Perth Airport

The outgoing CEO of Perth airport has been telling the locals for more than 5 years what a tremendous new airport they will have after spending more than 1 billion dollars on an upgrade. Rubbish. Perth airport is just as bad as it was 10 years ago. There is an expanded departure lounge for new large aircraft, but the area for most has not changed, except there is a larger duty-free liquor area. Pax still have to go down 4 flights of stairs to board an aircraft. But it is in the arrivals area where the only change noticeable is an increase in carousels. On a recent arrival of one A380, one B787 and one B777 at the same time the arrival area was chaos. After getting your case you then join a snaking queue which stretched, if it was one long one and not 4 interlocking queues, for at least 80-100 metres. Every passenger, regardless of your declarations on the incoming customs form, is considered to not have told the truth on the form and must therefore be subjected to a question and answer section with a border protection officer, one of the very few on duty at any one time. Do not expect to get out of the mall inside one to one and a half hours.

Being a Frequent Flyer with Virgin Australia, the new domestic terminal is a very good thing for me. The airport is clean and has good seating capacity. I get priority check in and boarding but the lines still look pretty long. Airport shopping isn't great, but it is decent. Overall much better than the old terminal and I am happy to go through it most times I travel.

Over the past number of years my wife and I have travelled to Indonesia between two and three times a year to visit family and friends and each time when our aircraft touches down in Perth I shudder at the prospect of encountering the incompetance and inefficiency to which all incoming passengers are subjected. Two instances of my previous trip involved being kept aboard our aircraft while the airport authorities looked for an employee who could operate the air bridge and on collecting my luggage was told that my suitcase had been left behind in Jakarta due to wieght restrictions and would be forwarded on the following day and on leaving the airport was chased after by an airport employee who imformed me that my luggage had in fact been loaded on board and was actually there and could be collected. Now on to my most recent trip, we checked in on Dec 11th and I was asked the normal questions including "are you carrying any Chrsitmas Crackers" to which I replied no, my wife who was standing behind me did not hear the question and unbeknown to me my wife who packed our suitcases had in fact included a box of Christmas Crackers, on asking me what the check in clark had said she told me of the box of crackers I immediately returned to the check in counter and explained and fully understood the rule and gave full permission for the crackers to be removed from my suitcase, on embarkation to the aircraft was told that the box of crackers had been removed. Imagine my surprise when we got to our hotel in Indonesia opened our suitcase and "hey presto" there was the box of offending Christmas crackers that shoud have been removed back in Perth. We arrived back in Perth on 3rd Jan at 3.50pm and after going through the automatic immigration proceedure we descended down stairs to the luggage collection area which was absolute bedlam and after waiting alonside our respective carousel heard an announcment that there would be a delay in the unloading of our luggage due to a quaratine issue (same excuse as last trip). We eventually retrieved our cases and joined the horrendously long snake like queue at a snails pace with two airport employees issuing two different instuctions as to the format of the queue resulting in a heated exchange of words between them in front of passengers (clearly untrained people). My wife and I eventually left the airport building at 5.15pm, one hour and twenty five minutes after touch down, this for an International airport of a nation such as Australia is nothing short of ludicrous. What must a first time visitor think of us when they are subjected to the farce of Perth Airport. As an Australian I am both ashshamed and embarrased to have to admit that the airports of Bali and in particular Jakarta which are considerably bigger and handle far more air traffic than Perth run rings around the dismal administration of Perths "World Class Airport".

We are experienced travellers and would rate this airport as one of the worst. I always dread arrival/departure here as I'm never sure what to expect. Departure on this last trip was the worst experience ever. We were first in the queue and the check-in person seemed to take against us. In particular, she did not like the quality of our Cambodian visa although sent to us by the Cambodian Embassy. We were made to wait for an hour in front of everyone with no communication whatsoever about progress with proceedings and as all other passengers were checked in. Eventually we were told that we would be provided with the quality of visa needed to exit Australia and enter Cambodia. Needless to say, we were not paged for the new visas as promised but, having been treated in a dismissive manner, made to chase it up ourselves - which we did on principle. We were told nastily that we would be lucky to be allowed into Cambodia. Throughout, we always knew that there had been nothing wrong with the visas and this was proven when we went through passport control in Cambodia and they accepted the electronic version of the visa that had been sent to us and not the one reissued to 'save us' by Perth Airport check-in staff. After all, by applying for the visa online we had already been vetted by the Cambodian authorities and the print out was just a further verification. At no time did we receive an apology for this very poor behaviour and unnessary fuss. It made the start of our very much needed holiday a misery. There was a feeling that we needed to be bought down a peg and it was totally uncalled for. Some communication, respect and/or pleasantness could have alleviated the situation and made it more palatable. As it was, it made us disdainful. We then asked about food as we believed the airport departure lounge had been revamped and were told that the food inside was the same as that outside. There was none of it. It all looked totally the same to us as on previous occasions. There was little choice of food, it was overpriced and of poor quality and we ate it in absolute filth. There is no other way to describe it. It seems that keeping the food areas clean and hygienic is not part of the agenda. Departure was disorderly and surly. Coming back in was much better - apart from the harassment by duty free staff - thank goodness, as this is usually not the case. Why do we have to put up with this? Perhaps some staff training in world class airports like Changi would not go amiss.

The International terminal has been a building site for years. It is now finished. The departure lounge is pleasant but the arrival area is sterile and unpleasant. This review is about the arrival area. Anyone arriving has just spent a minimum of five hours on a plane, many a lot more than this. The very last thing any traveller wants is another hour and sometimes much more standing in queues for immigration, customs and quarantine checks. The major issue is lack of staff. It may not be disorganization but it sure feels like it. It is a disgrace.

This is my home airport and what an embarrassment. Totally inefficient. Everything is always slow. Checking in, customs, bag collection on return. Perth Airport has no soul or warmth - no plants, no piped music, no art. I feel for those who smoke - Welcome to Perth, go and sit in the carpark for a ciggie. To bad if its 40 degree summer day or pouring with rain. No cover on the way. Both the domestic and international airport needs improvements.

I am fortunate to be able to fly and enjoy holidays in various countries twice a year. This Airport of ours is an absolute disgrace, even third world countries provide better facilities, service and professionalism. I thought back in 2012 when the 'grand redevelopment' began (about 10 years too late) we might see some improvement, sadly not to be. It's now been going on for 3 years and it's still not finished. Services, seating, basic facilities such as toilets, food availability are all atrocious. This Airport of ours is a National disgrace, it is a perfect example of privatization not working. The State Government owes it to the people of this State to take the responsibility back. At the end of October this year, family friends from Kuala Lumpur arrived around 1am, three other flights arrived around the same time, it took 1 full hour to get their baggage, excuses of 'we are busy at the moment' simply do not wash, after all is it not an International Airport? Then these visitors queued for a full 2 hours so that one, yes one single quarantine officer could inspect their declarations, what an absolute inexcusable farce. We arrived at the Airport to pick them up at 1.10am and did not leave until 4.20am and just to add insult to injury then had to pay $17.00 for parking.

We caught the shuttle bus from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal on the early evening of 14 October 2015. The gentleman driving the shuttle bus did a fantastic job managing the passengers and their copious amounts of luggage. He was pleasant and proactive which resulted in everyone getting on the bus with their luggage efficiently stored by the driver. It was a pleasant ride to the next terminal and an efficient disembarkation with the assistance of the driver.

There has been significant ongoing work undertaken at Perth International terminals however it did not help in the slightest when my husband and I arrived home on the evening of the 10th October. Three flights arrived at the same time and the conga line referred to other posts was 6 rows deep at the baggage inspection. This used to happen years ago and the upgrades were supposed to relieve this however when there are only two staff processing the almost 1000 people it was ridiculous. No significant screening of baggage was undertaken and the staff present looked hassled indeed. The passengers were not happy and less so when the announcement was made that the delays were due to multiple planes arriving at the same time. Is this not the function of an airport? The changes were supposed to speed up the processing of arrivals and the current state makes Perth looks very silly. It is embarrassing.

Its clean and thats the only positive. Its a sad looking airport. Boring, not enough seats and just seems dead. There is a lot the management can do. Come on buck up.