was called. Be warned, the toilets are awful and you need your own toilet paper otherwise the attendant will give you two squares for £1. Also odd to see uniformed staff smoking on duty at the gates and the local stray cats roaming through the terminal. Be prepared for a total culture shock if you are not accustomed to it. My partner works at our local UK airport and is astounded by Sharm every time! Saying that we have been back three times.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Jim Bain

27 January 2006

Total chaos and is probably the only reason for not returning. Three lots of baggage were on one belt and when that stopped, baggage was then put on the next belt. Nobody was there to answer questions and there was nothing on the screens in the baggage hall. Flying home was just as bad. Everybody into the first hall, wait, and then all to the next hall where you have to lift your cases onto a conveyor belt for x-ray. Some people had to remove their shoes, some didn't. The check-in desk was fairly painless. Through passport control into the smoke filled departure hall. Listen carefully for the announcements. Nudged out of the way to let some Russians through and into the holding bay for the bus. Another wait and a sigh of relief to board the plane. What the airport needs is clear management and more information for travellers. Come on Egypt, you need us back.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by J Thomson

15 January 2006

BRS-SSH. Landed at 20.05hrs to be faced with 2 other UK arrivals (LGW & BHX) and 2 plane loads of Russians and absolute chaos!! Visa cost £10 ($15, Egyptian £150), but this is only required if you want to go outside the Sinai peninsula, otherwise there isn't a charge. Be careful about people trying to charge more than the above though! Passport control a farce - took 1.5 hours to complete by which time we were almost last from our plane. Toilets were dirty, also airport was very hot and sticky. Return - you have to go through a waiting building, then into the terminal, through the scanners and then to check-in. After check-in you go through Passport control where they stamp you out of their country and into the Duty-Free/Lounge. Here the Duty-Free shop accepts most major currencies, GBP, USD, Euro, but NOT the Egyptian Pound!! Be careful not to go through the scanners to your gate too early as there is nothing there apart from screens and doors to the buses to your plane. I gather a new terminal is due to open, not before time, but they need to re-arrange the passport control for arrivals.

Sharm El Sheikh Airport review by Christian Leyer

30 November 2005

Sharm El Sheikh Airport is just a simple tourist airport. The arrival hall is not very large and after the arrival of more than two aircraft at the same time there are large queues at the immigration. Be careful with and don't pay too much for the Visa. The airport is clean, more or less well organized. The departure hall with the check in facilities is very small, the waiting areas are okay.










 

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