Dhaka Airport

Small and peaceful airport. The queues can be long at times but from starting my journey from my home to immigration was completed in 30 minutes! Adequate seating airside. Washrooms okay (except near the luggage belt - horrible). Duty free and restaurants - expensive and best to avoid.

I frequently travel to Dhaka from the UK. I find that from leaving the plane and going for my luggage is absolutely professional. The immigration at Dhaka are very good and pleasant. Customs do their job the only issue is that the luggage does take a while. The Bangladeshis will go out their way to help you. All staff at the airport are helpful. On the outward journey the only issue is if you need to contact anyone lack of phone booths at a reasonable price. All in all I would give it 4 out of 5. Very good I've been to worse. Turkey Spain Ireland and Greece to name but a few are a lot worse than Dhaka.

Not customer friendly airport at all although some improvements made lately i e new shops and cleaner toilets. Departure is mostly fine go to the Sheraton lounge at the third floor and enjoy a cold beer while waiting for departure. Arriving though is horrible expect long queues to passport control and anywhere between 2-3 hours for the luggage to arrive. Arrange someone to pick you up since "taxis" are unreliable.

This is by a long way the worst airport I have been in. On entering it is utter chaos with touts sprinting behind your car so as to grab your luggage when you stop. It takes a raised voice to get them to go away usually. Some even pretend to be from your airline and say it is part of the service. They will then demand money when they have taken your bags in. The security is pretty woeful. The very old scanning machine is manned by totally disinterested looking staff who to be frank do not look like they know what they are looking for. It is also quite easy to walk around the metal detector when staff are not looking. Check in is ok. But there is a complete lack of information if your flight is delayed. Immigration is quite a slow process as often there machines break down and details have to be hand written. The shops and restaurant facilities are absolutely miserable. The duty free guys will try to rip you off especially if you try to pay Taka and not USD. The Sheraton bar upstairs is a bit more peaceful but hardly fantastic. Boarding the flight is chaos. As soon as there is a hint that boarding may begin there is a stampede to get to the front of the queue. I feel like reminding people that seats are allocated by ticket this is not a Dhaka bus! Arriving I feel is even worse. The immigration officers are slow. There is no machine readable passport system so everything is written down at a glacial speed. Friends who have asked for visa on arrival have been taken away to interview rooms and a bribe has been directly demanded. The luggage wait can be beyond belief. I have waited for well over an hour on occasions with no explanation of where the cases have been. Cases are also routinely tampered with. And as for exiting the airport and looking for a taxi- scary!

Just traveled in and out of Zia International Airport on international trip. It has improved since my last visit 4+ years ago. There's a "health desk" at the arrivals hall manned by health professionals but does not seem to serve any purpose; no one at the immigration desks that follow ask about the form. Although there are separate immigration counters for Bangladesh Passport Holders Non-Resident Bangladeshis nationals of other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Foreigners in effect there are only two gateways: foreign passport holders and Bangladesh passport holders. The arrivals hall is all very civilized but the time it takes for the luggage carousels to start delivering checked luggage varies: it's quicker for day-time arrivals and dreadfully slow during the post mid- night hours. Departure check-in varies airline to airline; it's a lot quicker if you checked in online via the web. Departure immigration is no non-sense friendly and professional. There are two smoking rooms at either ends of the terminal on the air-side on the departure level. There are a few duty free shops selling both Bangladeshi export quality products such as leather bags cases shoes etc. as well as stores selling run of the mill duty free stuff (cigarettes perfumes). There are not many public phone booths that are working as most people use cellphones. Not the most interesting place on the face of the earth but there are worse places to be stuck in that part of the world.

Arrival - immigration reasonably efficient with average queuing time (10 - 15 minutes for an Airbus 330 load). Baggage return slow - about 30 minutes. Taxi area outside the terminal is chaotic; lots of taxi touts. They need to sort that out. Thankfully we were being met. Departure is good. Drop off is no problem. X-ray screening of all bags is done upon entry to the terminal and hand baggage again at the gate. I can imagine huge queues at peak time but we avoided that. We were early for our Qatar Airways check in so did not experience any queues. Once through Immigration (very quick no waiting) there is free internet (4 terminals 30 minutes limit) and up the stairs there's a small cafe with reasonably priced (by airport standards) food (limited range Bangladeshi food only) if you don't mind the sales pitch to buy local confections! We paid in Taka so no idea if they take foreign currency. Duty free shops are cheap & OK and accept foreign currency. Seating is adequate. There isn't much else to do so bring a good book. The terminal including the toilets is clean. We were there on what looked like quiet days so can't advise on what it's like at peak times. Overall rather better than I expected

No problems with immigration or baggage delivery now. There is quite a good selection of shops/cafes in the departures area. If you are leaving on a large aircraft (Emirates) there are not enough seats in the gate area. So it is best to go to the gate early or late. There are some problems with mosquitoes in the airport so it is best to wear long sleeved shirts.

I have recently returned from Bangladesh to the UK and I think that overall Zia International has improved over the years but the actual facilities are still very limited in regard's to meeting the modern air travel standards. I think there should be more impetus on staff training and both in the smooth handling of the passengers and the overall customer service element. The shops and restaurants in the airport itself does not reflect the current trends in the modern Dhaka Metropolis as this is a shame as Zia International is used by many tourist on route to other destinations where the impact of the Airport can be used to market Bangladesh effectively.

A few tips for Dhaka ZIA. If departing there is a nice cafe on the first floor that few people know about. Alternatively sit away from the gates near to passport control- there are lots of seats there and its quiet. On arriving if you need transport walk away from the terminal and jump into an auto rickshaw/baby taxi or get a taxi from the roundabout just outside the airport. I like this airport- people are friendly many other passengers are curious about foreigners and things seem to work well here

ZIA has improved - much bigger and cleaner now including the restrooms. The effective space of the airport has doubled. Immigration customs check-in lobby everything is much more spacious. Immigration officers are still learning their software but they are courteous. The main trouble point is still the arrival curb and the taxi area. That place is still chaos and needs to be straightened out. Those who have cars waiting should not have any problem - but others will be at the mercy of the swindlers. Overall the airport has come a long way - luggage unloading was really quick took us less than 20 minutes to get out of the airport. The airport could use some restaurants and shops though.