Cardiff Airport

✅ Verified Review | Nice little airport but the standard of food and presentation / quality airside is frankly disgusting. Overpriced breakfast served after a long wait on pre war tin plates that were chipped and rusty! Unbelievable £21-00 for rubbish food served on rusty plates. What century are we in?

Appalling food at Cardiff Airport. The Beer lounge served a £14.98 dry as a bone burger and reheated chicken skewer with poor dry tomatoes. Requested replacement of latter and got awful dry chicken and a nice tomato. Used to be good food here, we travel several times a year. Restaurant must have changed hands. Truly awful.

Departure was fine at Cardiff Airport, although I agree with others about signposting being rubbish both getting to and at the airport. Parking is really expensive. Arrival involved a ridiculous walk and then wait to get through passport control. The electronic passport control seemed to require staff involvement for everyone! I really want this airport to succeed, but FGS sort the website out it is a complete shambles!

✅ Verified Review | Arrived in Cardiff in such a bleak unmanned hall that it was obviously designed by a Soviet era architect - just grim. Our departure was better lit but then we could see how absolutely filthy the eating areas were. No cleaning / clearing during the hour we were there. Toilets in very poor state. Really horrible airport. 30 minutes free wifi - pathetic.

✅ Verified Review | Departure at this airport was fast and efficient and without fuss which was great. Arrival however was another matter, long queues at passport control, baggage collection for our flight was ok but then when we went to get a taxi it was abysmal. Was told we would have to wait half an hour and over an hour later we were still at airport. The service was horrendous and spoiled what was otherwise an uneventful journey. Surely they know when flights are coming in and what airport in the world doesn't have a taxi rank outside. Very, very poor. Come on Cardiff it's embarrassing.

Departures at Cardiff was great, very organised and stress free it was on our arrival back that I have a complaint. I'm 7 months pregnant, had my 3 year old with me (no pram as we hadn't got back yet) and my autistic 9 year old stepson. I thought given my situation with both children very over tired and my uncomfortable situation being quite pregnant and trying to control both I thought I'd go down the passport control of special assistance only to be greeted by a very rude lady, demanded why I thought I could go down there to be seen sooner, in most airports when you have young children or are heavily pregnant they prioritise you, this lady was terrible at her job and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. It put me off wanting to go back, very rude and insensitive service.

The Airport Parking is much improved and the free drop off for cars and taxis is just in front of the airport terminal and very quick. The check in and bag drop off is well organised. The security is thorough and well managed. The shopping area has been refurbished since our last visit and the food outlet has a good selection of food and drink and the prices are reasonable. On arrival back from our holiday the baggage handling was quick and although the security passport queue was long it was soon cleared.

I last used Cardiff several years ago and is certainly better than then. Parking in Long Stay 1 is about a 5 minute walk to the terminal, just as well as the advertised shuttle bus was not in evidence. The terminal is OK but rather short on facilities. Security queues were short but the process took a good 15 minutes as one of our party was selected for random testing, this would be fine if the one person doing the checking had not spent considerable time shifting liquids between bags for two travellers, in an effort to throw away as little as possible (sorry, but that is the passengers' responsibility) and ignoring the queue. After that, departure went well. Arriving was not bad, a short wait for passport checks, but then we had to walk back to the car as the bus was still conspicuous by its absence. Cardiff appears to be trying to establish itself as a regional airport and has potential, though I think there is still some way to go, in my experience Bristol is better - though it has its faults too.

Poor car parking facilities at Cardiff airport. Despite having pre-booked and pre-paid at long stay 2, it was difficult to find a space and had to drive around for a good 5 minutes. Car park lighting not good which made it difficult to see any signs, if there are any, directions for walking from the car park to the terminal building, where to pick up and timing of shuttle bus (if there is one operating) to take you from the car park to the terminal building. As our luggage had wheels and we don't have any mobility problems, we walked from the car park to the terminal building along the roadway where we had entered. Queues not too bad at check in and staff dealt with passengers fairly quickly. Access to security and departure lounge from check in via a flight of stairs or a lift. Queues at security not too bad and again staff dealt with passengers fairly quickly. Standard airport offering of pricey and flavourless food and refreshments in departure area. There's a duty free shop but as most of the flights are within the EU we weren't able to take advantage - prices seemed to be comparable with normal high street prices. On check-in we were told to leave the departure area early as there was a long walk to the departure gate. You don't need a visit to the gym on the day you fly from Cardiff - plenty of stairs and a good walk along grey uninspiring corridor to gates with no seating or refreshment facilities and I didn't notice any toilet facilities once you'd left the departure lounge. For arrival, again a long walk to immigration and baggage area along dull grey corridors and, I think, 5 or 6 flights of stairs, the longest (4 flights) of which didn't seem to have a lift or escalator facility. Immigration had a few e-passport booths and fortunately there was a member of staff to assist you when the technology doesn't recognise you. Baggage carousel a bit confusing as changed flight information before completing delivery of baggage from previous flight causing confusion and concern that baggage had been lost. Walked back to the car park as it seemed easier than trying to find out whether there were any shuttle buses and, if so, where the collection point at the terminal was. Fortunately there was a member of staff on hand at the car park exit as the number recognition system didn't recognise our vehicle. As this has happened to us previously, we did have the paperwork to hand.

Cardiff Airport arrivals is a shambles - avoid if you can and cannot recommend. Border control staff need more training in being sensitive to individual requirements. Alternatively they could employ more staff but too much cost cutting maybe, and perhaps why staff attitudes are poor?