Melbourne Airport

Arrived at 6am on an international flight from Delhi (AI 308). Got off the aircraft and got to immigration rather quick. That took 5-7 minutes with no questions asked whatsoever. Baggage came out in 10 minutes and there were no lines at Customs and I was waved through. All in all quite efficient. Departure was at 9.45am on a busy morning. Check in was 5 minutes and immigration was another 10 - electronic so very efficient. Security was quite ridiculous as I got pulled over for a Random Bomb test - not once but twice in the space of 50 meters. Staff are also not the most polite - they seem like they are doing you a favour by doing their job - and none of them smile. Renovations going on made MEL a bit of a mess. Wait at gate was fine - enough seating. But then we were bussed to our aircraft. No idea why but that took 25 minutes. All in all a very okay tired looking airport.

T4 Melbourne Tullamarine. I had the great misfortune to arrive and depart from Jetstar terminal T4 on a recent trip. I have severe arthritis, my travelling companion is older and has similar health issues. These are generally not a problem except when you have to walk 1 to 2 Km over hard marble floors. T4 is a disgrace if you are elderly, have any joint issues or disabled. There are no travelators and no one to assist. If Jetstar and tiger wish to treat passengers with contempt they have succeeded. There is cheap fares and then there is making people feel cheap and devalued. I'd rather fly to Avalon and drive the 50 mins back.

What a welcome home to Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport this morning. We arrived from an international destination around 8.15am. I have never seen queues so long, so disorganized and so confusing. People didn't know where to go or what to do. There was a sign which I had to read several times to understand I was in the right queue myself but all the poor foreigners coming to our country were so confused as all signs were only in English. How about some Chinese or Japanese signs to help the poor people out. There was one immigration woman giving orders to tired and irritated people. No one knew where to queue up and there were 6 queues going to 1 passport machine. There were people pushing in and people getting angry. Why the heck can't there be some snake barriers so people know where to go and keep everyone orderly. After all we all have the same purpose and that's to get out of there as fast as possible. It was a dreadful experience this morning and what an embarrassment to show people visiting our country. And by reading other reviews this wasn't just a 'this morning thing'. Please Melbourne Airport have a look at the mess and disorganization and make our airport a welcoming welcome. It was 10.15am when we walked out of the airport.

Melbourne Airport is in serious need of some decent upgrading. In spite of recent work, passenger experience has deteriorated. First of all public access is now poor. No rail access. Buses that should only take 25 minutes often take 50 minutes at certain times - and you can get caught out. Parking is also difficult if you want to meet someone. You are often driving around for 20 minutes trying to locate a space. There is nowhere in the Terminal 2 (international) departures to sit down except for cafés where you have to buy stuff. It cost me $20 just so we could sit the children somewhere while we waited for check-in to open. The queues for going through immigration are often too long. This is irrational. I found the immigration officials are friendly and polite but how can they accurately check all the documents/identities when they are are under such pressure to get everyone through and onto their flights? The boarding area is better for seating, but some flights had more people waiting than seats. Toilets are hit and miss for cleanliness and sometimes there is unprepared damage. Toilets in Japanese airports are much better and there is no reason for Melbourne airport not to be at the same standard. Arrival has improved a bit but signage is still poor and the waiting time for baggage is way too long. As a Melbourne person born and bred I would love to be proud of my city's airport. But instead I feel a bit embarrassed.

Arriving in this airport after a 28-hour long-haul flight was the worst experience of our trip. There were enormous queues of tired and confused people, and no staff on the floor at immigration to direct people. We queued for half an hour to process our passports at a 'smartgate' machine, to then find out that, as a family, we can't use the machines. Despite all being Australian citizens, we then had to go to the longest queue at customs for "families and all other passports" (navigating hundreds of people queueing haphazardly to access the 'stage 2' smartgate machines, as well as all the stands in the ill-placed duty free) and queue for a further 30 minutes. The baggage hall was horrible. After collecting our baggage, we had to queue for another 45 minutes to get out. Groups of travellers were being ordered around rudely and given inaccurate information on where to queue by a young staff member who was not up to the job. How disrespectful to tell people: "There's a shorter queue over there y'know. Or you could keep hanging around in this longer queue if you like it so much - it's up to you." Sort it out Melbourne Airport. The same thing must happen every morning and it's just not acceptable. I would advise anyone coming to Australia for a visit to fly into Brisbane or Sydney instead.

This is (unfortunately) my home airport and I'm thoroughly unimpressed, especially after my most recent experience. It's all fine and well during low-low season, but once peak season hits, Melbourne Airport can't cope. They keep allowing more airlines to fly in and out, bringing with them more and more passengers, yet they've hardly done anything to sufficiently improve the airport's handling capacity in the nearly 20 years that I've frequently used this airport. Lines are poorly organised and immigration booths are often understaffed. Worst of all is the quarantine queue coming out of baggage collection. They desperately need to renovate and expand these facilities, it's quite ridiculous the way that the queue is increasingly backing up right against the carousels, causing crowding, queue jumping and all round confusion. The transport, parking and pickup "facilities" are also a running joke among Melbourne residents. Getting someone to drop you off or pick you up from this place is a perpetual nightmare - there's hardly enough space or organisation for all the traffic which comes through nowadays. And the few public buses which serve the airport are virtually useless (at least to local residents) due to their senseless or lengthy routes. Your only other options are exorbitant parking fees or the Skybus. I've resorted to regularly paying a family friend to drive us to/from the airport. However, I will say that my many encounters with airport staff have largely been pleasant, unlike some other reviewers here. Maybe I've been lucky. Also, the signage is pretty clear and the airport is kept reasonably clean in general. All in all, whoever compiled those "world's most liveable city" ratings clearly flew into Melbourne on a private jet or visited our airport in the middle of the night.

Melbourne is on of the world's worst airports in my experience. Extremely stressful. The PA system is ear-burstingly loud for 24 hours. Incessantly chasing late flyers in several languages. Totally unnecessary - you can discontinue that practice completely with no hiccup. Travellers know the consequences of their late entries. Learn from Singapore and all their peaceful, quiet environment. The gates are full of twists and turns with numbers not in smooth running order.

As always on arriving at Melbourne I was looking forward to the usual delays either at customs or baggage. On this occasion I couldn't believe the queue at customs - it was the largest queue I have ever seen at any international airport in the world. These poor people whom probably have spent several hours on long flights would have had to endure delays of up to 1 hour plus. The ongoing announcement was that they apologised for the delay however they had experienced unexpected arrivals - well maybe a few international flights had just dropped into Australia for a quick coffee. Surely an international airport could anticipte or may be even plan for such an event and appoint more customs officials to process more flights more efficiently.

Surprised or just lucky with how easy it was on arrival as probably at 5pm only 1 other flight from Singapore had landed and disembarked the same time our flight QR904 was doing the same. They have these e-passport systems for certain countries and I did try to use them but an error kept coming up so I just went to a normal immigration desk which was also very efficient after the obligatory questioning. I had no checked in luggage so I was out of the airport in less than 15 minutes which I think was lucky. Transport options are good and decent taxis are available without the worry of being extorted as they are fully regulated in this city.

60 years of travel, hundreds of airports, Melbourne is by far the worst. My third visit to Melbourne in four years, nothing has changed, virtual no sensible signage, causing constant misdirection. Two crazy examples. The domestic Virgin check in is Signed International. After a long queue wait staff informed me that yes it is signed international but it is for Domestic Travel. There is no singn to indicate hotel shuttle on arrival. When you do find the area, again no visible signs on approach, there are signs but all are edge on to pedestrians so you have to be in front of each to see them. All the chaos could be easily resolved by a competent manager at little cost. The worst lay out of Duty Free possible, an obstacle race with no signage to confirm you are trekking in the right direction. The Design of the airport could not be worse, the only consolation is that it keeps you laughing, which helps as you encounter problems at each stage of your move through the process. An Airport to be avoided.