Calgary Airport

✅ Trip Verified | They have built the new extension to ensure people walk as far as possible with little alternative or accessibility solutions (they will tell you they do but they do not operate after 8pm). The seating at the gates is extremely limited. If your flight is at 50% capacity or more don’t expect to sit at the gate.

Not Verified | My boyfriend hurt himself during our trip and needed a wheelchair to walk 1.4 km to the other end of the airport because they changed our boarding location at the last minute. He was in agony by the time we got to the gate D92. If we would have waited for them to order a wheelchair from the back (because there were not any sitting there available to use) we would have missed our flight as they were boarding 5 min after we got to the gate. My 2 questions are: 1) Why did they not have multiple chairs throughout the airport because they do not have conveyer sidewalks? 2) Why did they not hold the flight until we got a chair brought out to take him to the other side since they changed the location to 1.4 km walk for an injured person. We ended up finding out he had 3 cracked ribs he was travelling home with.

Not Verified | Small airport with unnecessarily long lines and stickler security - especially during covid when there is less traffic already. At least the officers were courteous.

Not Verified | Calgary Airport may look shiny and new with all the additions and renovations, but it is far and away the most inefficient airport I have ever been through. Today I checked in at WestJet at one end of the terminal and had to walk clear to the other end for my gate, D90. The instructions were to go through security at D - confusing, as D is labeled "international" and I was travelling domestic. As I walked (and walked and walked) there were some small signs saying that domestic travellers could also use gates B and C, though only at certain times. To someone not completely familiar with the airport this is not helpful: should one line up at B or C only to be told to use D, or walk to D and be turned away because one is travelling domestic rather than international? there were people with lanyards standing around who encouraged me to use D, although their function wasn't clear and I didn't entirely trust that they knew. If one is not yet through security, there is no way, other than walking, to get from WestJet checkin to gate D90. I'm a senior but I can still walk well; in future years - if I am unable to avoid Calgary Airport - suppose I could order a golf cart. Once inside security the situation was no better - no visible alternative to walking (e.g. moving sidewalks, an internal transport system) in section D. While I have used the little "golf-cart train" in other sections previously, I must say that these are the most ludicrous and inefficient way of moving people I've ever seen at an airport. Fortunately I no longer live in Calgary so I do not have to use the airport often, and - like most people I know - I try to avoid it if I can. Whenever going through it is unavoidable, though, the terrible experience is confirmed - miles and miles of walking, illogical organization, poor signage, very little good and attractive seating. It is highly unfortunate that the planning has been so abysmal. I suppose I could say that the airport is clean - that's about the only positive I can think of.

✅ Trip Verified | I have traveled through all Canadian tier 1 airports and many tier 2 airports, YYC is far and away the worst in terms of passenger experience bar none. Typical issues: long waits at gate security, no nexus at all for domestic (likely Covid related) or international (always). Food: few restaurants in domestic and usually understaffed or little seating. Shopping, or, trashy shops, no high-end shopping like say Vancouver. Seating: a disastrous situation. Now, in covid times: Bob and his crew have really done a poor job. Our locally based international airline, Westjet, and their passengers, are forced to walk a KM or so from the normal A and B gates to international gates D and E. There is no transport, no guidance and no seating on the way, this is a real gaff. How does Air Canada get to use all the close gates, a carrier based in Montreal?

✅ Trip Verified | I have accepted that traveling through the international airport of my hometown is slow and hectic with long lines, no real Nexus line for outbound international flights, generally it's a terrible experience. It gets worse if you travel domestically with a bike which I do a fair bit. The new oversized baggage scanners can't fit a bike bag or box. The old ones did but you had to convince the staff to try and if they would they would go through. Now it's at least a 30 minute process to unpack your bike bag, individually scan each item, empty every pocket then repack everything. And if there are a few of you traveling with your bikes, well, do the math. You need to insist that they get extra staff and of course this adds to the already pleasant experience of the passengers waiting to check golf clubs extra behind you. It's an airport that doesn't care about the customer experience.

Not Verified | This airport is the slowest, dirty and too big! Cant find anything especially some of the gates! Absolutely ridiculous! When you do find something open its a pop machine. Wow IT doesn't work! Needed some stuff from one of the makeup machines, finally had a chance to try out as usual it doesn't work. Slow, slow, slow! Slow to board planes, slow to exit planes. It like its a surprise that a plane landed, certainly always waiting for the crew to even show up to load a plane and even worse always waiting for the Calgary ground crew to show up for flights to come in so we can get off the plane.

✅ Trip Verified | We purchased duty free Mexico and because it had a twist tie with a bill enclosed and not sealed it was taken from us. They also would not allow us to put it on our checked luggage. The only way we could have kept it was to have it shipped to us which would have been another cost. I find this unacceptable.

✅ Trip Verified | My wife and I were returning from Cabo, Mexico connecting through Calgary to Vancouver Saturday October 31st. We are aware of having to transfer from international arrivals to a domestic terminal for the flight to Vancouver, plus claim and re check luggage and go through security again is a pain but the terrible staffing, poor layout of the airport and frustratingly long process makes an already time consuming process even longer and really frustrating. We get that we were travelling during a pandemic, and respect that at a time when air travel is at an all time low, staff levels are low, and services such as food availability are limited. But, that airport is very inefficient, the layout is awful, and the distance from arrival gate to departure gate is not just a long walk to reclaim our luggage, check the bags again, then walk another long distance to a security area but security staff were either new and inexperienced or simply didn’t have proper training in people skills or how to screen passengers in a thorough manner! Maybe they just didn’t care! Security delays there were frankly pathetic! Staff didn’t work well together, they walked around leaving passengers to stand and wait to walk through sensors and looked confused and didn’t care at all! After screening the carry on bags, 1 of the security guys pulled my wife off to the side and opened a duty free bag of perfume my wife had purchased when we left Cabo. He told us he had to test the contents (Perfume)! Sealed in a duty free bag, so he opened the bag, walked around looking for something to test the contents (liquid) and after another added delay he handed her the bag like we were inconveniencing him! We must admit being in Mexico was great, relaxing and very low stress. Coming back home to Canada and experiencing that airport and security staff was a sign that the Calgary airport service level simply sucks! Made coming home actually feel like we were coming home to people, providing a service that was simply awful across the board. After no food service on the flights, and we get it, travelling during Covid is limited to what they can offer, but when flights are still arriving and departing at an airport shouldn’t there be some food service available for passengers needing to each something other than chips, snacks etc! This was at 8.20pm on a Saturday night! Let’s be better than that. Let’s be a country when travellers land in our country at airports in our cities, that we’re hospitable, helpful and courteous or at least be up to minimum service levels. Hopefully Calgary airport management starts to pay attention that the experience for travellers in your airport is poorly managed.

Not Verified | As a fairly frequent traveller I must say this is by far the most inefficient airport I have ever been through. Nexus and Global Entry lines do not exist when going through security, which usually has only 1 or 2 lines open. Be prepared to walk a ways through to customs and you’d better have all your posting passes to show. The distance to other concourses and gates is remarkably long. I find most of the staff very friendly which is nice after a day of travel. I avoid this airport as much as possible and prefer to fly out of Edmonton.