Lanzarote Arrecife Airport

Not Verified | Our experience arriving at Lanzarote was fine. We were through the airport quickly and on our way to our resort. The same cannot he said for our departure. What a disaster. The worst experience ever. We arrived an hour earlier than required as we have Executive Lounge access. We queued for over an hour to drop off our baggage. We had checked in on-line. There seemed to be a problem with the baggage handling equipment. The system for checking in is unfair as depending upon which queue you choose affects how quickly you go through. To be fair none of the queues were moving well but having arrived an hour early we were unfortunate to be in that queue - you know the one - where every other queue moves and yours doesn't. Despite arriving early we were one of the last people to go through. I think our wait was 1 hour 10 mins! A fairer system is the corded lines where everyone is in one queue and moves forward to a check-in desk in the order they arrive. This system operates at Gatwick throughout and also at Lanzarote but in the security area and not in the checking in hall. As I say it was a disaster. There was no announcement, explanation or apology. We were so pleased we did have lounge access where we could relax afterwards as I cannot imagine how we would have been once through to airside as being one of the last to go through it was very busy by the time we arrived there. Not a good experience.

✅ Trip Verified | Asked for assistance for my wife, could not have been more friendly and efficient - a credit to the airport. Facilities are fine, how the airport copes with people with the amount of luggage ther bring, I've no idea.

Not Verified | Excellent facilities, friendly staff on arrival. Good level of English and very helpful. Baggage trolleys are a bit run down and need changing but overall an excellent airport. Getting baggage from the belts is very quick and efficient.

❎ Not Verified | Great for smokers. All the outside seating space for eating and drinking is freely available for smokers. Very unpleasant. VIP lounge is worst we have ever used in the world! Waste of money and very basic offer to travellers. Staff on desk quite indifferent and unwelcoming.

❎ Not Verified | Extremely expensive airport. Duty free prices higher than UK high street and significantly more expensive than supermarkets in Lanzarote. 2 euro bar of chocolate in supermarket nearly 6 euro in duty free. Buy your duty free while on holiday. Good savings to be had dont wait until the airport.

✅ Trip Verified | It's a very good airport with excellent facilities, airy, lots of seating, good views of the planes, nice shops. But it would improve the departure experience from beautiful Lanzarote enormously if there was a large open air area where smoking is not permitted. This would be great for all the family.

✅ Trip Verified | This is an airport back to the future from 1975. Horrendously disorganised and third world. There are so many tourists coming through, why haven't they updated to check-in computers and pure luggage drop counters? Instead one has to come 2 hours early, stand in enormous queues for 40 mins. The check-in/luggage employees are tremendously slow. I arrived 1 hour 40 minutes early. My flight had checkin counters 41-43. There were long lines on all three. The screens at the counter showed Swissport, but no airline or boarding class information. I went to the first queue. After 30 min I arrived at the front only to find a tiny Business Class sign. I complained that I had been in a long queue and the business sign was invisible from the back. I was refused and told this was business class only. I had to queue for another 20 minutes. In the meantime the business queue was empty and the same checkin person checked in couples with 1 child and the economy passengers. I asked why she did this since I was told this is business class only. No reply. She refused to give me her name. Needless to say, that 1 minute after I told her that the display wasnt showing the boarding class the signs went up. Arrival was similarly third world. 45 minutes for the luggage to arrive.

❎ Not Verified | Check in and security checks went ok. We were airside in 20 minutes. Shops excellent, refreshments readily available and reasonably priced. Then the fun and games began, we were on a tui flight back to Birmingham. The plane was due to depart at 14.50. Departure board stated delay on our flight, eventually boarding gate 12 was displayed on the departure board. All passengers descended on gate 12, after a few minutes it was now to be gate 1. So everybody down to gate 1. Got to gate 1 only to be told no your flight is gate 12. The airport staff were unhelpful and rude when asked as to which departure gate our flight was leaving from. Eventually someone decided it was to be gate 1 result at last. At last after an age the passengers were allowed to board the aircraft. The aircraft was loaded, doors locked and ready for take off. Err no held at end of runway for 30 minutes. We have used the airport here many times, this was the worst experience of all. Customer service needs to improve greatly, more importantly the right hand needs to find out what the right hand is doing before talking to the left hand and giving out information. No announcements made regarding the delays and no information whatsoever.

❎ Unverified | Have travelled to and from this airport for many years and always think: Why can't all airports be like this. Super efficient and well laid out. Check in and security can be a bit chaotic but once you are in departures, there is so much space, you hardly notice the volume of people using the airport. Flying out today, I was really impressed with how friendly and polite the staff were. One criticism: More toilets are needed as there aren't adequate facilities for the number of people using the airport.

❎ Unverified | This airport was a great one and would fly again. Check-in was quick and simple, the queues were short and the check-in area was a large area with a few shops. Security wasn't as 'quick and simple' but still a good experience. The queue was short for this too, and I had been elected for a 'random' search. Departure lounge is quite large, but there isn't much seating, and departure screens are spread out so you will have to go searching for a screen. I was surprised at my plane boarding early, but we had to go on a bus to the plane, but we still departed on-time. The airport is great, a few improvements needed here and there but would recommend to anyone travelling to Lanzarote.