Perth Airport

I fly a lot for my work. I live in Perth and feel ashamed that my city easily hosts the most horrible airport in the world. The international and domestic terminals are so far from each other that it feels like travelling to another part of town. The waiting time to be cleared by customs wa 90 minutes the other day, by the airport blamed on 'government imposed reduction in staff'. I pay a lot of taxes and fees to get through this airport and it is a private company, do just make it work ! The building is ugly and visibly the renovated terminal will be a complete failure. The airport is squeezed in the middle of residential areas and there is no public transport to get there. I have to travel here since I live here, but if at all possible, do not use Perth Airport.

Departure as per usual procedure and no problems. Arrival passport control no issue, clearing customs still an embarrassment. After retrieving baggage the comedy begins by joining the conga line and move slowly. After travelling for 36 hours don't really need this comedy, surely this can be better managed to expedite faster movement through this area. This has been going on for too long and is now an embarrassment to Perth.

Pretty awful as usual! Renovations going on but don't expect much change. Domestic terminal evicts on-bound passengers after midnight to the international terminal where there are 2 coffee shop options. Don't expect much at the Qantas lounge either. Unlike Sydney and other international hubs, unless you're on a WA timezone, no bar service until after noon. So bad luck if your body clock tells you it's 8 pm. In Sydney, it's all the same whether you have champagne with breakfast or dinner. Don't expect much from the booksellers either, you'll struggle to find New Internationalist. Despite renovations, it remains dully provincial. Could not connect to WIFI in the Qantas lounge, had to use my Telstra dongle.

Perth airport is truly the pits for international travellers, the start is fine, really efficient bus service from the carparks, from then it is downhill. The only one toilet we could find was on the ground floor, and it is at the other end of the terminal, about five minutes walk. When you have checked in you then have to go upstairs to the so called lounge, there are two or three food outlets, basically lunchbar food, if you pass on these then you go through to the departure lounge where all semblance of service ceases. The food in this so called lounge is definitely of poor quality, but the prices are the dearest in all of Australasia. On your return to Perth Airport you are greeted by the dourest looking people with the worst manners, all the way from the customs to the exit lounge, it really makes me embarrassed to be Australian.

A part repetition of what happened some years back. Arrived from Jo'burg with SAA/Virgin The egates for electronic passports were not working properly and closed almost immediately after having one's photo taken. I waited for about 1/2 hour in a long 'assistance' queue that was barely moving with only one incredibly slow officer processing Australian passports. Staff were paying no attention to the problem until I made a fuss by going over to two officers who were standing around in the egate area (no passengers) and talking and eventually one extra officer was put on the 'assistance' queue. I was told the problem was 'timing' in a rather curt fashion so I did not bother to suggest that they readjust the gate. Then the luggage mess-once again as happened some years back-it was not possible to have luggage for domestic transfer checked in at the international terminal (a rather stressed volunteer announcing this outside customs). This was despite an announcement on the plane. A long queue for the slow-arriving transfer bus. An overloaded bus people (elderly babies someone with a broken arm) for the long ride to the domestic terminal with luggage all over the place. Some help with luggage leaving none arriving. At the counter checking in I was told there was no problem with luggage transfer at international. It's very dinky. I recommend to everyone to try to get a direct flight to the east coast from Sth Africa and avoid the place.

Sadly our past experience with inefficient slow processing at Perth International Airport was replicated yesterday. Five flights landed within an hour and caused chaos in the baggage claim area and customs control. The queue to access customs was a conga line which ran four times the length of the claim area. it took just under an hour to negotiate. There were repeated announcements pointing out that five large aircraft's had arrived sequentially but it was portrayed like an adverse weather event. These were on time scheduled flights and the airport would have known days and weeks in advance of this. There were seven customs officers to handle this influx. The importance of border security cannot be overstated. But Perth Airport appear not to realise this. Otherwise why would they be so ill prepared for passenger volumes of this magnitude.

What a fiasco. No easy public transport connections - took us two hours from just outside CBD to Int'l using train/public bus/inter airport bus. Qantas check-in not open - hunted for immigration forms from other airline counters to fill out in advance. The hunt for public conveniences involved a long walk to the other side of Arrivals. When we spotted a desk being opened we were informed to return in half an hour and go upstairs to buy a coffee in the meantime. As we had business class tickets we hardly wanted to buy a coffee when we could get one in the Qantas Lounge. To kill time we humped our suitcases up the escalators and back to visit Duty-Free. Why paper immigration forms are needed to be completed is a mystery with electronic passports and e-visitor visas? At Security one of us had to get 'double' scanned on the passport they emptied our bags unravelled our umbrella - OK a forgotten water bottle is easy to miss we needed it to keep going during the 'wait' for check-in to open - and then left us to re-pack everything. The electric toothbrush was nearly confiscated due to them thinking it was a screwdriver. Inadvertently I left my mini screwdriver in my glasses case to tighten my loose glasses screws not acceptable apparently and had to wave goodbye to it. When we eventually reached the Lounge for that long awaited cup of coffee was heaving with alternative airline pax and nearly all the seats gone! Previous Perth experiences have been just as harrowing with hand luggage weight queried when well within terms of ticket talcum powder pot too big and why only a five day visit? I don't think Perth wants visitors.

Arrived after 24 hours of flights from Europe had to wait for over 3 hours for my luggage to be unloaded from the plane and had to go home without it. The excuse was thunderstorms however the plane next to ours was unloaded. I travel every year over 200000 air miles and connect through airports like Atlanta one of the busiest in the world which is used to a lot of thunderstorms never ever did I wait for more than 30 min. Perth is an embarrassment and totally incompetent unfortunately it is my home airport I am sorry to say. The problem here is that the luggage handling is union controlled need I say more. Come on Perth smarten up and move into the 21st century being one of the bottom airports you can only improve and I hope they will do this in my life time.

Flew out of Perth domestic airport 30 October - Qantas lounge very busy and also limited refreshments security and check in was rapid.

Travelled Air Asia X. Ground staff in Perth would benefit from Customer Service training they obviously don't enjoy their work. No immigration forms available advised to get them from another airline.