Bucharest Otopeni Airport

✅ Verified Review | This is a great airport, I am always out in 10 minutes. Passport control is fast and efficient (incoming and outgoing), Free trolleys for the bags, and if we fly Lufthansa the bags will take a minute to be in the hall (really). The airport is not big, but is efficient (if you are travel with decent airlines). Out of the plane, passport control, Bags, no more than 10 to 15 minutes. It works, is friendly to the passengers is what I have to say.

✅ Verified Review | Wait at the baggage drop at 5.30am on 1st October 2017 was well over one hour due to belt technical problems. No communication from check in staff. They seemed unsympathetic and unapologetic. Many, like myself, feared missing my flight despite being at the airport 2 hrs before departure time. Unacceptable for any airport not to have contingency plans in place should an event like this occur.

❎ Unverified | Absolutely terrible experience at this airport. The queue for customs was far too long and no staff were there to organise the people into lines so everyone was pushing into the front. It was very dangerous with lots of small children in the "rabble" This resulted in lots of people missing or being late for flights. The airport should organise their staff better for lines to be under control and to stop this from happening. Personally I'll avoid flying from this airport ever again. Flying is stressful enough without an absolute shambles of a customs and passport check.

✅ Verified Review | I am allergic to latex so I asked the woman at the control to change her latex gloves. She refused and I had to insist. Then she removed them, and with no other gloves and her hands full of latex proceeded, with very bad manners, in a humiliating way while critizasing me with his colleagues thinking I couldn't understand a word. I tried unsuccessfuly to find a customer service desk. I asked two different policemen I was both times denied the chance to write a formal complaint, and hassled to go to my boarding gate and forget about it.

✅ Verified Review | Our departure to Florence was on Sunday, March 12 and the airport wasn't so crowded. All processes were fast and the staff were kind enough. In the shopping area I was delighted to see that the traditional Romanian products section was upgraded. The products are well presented and correctly priced. Good! A nice experience this time. No so good on the return, we spent some time waiting for documents control and baggage claim, but all in all was acceptable.

✅ Verified Review | Security checks are extremely slow in the old departure hall, neither are they better in the new terminal. The airport is generally painfully crowded in the morning for departures, and then in the evening in the arrivals area.

✅ Verified Review | This airport is a total failure, mainly because of the staff. Security screening is a nightmare, as staff have no idea how important the time element is for travellers. Today, just ahead of myself was a lady that essentially had her hand luggage stuffed with liquids that were over the allowance. It took more than 20 minutes to screen her while I was waiting. It did not occur to any of the 20 plus purposelessly wandering around staff to take the passenger aside for a full check and move ahead with the security line. And when confronted about her total lack of efficacy, staff were arrogant and repeating that she was doing her job. This is just the most vivid example. There are plenty of little things like people jumping the queue without anyone saying a word, extortionate prices at the shops, not very polite staff altogether. This is clearly an airport that does not deserve any praise and it is a shame that this is the first glimpse of the country someone gets.

✅ Verified Review | No matter if departing or arriving you have to be prepared to wait in enourmous lines. I must say that arriving now has improved by the opening of extra passport control desks in the new terminal and it now takes less time. Quite an improvement and a nice surprise for the customers. When leaving it is not the same thing. 45 minutes waiting time at security is not unheard of and you can add some more time for passport control, and that at 5 am because at around 6 am there are plenty of airlines taking off. I guess the maximum capacity of passengers a year has been reached and from here come all the problems. The ground staff try to help but I don't think there is anything that can be done in the short term. A downside of this airport is the connection with the city, there are some buses, but they are small and inefficient. They must provide a lot of space for luggages (these are airport buses after all) but aparently they are just common buses that take more than 1hr to get to the centre. A shameful side of this airport are the prices. When you offer a coffee for 5,5€ or a sandwich for 7€ it is disrepectful to passengers. Now there is a Billa Supermarket located in the arrivals hall which has good prices so finally there is an alternative. As a conclusion: there is a lot of improvement needed.

✅ Verified Review | The 780 and 783 express busses are the cheapest and safest way to get to the airport and back to the city, however they are usually crowded. The authorities have to invest a lot in the expansion, since the number of passengers is rapidly growing. In the common areas are there are some cafeterias, however are ridiculously expensive. There is a Tarom drop off counter (I am not sure if the accept only Tarom baggage) which is cool if you have done your check-in at home and you just need to leave your baggage. Usually queens to security control are big and the waiting time is abt. 5-10 minutes (sometimes 1 minute, depending on the number of flights) and passport control is working very slow. However recently they opened new passport control cabins. After the passport control there are duty free shops. Expensive and restaurants as well. Vending machines, a 0.5 l. bottle of water costs 10 lei (abt 2.2 Euro). There are a lot of chairs and places to rest. The terminal is OK. Not interactive - just stay and wait. Bathrooms are clean and not crowded. Overall the terminal is clean and the temperature is adequate. There are plenty of signs and directions so it's practically impossible to get lost.

I have been travelling to Romania for 15 years and Bucharest airport has progressively got worse with regards to unbelievable queuing times. Before check-in I was ripped off by the restaurant in the new arrivals area. I was charged for a ridiculous amount for a coffee. The menu offered a price of 16 Lei but when I went to pay it turned into 24 Lei, which is nearly 5 GBP. I have been all over the world and this is the most expensive place to eat or drink. Not only is it expensive but the size of the drink is miniscule. After this experience I then entered the security process, which took 55 minutes. My question is who regulates this? All other international airports are monitored for queuing times and acceptable timescales. Then after this debacle comes duty free, this is more expensive than any high street in the UK/USA or any other capital city. People will just buy nothing from this airport until this it realises that ripping people off is not the way forward.