Cluj-napoca Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Horrible ground services, terrible departure terminal building, ridiculous small and expensive parking. Extreme cold in the winter in departing terminal due to the continuous door openings and bad building design. Totally disorganized and uncivilized boarding procedure, hectic lines, primitive busses, didn’t see anywhere something similar. Sometimes security check is slow with very long lines. Try to avoid this airport if possible.

✅ Verified Review | Although this is my home airport, I must say, indeed it has one of the worst services I have ever experienced and whenever I use this airport (several times per year), it never seemed to pleasantly surprise me. Cluj-Napoca Avram Iancu International Airport, which is its official name, has grown over the last few years from handling a few hundred thousand passengers to more than 1.5 million a year. There are 4 international boarding gates (doors rather) with in 4-5 meters of each other and all the passengers are crammed into a hallway which is way too small. This is especially problematic early in the morning and later in the afternoon, when the low cost airlines operating from this airport have their flights all within 5-15 minutes of each other. Ground services are just terrible. There are 8 passport check kiosks, however I have never seen more than 5-6 open in my life. No matter how many planes land at once, no matter that the end of the queue is on the tarmac, outside of the building. There are two baggage belts, yet somehow the ground crew still manages to place your bag on the wrong one. All in all, just terrible services offered by an overcrowded airport. Hope some investments are made in the future to provide travelers with a better experience.

❎ Unverified | Arrived 23rd July with Wizz from Bratislava and returned 30th. Small but busy airport. Immigration was quite conjested but moved relatively quickly. Bags arrived quickly. Departure process no problem including security who were quite courteous. Some Duty Free shops don't accept local currency (only accepted Euros) so couldn't spend remaining currency which we were carrying. Generally speaking our experience at Cluj-napoca was pleasant enough with no complaints.

✅ Verified Review | Overall, Cluj-Napoca is a small airport for its growing reputation. Paid extra for priority boarding and got no seats on the bus from the airport to the plane. This is unacceptable as people who did not pay got more seats than people who actually paid. People do not want to be standing in a bus where there is a constant smell of petrol.

✅ Verified Review | Cluj-Napoca "Avram Iancu" International Airport was designed to handle 2 million passengers annually and when writing this review it handled about 1.5 million, which in itself shouldn't be the problem, however most flights leave and arrive around the same time slots. 6 a.m. is absolutely chaotic and so is 11 a.m. and then again later in the afternoon at around 5-6 p.m. There are only 4 boarding gates within a terminal that's about 200 meters long. There are not enough seats and more often than not, not even enough room for all the passengers standing up. The departures terminal gets awfully crowded. On arrival, there are 3 security booths with 2 security officers each, however never ever have I seen more than 4 officers working at once. When 2-3 planes land the queue sometimes flows outside of the building and you can expect waiting times of well over 30-45 minutes. Which might as well, because your bag won't be delivered sooner anyway, even if you do manage to clear security in record time. And when your bag arrives, it might be on the wrong bag delivery carousel, even though there are only two in total. Parking here is a total disaster. All of the places are full all of the time. Public transport is only a bus which carries you to the city center. No tram, no metro. Taxis are available and usually alright. All in all a very small airport with way too much traffic and very little space.

Cluj Airport is getting better all the time. It is a fairly small airport but it is clean efficient and fairly pleasant. Expect long queues at security checks as Romanian authorities are very strict about this but staff are fine and helpful. Passport control is not a problem leaving and hardly one arriving. I have through passed Cluj Airport several times and never queued more than 10 minutes (even late at night on arrival from Munich). The duty free is small and not that interesting price wise two little overpriced cafés in the departure hall and in the international departure lounge. Domestic departure lounge is a bit small but domestic flights are only served by ATR planes. On arrival taxis are safe just walk to the official taxi rank and do not follow anyone asking you in the arrival hall - price is around 30/35 lei into town (7/8 euros). A very decent airport.

Things are improving rapidly since the last review. New terminals open and a lot more space but still a bit chaotic at times. WizzAir have introduced several new routes since they opened a base here. Beware: that the airport website is not providing real time arrivals and departures information. Beware: some over priced cowboy taxis are still lurking near the terminal. Best use the frequent and cheap bus service to City Center on main road outside the airport terminal. All in all an up and coming airport serving a vibrant city.

Cluj-Napoca International Airport is a very small airport. First thing you need to know is that it has experienced a 550% increase since 1999. But it still uses the same old terminal building. They will open 2 new terminals soon an arrivals one in April 2008 and a departures one in July 2008 so things will probably improve in a few months. But until then it's best to know what to expect if you go there. Everything is small baggage reclaim area arrivals hall check-in area (the largest of all but still small) departures hall. This means that it's quite hard for them to handle flights with many passengers. A full A320 with 180 passengers pushes the airport to its very limits. However on departure if you are there with about 1:30 hours before the departure time you're probably going to be fine. You will be queuing almost all that time (there's no real place for shopping or relaxing anyway). On arrival expect long queues for passport control. There are only 2 immigration officers processing (between them) only about 5 passengers per minute. If you're last to leave the aircraft you can expect an approximately 30 mins wait. Baggage reclaim area will be overcrowded so you'll have to wait a bit in there as well. The airport is about 8km east of the city centre and a taxi drive should take about 15-20 mins and cost approximately 15 lei (4 Euros). There is a bus stop (100m walk from the terminal) but I never used it. An overall fair experience if you know what to expect.