Bucharest Otopeni Airport

✅ Trip Verified | I arrived at the airport at 6am, had everything ready including printed negative results. I took a second rapid test in the bathroom and took photos. I went to board my flight and they proceed to tell me I need a certified certificate within four hours to prove my rapid test is negative, this was not information provided to me even when I called the call center (which by the way took an hour to get through for Blue Air). I now need to miss my flight and buy a new one for 250 euros. I asked the lady at the check in who do I talk to because I had no idea and it never specified how I get this test with a certificate within 4 hours of my flight, she tells me, there is no one to talk to. I walk back through customs with security, crying and confused. I ask the information desk guy who tells me he doesn't know what I'm talking about, So I ask a security lady, she says ask the info guy, I say I did so she asks him. He looks at his computer, I think he's looking something up, after 5 minutes I realize he's just on his computer doing whatever he wants. So I yell pharmacy at him, he grunts, and says go up the stairs to the right. The pharmacy assistant speaks no English but sells me a rapid test. I call my Romanian friend for assistance as I still need to prove with a certificate that my results are negative, they talk on loud speaker. The lady yells at my friend and tells her to tell me to leave. My friend then calls the airport and finds out I have to walk 12 minutes along the highway to go to a drive through test to get the results, with all my luggage. I finally do this and arrive back exhausted and furious. This was the most mortifying experience in an international Airport and Bucharest should be ashamed. In an international Airport people need at a minimum to be able to have compassion and probably be able to speak English? I mean come on, if I can go to Japan and have no problems I should also be able to come here and have the same experience. Get out of the stone age and get some friendly staff who know what a pharmacy is.

Not Verified | Absolutely horrible, bad organization, people weren’t wearing masks properly, everything incredibly crowded, be early and prepare to remind people we are in a pandemic.

✅ Trip Verified | I had a great experience at this airport. I last flew on the route Bucharest-Paris CDG with Air France. The flight was at 6 am and even though the flight departed that early, the airport was busy. The time spent at check in was decent. Having a Sky Team card we were allowed to stay in Tarom’s lounge, being an Air France partner. Boarding didn’t took long at all because we boarded in zones. We than de-iced and waited in a queue for us to take off. Didn’t took very long, but there were at least 5 planes in that queue. Overall, the airport is ok.

✅ Trip Verified | I fly often in and out of Henri Coanda - Otopeni International Airport in Bucharest, Romania, as it is home for me now. In terms of access to the airport, there is no direct train link yet, but the line is under way and due to be open in 2021 and will be an underground metro link. There are direct buses to and from the airport to Gara De Nord, the main train station in Bucharest. Also many private mini buses and taxis. Advice with taxis is to use the automated ticket booking machines inside the arrival area, take a ticket and then go outside and your taxi will arrive shortly. Taxis outside you run the risk of getting ripped off. Sometimes the machines are so busy they don't work so Uber is a great option as well. Airport is probably classed as small to medium on the scale of things and during the early morning departure rush can be very busy and crowded especially where the budget airline check ins are located directly through the departure terminal entry doors. It will need to be overhauled and expanded in coming years as it is straining under the increased passenger load each year. Despite that though I like it as a nice compact airport, not long commutes, with a decent mix of air-bridges and bus transport to aircraft. For its size it has a good food-court on lower ground level and a good range of cafes spread through the terminal. Security scanning is rigid which is good and thorough and going through customs leaving is easy and painless and the same on arrival. The only let downs are the baggage carousel area and seating directly outside departure gates which is limited. I have waited more than once for over an hour for baggage. Once claimed however nobody really declares anything and you are never really checked, just straight out to the arrivals hall which again is smallish and a little cramped so best to get straight out. I like it though, nice small cozy airport and always functional for me.

Not Verified | As every time you need to wait for at least 45’ for your bag. If you try to find a staff member it’s really hard. If you are lucky to find one they are not very polite and totally unprofessional. Not clean, nor friendly, not an EU airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Very scary for me travelling alone - there is little information to help and it’s so overcrowded that you can’t find what you need to know. Queueing several times for check in, then security, then passport control - takes over 1 hour to get through them then you still have to find your gate! Glad I was very early!

✅ Trip Verified | Possibly the worst capital airport in Europe. This airport is old, inconvenient and quite dirty. In addition it is overcrowded and even if it is not that big, it will request endless walking. Directions are difficult to find, staff are not very friendly in a country where most peiple are nice, business lounge a disaster. WiFi terrible. Baggage carousels are as old as in some minor African airports! To put a sour cherry on the cake, traffic around the airport is absolutly terrible as the roads must have been done for the traffic they had 20 or 30 years ago.

Not Verified | The airport is far to bad to be called "international". It's always dirty, especially the toilets (very bad smell and no toilet paper). Hardly can find a trolley for your cases and some staff are not helping you at all. Need a lot more of work there, more competent and friendly staff. Could be better if they would care.

✅ Trip Verified | Small amount of seating inside the airport. Horrible old busses in which people are crammed inside and have to wait for the full boarding to take place. Chaotic queueing around the gates.

✅ Trip Verified | It is to great regret that I have to announce Bucharest Otopeni Airport as the winner of the award as the worst airport of the year. It’s chaotic, disorganised, over-crowded, no service mindedness whatsoever, unfriendly staff, no air conditioning, no wi-fi that works in the lounge, noisy and just poor in general. I’ve been to airports in the third world with a higher ambition for service, customer care and the airport building.