Lanzarote Arrecife Airport

Stansted-Lanzarote return. The airport was quite small and confusing with grubby shops selling not much and inconveniently placed gates. The cafes and restaurants were nowhere and toilets disappeared. It was ok with its seating area. As an airport just to sit and wait for you plane it served its purpose. The parking was also confusing and poorly sign posted.

I was at the Assisted Passage check-in desk with a disabled friend. There was one family of passengers in front of us and for some reason it took 25 minutes many confused expressions and several employees to finally get them checked in. Our check-in was a little easier. The security scanning was a nightmare for me as I was trying to lift bags and trays for myself and my friend off the conveyor and didn't have enough hands and the staff were waving for me to hurry up but not offering to assist me in any way. Once through to the departure area the prices were just ridiculous. One euro and seventy cents for a small bag of Doritos!

Departing on a Saturday their were no queues of charter flight passengers normally found on Thursdays. Probably for this reason the time between booking in and going through security took less than 10 minutes. Although I was asked to take my watch off and empty all my pockets including those in my jacket no one said anything about the half filled bottle of water I had inadvertently left in my rucksack pocket! With a wait of almost 90 minutes before boarding I found seats fairly comfortable. The one gripe I have is the price of everything airside. How can they justify one euro 90 for a half litre bottle of water or four euros for a ham baguette? Taking a walk around the airport I overheard two men arguing with a bartender who wanted 27 euros for 4 half litre glasses of lager. In the end they walked off refusing to pay. Even the Duty Free shops prices for alcohol and cigarettes are in some cases almost 20% more than can be bought outside! It is said that the most vivid memories of a holiday are the last ones. I can only imagine quite a few people having their holidays spoiled by this.

Security arrangements have much improved in the last two years with no queues to speak of even on Thursdays. Perhaps they read my previous comments. Check-in can still be a pain but that is down to the handling agent. Gates lead directly from the airside departure area so no long walks or travelators.

Good facilities at this airport - particularly if you avoid Thursday when it appears bto get really busy. Fly regularly from Manchester and flight is well handled with a quick turnaround. Airport waiting facilities are adequate and both the check in procedure and security screen has been speeded up. In May 2009 took 15 minutes from arrival to clearing security and going airside.

Lanzarote (Arrecife) is a pleasant smallish airport which I suspect gets very busy. We used the airport on Thursdays a so called 'British' day with approximately 20 UK charters arriving and departing. The baggage reclaim is just about adequate and the check-in area are fine except that the seating gets mixed up amongst the queues at check-in. The security check is a big bad joke; long queues and then a demand that everyone removes their watches (why?). The scanning was minimal my wife travels with a nebuliser basically a small compressor and lots of needles sharp boxes etc.; the bag was waved through without a second glance.

Modern and spacious the queues can be painfully slow to move. Many are on inclusive holidays and deposited all at once by the tour operators. On my last occasion it took 1 hour to reach check- in by when the queue for security was three tiers deep behing the check-in desks policed only by those already in it. Fortunately on this occasion it moved reasonably fast as I once nearly missed the flight for this reason My advice is to forget the tour firm's transfer spend a few euros on a taxi and arrive before the herd In the departure lounge there are the usual fast food type outlets and airport shops and for those who do two outdoor smoking areas at the extremities a refreshing contrast to the British practice of banning everything not universally popular.