Dubai Airport

The new terminal at Dubai Airport used to be a marvel when it first opened - lots of space after the crowded and small old part. Today it is just the same nightmare. Way overcrowded 24/7 with too few toilets and too few seating areas. It is quite obvious that they don't want you to sit but shop and spend money. It is noisy with bright lights, it stinks of perfume, it is not clean and definitely on its way down. The choice of bars and restaurants is extremely poor, not in quantity but in quality and they all feel filthy. Moreover, I have never ever experienced a flight leaving on time. If you have time to kill, go into Terminal C, the old part, where it is much quieter, not so bright and overall more pleasant.

✅ Verified Review | Dubai is one of the worst airports I have ever experienced in terms of processing time. For a rich city, the airport is a shambles. The queue of traffic getting into the airport itself was bad. However, after check in I have never seen such a huge mass of people queuing for immigration. People were panicking that they were going to miss their flights. There were nowhere near enough immigration officers and they were incredibly slow and acted as if there was no hurry. Security was markedly better thank goodness. The airport itself is modern and clean but not much consolation if you miss your flight.

It is one of the most overrated airports in the world. I don't profess to have been to most of the airports in the world but can safely say that Dubai airport is the worst that I have experienced. It is a dead airport with the most basic of facilities in the modern times like internet, telephones, relaxing areas, airport entertainment as in the airport sub-city, easy access wash rooms being virtually non-existent. Even some of the tier 3 airports are better and friendlier than this.

Terminal 3 in Dubai is one of the worst and yet one of the best terminals I have been in. A strange start for a review but for years I have been traveling thru Terminal 1 and had such high expectations for the finish of Terminal 3. Well after a couple of years using Terminal 3 I am now stating for the record that a Terminal designed exclusively for the State backed high end Emirates Airlines falls a little short of the mark. The opulence of design is there, has fantastic choices for restaurants, has a massive amount of shopping available and even smoking lounges for those so inclined. However they took a fantastic concept design with wide open hallways for moving people from place to place then: 1) Dropped a shopping mall in the middle - you cannot get from place to place quickly as you are dodging all the retail customers browsing the shelves. 2) Added retail kiosks to the already congested walkways. 3) Poor signage if you have to transition to another terminal upon arrival. Get ready to be lost first time travelers of Terminal 3. 4) No fast transit to Terminal 1, I had to assist a very elderly lady myself to ensure she made the 20 min walk to her new gate after she got off my flight. 5) Limited Washrooms - don't leave it to the last minute here folks as they are hard to find and normally have a lineup when you do eventually get there. Hate to say this Emirates but don't love so much terminal 3, but I still love terminal 1.

GLA-DXB-HKG and return. Positives: a very fast passage through the transit security check, even at a busy time (0530), and a reasonable number of shops for a customer's greatest need (i.e. a coffee, and not the duty-free). What needs work, the A and B-concourses, which are EK-dedicated, are now too crowded, even after midnight, and the overall effect is somewhat claustrophobic. The intention appears to be to move all the non-EK traffic out of concourse C (terminal 1) into concourse D, which has just opened. This can't happen soon enough.

I came back to Paris with Emirates which has its own terminal. Nice terminal, good signs and direction. Very clean airport. Check in well organized, somtimes staff English is not good. Customs can take some time as it is a huge airport. Design is really awful. Shops are quite common, not as good as Hong Kong. Before the boarding room, not so much seats but plenty of restaurants!

Transited through Dubai airport recently and found the procedure relatively painless. Like most airports it seems to be a giant shopping mall, and there are lots of places to get a coffee or a bite to eat, although there was a general shortage of places to have a seat. I have to agree with the point made by an earlier reviewer about the security checkpoints, I fail to see the need for it as passengers have alighted from their plane into a secure area to board another plane without any outside contact. It would seem the airport has created an unnecessary bottleneck to further stress passengers with fairly tight connections in this huge airport.

In my opinion Dubai is the worst airport - queues, dimly lit, filthy - the toilets are abominable. Baggage retrieval area is poorly designed. Departure area is chaos, dirt, smell, feels unsafe. Simply horrid. Avoid if at all possible.

Dubai airport is huge and for us it was a pleasure to arrive and depart from. Upon arrival there were queues at immigration but they moved reasonably quickly. Bags soon arrived at the belt and we were out of the airport within 30 minutes or so. Departure was as efficient as arrival. Check in moved quickly as did immigration and security. The shops were a pleasure to explore. Highly recommended.

I had 2 differing experiences of Dubai Airport. Arrival from Gatwick was by far the nicest. As a disabled traveler, I found nothing but kindness, and helpfulness. The disabled lounge was a nice place to wait for the 3 hours while we were transitting there. My partner and I were even allowed to go to a different floor which actually had a smoking room. Deep joy. Arrival from Nairobi was less relaxing because we had less time between our 2 flights. Staff, however, were mainly pleasant nonetheless.