Lyon Airport

Not Verified | 500 passengers and 1 passport control officer. Over 2 hours wait. A complete failure and no one tries to resolve or even care. Unprofessional lazy staff.

Not Verified | I am writing to complain about the terrible service my husband and I received in the Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport. My husband is disabled, and travels overseas using an electric scooter and always booked Special Assistance for all his flights. Beforehand we have travelled four times through Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport and each time the attitude of the staff has exhausted us. We are left for hours while the staff find other members of staff who know what to do. We are treated as non-people, are talked over as if we are putting these people out by existing. We will find other ways to reach our destination in future and we will not fly through Lyon.

Not Verified | Delivered my elderly parents to Lyon airport yesterday for their flight with EasyJet to London Luton. My dad is 87 and can’t walk unaided. Wheelchair help for my dad had been asked for during the EasyJet ticket purchase as the system demands. However many things made this a very very difficult experience for them. Disabled parking is in the ‘arrêt minute’ parking area. No wheelchairs are available near the parking. The waiting area for help is on the lower ground, with a sign clearly saying ‘wait here if you have already checked in’. It does not state that in fact you have to go to the upper floor and ‘bag drop’, even if you have already checked in online and only then you will get your required aid. A single disabled person or an elderly couple without friends or relatives helping would never manage this. I struggled to get my parents to the top floor and then luckily found a stray wheelchair we could use. Once we had visited the check-in desk and deposited our suitcase the easyjet staff organised the help my dad needed. The sign in the downstairs waiting area clearly needs changing to indicate that suitcases need to be dropped first for easyJet customers. The waiting area has no means of communication. No-one knows you’re there. We waited in this area over an hour and could have missed the flight. My dad was incredibly stressed. The man at the information point knew nothing about the help service and had no means of contacting them. He just said that it was a separate company who provided the aid and were not linked to the airport. The airport management took no responsibility for the well-being of their elderly and disabled passengers and anyone else in need of help. After the long time it took to get the help for my father (2.5 hours in total, thank goodness we arrived early) on leaving the airport I had to pay €45.50 for parking because I had left my car in the ‘Arrêt Minute’ area (where the disabled parking spots are) and the nearest to the airport doors for my dad, and consequently I had to pay a shocking amount of parking fees. Apparently I should have dropped my elderly father at the airport door and then gone to the different car park if I wanted to stay longer. He can’t actually walk and so I’m not sure how that could have been done. All round very disappointed with the Information service point, the management who declined to meet with me, the ridiculous parking company charges and the lack of decent facilities for disabled and elderly travellers.

Not Verified | Getting to the airport was a nightmare. When we arrived at the train station (Leon Perrache) we were told we had to get across town to get to another train station (Part-Dieu) to board the Rhône Express to get to the airport. There was no bus or other way to get directly from this station to the airport unless you paid around €55 for a taxi. This was despite what we read on the internet about a service called the Blablabus. Blablabus had an office at Perrache train station but weren't allowed to sell tickets! We eventually got a tram with the help of a local person to get us to the other station to get the Rhône express where we're charged €16 for the half-hour journey to the airport which was excessive. But I suppose they have the monopoly by knocking out the competition. The whole thing felt like a rip off. To add insult to injury the Rhône express only leaves you off at the first terminal and you have to walk the rest which took about 10 mins. Thankfully we had left enough time for all this hassle but I would warn others to beware. I found the staff fine, no different from anywhere else really. But we were told our flight was on time and we should proceed directly to the gate. Big mistake. The arrival flight only landed 10 minutes before ours was due to take off, by which time the departure gate was full. We had to wait 90 mins at the gate. But what really prompted me to write this review was the fact that there was absolutely no seating for the passengers. None at all. We were left leaning on padded bum rests like at a bus stop or had to sit on a concrete floor. I have never seen such poor facilities in a modern airport. I felt really sorry for older or disabled passengers. I would definitely avoid Lyon airport if I had a choice. It was more like a cattle market.

✅ Trip Verified | I wish to complain about the incompetence and rudeness of staff in the Terminal 1 security check-in, outsize luggage check-in and Easyjet check-in desk 11 on September 7th and 8th. My sister are in our sixties. We arrived at 11.15am, with 2 bikes, for the easyJet flight to LGW departing 1.30pm. Our bikes were packed exactly as they had been on the outward easyjet flight from LGW, where they had been accepted and checked in without any problems. When we tried to fly from Lyon, first easyJet would not accept the bikes but eventually they checked them in. Then we were told to go to room 24 for the outsize baggage check-in, instead of the one next to our check-in at desk 11. At room 24 they told us to go back to the outsize check-in by desk 11. They sent us back to room 24. Again they would not accept them. We tried the check-in by desk 11 again. This time they checked one bike through, but then someone rang the check-in lady and told her not to accept the bikes. I pleaded with the lady to check the second bike in but she called her supervisor, who refused to allow her. Two other staff came to watch us arguing, and one of them laughed at us and said in French how red we looked, assuming that we couldn't understand him. That is completely unprofessional, and unbelievably rude. Finally, we managed to get help from another easyJet representative, who took us to a scanner in Terminal 2, where they finally accepted the bikes for our flight. By now it was nearly time for our flight to leave. We had to run all the way back to the security check-in at Terminal 1. Once there, my sister's hand luggage was scanned and returned, but my bag went through the scanner once and was sent back to be scanned again. When it was finally returned, the security staff searched it although it contained nothing invalid. I had to explain what a toothbrush holder was, one man was waving my small bicycle pump around and a female operative dropped one of my bike lights onto the counter so that its cover cracked, and said 'Oops, sorry!' as if it was a joke. When they finally released my bag we had to run all the way to departure gate D12, and by that time we had missed our flight. We spent the night at the airport, waiting for the 7.10 am flight to LGW on September 8th. We had finally found bike boxes for sale at the airport so our bikes were packed into the boxes. At 5.10am we checked our bikes in at Easyjet and were again told to take them to Room 24. AGAIN they were not accepted. This is ridiculous - the airport had sold us the boxes! If they are not suitable why sell them? They were only accepted and checked in after my sister went back to Easyjet and they phoned room 24. It seems clear that your staff have no idea what the rules are concerning bicycles and absolutely no concept of customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | The queue to parking. No clear direction from parking to terminal by walk or shuttle. You just get lost in middle pf airport. Passage through the train station (showing way to the terminal) also closed! Then 15min walking from t2 to end of t1. Finally, only 1 gate for passport control and you can get bored at the gate (no food, no shop - nothing). I feel ashamed of being French in this "major" French Airport.

Not Verified | Queue full of children elderly people to GI through customs, no toilets. Machines for biometric passport not working despite holiday season and passengers from more than 2 flights queuing. Only 2 airport customs border police on duty! This happens frequently.

✅ Trip Verified | I was so worried about this airport because of the negative reviews. My experience was excellent. Clean, modern, one of the best airports I’ve been to. Security line took 5 minutes. I flew out on a Sunday to Munich, but the system is set up to be efficient. The bathrooms are very clean, doors automatically open, and you can now go get food and shop at the mall whenever - the gate is no longer closed to the main part.

Not Verified | What a joke. I’ve flown out of Lyon 6 times this year and the passport control lines are pathetic. Last time no agents showed up for 45 minutes so hundreds of people waiting in queue. Today just two agents and hundreds of folks waiting in queue and will most likely miss flights. Absolute idiots.

✅ Trip Verified | Once you pass the passport control, which there is no indication as you are entering a desert, they bring you to the gates where there is absolutely nothing to eat, or drink, no bar , no cafe, nothing. It is France, but feels like you are travelling from a third world country. The staff are so rude with no explanation as why I can not go back to grab a sandwich! And they don't care if you wait for 2 hours by the gate hungry with a vending machine that has drinks only.