Belfast Airport

Not Verified | I am a frequent flyer and unfortunately have no choice to fly from this stuck in a time warp airport. I get filled with dread everytime I walk into the place as whenever getting near the stairs to rise one floor upto security, as, although I hope and pray this trip might just be different, I am met with a queue stretching down the stairs. A near 2 hour wait to get through is something to really get your spirits up. For anyone looking to come into this airport - don't - it must be one of the few and I mean very few international airports without a rail link into the city. It's a bus or a extortionate taxi ride. Its 2019 not 1979

✅ Trip Verified | Well what a difference a day makes. After reading about the horrific security queues yesterday morning I arrived deliberately early and was amazed to find virtually no queue for security at 08:20. This miraculous event was made possible by the 6 attractive and bubbly security assistants flown in from London as a knee jerk reaction to the crisis. All 5 scanners were working for once but the antiquated equipment relies on the scanner operator having to continually push items along the roller tables instead of using an automated conveyor. Despite its other numerous short comings, the insufficient security staffing levels and vintage equipment are the airport's biggest downfall. Surely an easy fix with some investment. Sadly the London staff will jet off when the fuss has died down and we will be back where we started. I now have 2 hours to kill sitting on an industrial steel seat which is wicking all the body heat from my buttocks whilst I will on the Sodom and Gomorrah treatment for this debacle of an airport. Many third world airports outpace this money grubbing den of chaos which is a complete embarrassment to our small country.

✅ Trip Verified | I will not use this airport again. Do not use Aldergrove until the rebuild of security has been completed (April at the earliest), it can take over two hours from entering the terminal to get to security, no explanation, no help no management available, no apology. Absolute chaos.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is a disgrace and completely unfit for purpose. It does not have the capacity in security checking to handle the numbers. This would seem not due to a lack of staff numbers as declared as even with extra staff the scanning equipment is working at full stretch. Priority security at £4.00 each might seem a good choice (and earner for the airport) however there are delays here as well. At least 1 hour to clear security. Tables in Starbucks were not cleared.

✅ Trip Verified | This morning. 11/2/19 I arrived at Aldergrove to board an 08.30 flight to Luton. I joined the Fast Track lane, which extended very close to the top of the escalator and watched as people moved swiftly through the regular queue. As it happened, 2 young men just in front of me decided to move into the regular queue and were nowhere to be seen by the time I got through! Obviously,I should have done the same! Why could another lane not have been opened for Fast Track when it was obvious that we were progressing very very slowly? Surely someone in the Security area could have taken that decision as required! My husband had dropped me off early because he’d heard that Monday mornings can be extremely busy. Security staff must be aware of this happening on a regular basis. I resent paying extra for a Fast Track service that doesn’t exist and also having to rush madly to my Departure Gate when time is short through no fault of my own.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst baggage claim in the world, why does it take an hour to get bags of a plane? Belfast International Airport. The place is tiny! Total embarrassment! To think international visitors have to endure this backward standard in 2019. This Airport hasn't progressed in 20 years! Avoid it and use the Belfast City Airport or better still Dublin Airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Another Monday evening flight - not a peak travel time - yet the hall is queued back to the security barrier. I expected that. Now here’s my complaint- only one scanner is operating plus the priority one that has almost nobody. Unacceptable. When are the overdue improvements coming? I understand when the issue is building or machine capacity. Neither of those is today’s cause.

✅ Trip Verified | Awful from start to finish. Staff are unhelpful, rude, and security staff behave like they think they’re police officers with zero customer service skills. They forget we pay their wages. Manhandling of customer property is common, escalating issues to security supervisors is just met with a blank wall of “it’s the law, customer service doesn’t come in to it”. Other than that it’s an airport that has invested in shops, but nothing that doesn’t generate a profit. Once you get past the shops, the terminal is falling to bits and smells damp, with random one armed bandits and bars sprinkled about (to generate money). On the plus side, it does, just, function as an airport, albeit the worst one I ever use. Vile airport. Horrid people. Use City airport instead as it’s much more modern and security is much slicker - the security supervisors have also had customer service training.

Not Verified | I travel through Belfast regularly and have now got to the stage where I’d rather go into Dublin or take the ferry. The queues are horrendous, the staff are rude, unfriendly and bureaucratic. I’ve actually missed a flight due to excessively long queues and when I asked to go via the fast track queue was told I would need to pay extra. Considering the golf is coming to NI in July one might assume this would have been sorted but it just gets worse. It’s too stressful and ruins a trip. It’s a disgrace and an embarrassment. Get it sorted or you’ll just lose people which is a shame when you see the changes in tourism. I’m a native of NI but live in England so see these great changes for myself but unless the airport situation is sorted, we look like idiots.

Not Verified | Arrived in from Lanzarote at 1.30am on 23 December with Easyjet. Overall the experience of the airport was horrible. Passengers bussed from the aircraft to an external arrivals door waiting in the freezing cold while around 180 passengers including elderly, parents with infants and hand luggage squeezed though the external double doors and had to climb four fights of metal stairs up to customs/border force. It was chaos on the steps passengers struggling with hand luggage, tired infants and older people. Greeted by very grumpy border force staff who were holding passengers back calling them forward individually to the border force desks which kept passengers standing in the cold stairwell. I have only ever encountered this type of processing passengers in Cuba. At least it was warm there. The corridors were grubby with old blue worn carpets. What sort of impression does this give to foreign visitors however the staff gave the impression they could not care less.