Rome Fiumicino Airport

I have read many negative comments regarding this airport, and most of them are related to an individual experience rather than to an overall experience. The airport is clean, it has been partly reconstructed over the last few years, so most of its infrastructures are new. I didn't experience any delay or discomfort while traveling in this airport. It is well connected to city centre and train stations (Termini and Tiburtina) so you can reach any other part of Italy.

This is by far the worst airport experience I have ever had. The staff are rude, impolite and arrogant. They seem to go out of their way to avoid eye contact and therefore having to respond to any questions. We arrived with what we thought was ample time to make a connection. Once we had our bags we proceeded to the connecting airline bag drop. We had already checked in on line. This turned out to be of no value time wise. The woman at the bag drop sat and chatted with a colleague while the queue grew. She did nothing. When she finally opened up her desk we had lost half an hour. She told us we were over weight on one bag. It had been underweight on the flight we had just come in on. We took out one jacked which made the difference. Then she told us we had to hurry, our departure gate was about to close. We rushed to our departure gate only to find our flight was actually delayed for an hour. When that gate opened, there were two people at two check in desks. These two chatted and laughed with a third who subsequently left. They carried on with their conversation while the crowd grew and fumed. There was no order, no lines. The guy, officious at best, started to take the 'fast track' passengers first. This took about 20 minutes before they began to accept the rest of the passengers. At the moment I am at Heathrow. This is a model of efficiency, orderly with staff who are helpful. Heightens the contrast of the Rome airport experience. I will never travel through the Rome airport again.

Simply the worst. I require mobility assistance and when I arrived at what I can only describe as an animal pen airside in T1 I was horrified. We were all herded into a box/pen about 3 meters by 1.5 - it was full, smelly and not fit for humans. Avoid at all costs. Do not go unless absolutely necessary.

The worst airport experience I have had - arrived in plenty of time and saw our check in was at a specific desk as were at least 4 other flights with the same airline - so a large queue formed - after checking in 2 passengers the girl at the counter - stood packed up and walked off (never to be seen again). Confused people asked and were told to stay put. The adjacent desk opened (with no queue) but anyone who approached was told to return to the original queue which by now was out the airport door. Some passengers with more pressing flight times started to panic but were yelled at by idle staff (doing nothing apart from laughing amongst themselves) and threatened with the police. Then one of said employees decided to stand and announce a flight - which of course caused a surge of passengers towards the desk - regardless of who might by in their way. This continued for 2 more flights. People protested those at the front tried to check in were shooed away unless their flight was one announced. After an hour and a half standing said employee decided to tell everyone to surge forward - realising this would cause a near riot he decided to open the original desk abandoned earlier. We had a connecting flight but were only issued with one boarding card which caused no end of probs with only 45 minutes to make our connection. We were delayed for 2 hours at Rome with no info apart from a board - calling the helpline proved fruitless as we knew we'd miss our connection and wanted to know what to do as no other flights that night - she just told us to 'sort it out in Hannover'. I will say the airline crew were excellent once we did board - compensatory drinks for all and informing us we wouldn't miss our connection.

Avoid this substandard facility. Nothing has changed since at least the October 2014 review on this page. In all my years of travel I have never struck anything as third class as this. There is no queue for passport control for non EU passport holders - it is a mob shuffle up to twenty people wide winding down a corridor towards about six booths. They don't care if you are just transiting and they don't care if you miss your flight. Not all passport control gates will be open even when the number of plane passengers obviously exceeds the capacity. People will queue jump and others will get angry all apparently for the amusement of airport staff and the police. Yes we missed our connecting flight and nearly our cruise. Message to the Airport CEO: you know you have a problem but is it really beyond your intelligence to fix it? Thanks Rome airport for this enduring memory of your complete and obviously enduring incompetence.

Fiumicino is a good airport. Well connected to public and road transport and easy to find your way around. We arrived too early for check-in so spent some time in the floor above the desks in T3. This area is roomy and spacious with good seating and several shops and cafes of high quality. Clean toilets which had been recently refurbished and the time passed quickly. No queuing for check-in and security was managed efficiently with a minimal wait. Passed straight through one of the automated gates for EU passports again with no delay. After T3 passport control there are many more shops to pass the time and good eating facilities (although avoid Venchi with it's exceptionally rude staff) not many seats though although you will find some near the 'H' gates at the far end and again in the 'G' area once you have transitioned via people mover. If your flight leaves from the 'G' gates it is a good idea to take the people mover about an hour before departure as there is more seating there and additional shops to explore. A good airport and will definitely use it again.

Immigration security and check-in/ticketing for US airlines departing FCO is in Terminal 5. If arriving via the Leonardo Express you must take a bus from T3 to T5. There is a disconnect between where the signs direct you to and where the actual bus pick up is located. At T5 you're asked a number of questions at a security kiosk before being allowed to proceed to check-in/ticketing. After ticketing you proceed to security screening. Maybe it's just my bad luck but three or four couples immediately before me all set off the metal detector (multiple times) and it took 15-20 minutes for me to pass through security. At immigration there were only two agents working and the line grew quickly. (US airlines departures times from FCO are all late mornings.) After immigration you must take a second bus from T3 to Terminal G. Surprisingly Terminal G is actually modern clean and had many shops and restaurants. However like an IKEA store the signage directs you to walk the entirety of the terminal in a clockwise direction to get from gate G1 to gate G14. I suppose this is great for the restaurants and shops but horrible for the traveler rushing to catch a flight. Once you successfully arrive at your gate you discover the lack of available seating. Fortunately there is free wifi. While surfing the internet standing up I wanted a drink of water and possibly fill my empty water bottle for the upcoming 11 hour long flight. I was politely informed there is no drinking fountain available in the terminal and to get 'free' water I must ask one of the restaurants/cafes. How can a major international airport terminal not have one single drinking fountain?! I relented and bought bottled water. Boarding was painless but there is a chance of random secondary screening immediately prior to boarding.

Very bad airport I've frequently had connections here with Alitalia and every time I've had a problem. For example last minute gate changing without any warning planes in queue waiting for take off for long time no bus showing once the plane has finished taxiing and parked in his slot with all the passengers forced to wait in the plane for 20 minutes. I was lucky I had 2 hours between the flights. Too bad the company of my country has this HUB because if I have the possibility I'll avoid this awful airport. The only good things good are the cleanliness and the food quality of the restaurants.

I've just been through Fiumicino Airport and having read these reviews I thought that I would really look at all aspects of this airport to test the descriptions given here. I've come to the conclusion that these reviews have formed a bandwagon which my experience in no way supports. We found no queues whatsoever at Fiumicino either at check-in or security checks. We found the staff to be polite and professional. The airport was clean and the toilets were also clean and hygienic. We went through Terminal 2 so I can't comment on the other terminals. There is a lot of building work going on at Fiumicino at present which would suggest continued improvements. My only complaint is about the lack of Lounges in Terminal 2. We have Priority Cards but we felt that we would have to go a long distance into Terminal 3 to find a Lounge.

After reading the negative reviews I was apprehensive about our forthcoming trip. As it turned out the arrival and departure turned out to be a breeze I suppose it all depends on the time you arrive and depart. Arrival was a Friday at 18.45 on Emirates no waiting at immigrating for me EU passport and straight to the self service out in two minutes luggage there in 5 minutes. My wife took a little longer in the third world line a complete bottleneck due to poor and unclear lines however she managed to squeeze through and was out in 30 minutes. Departure was on a Monday morning for a 10.55 flight arrived just before 08.00 no problem at Emirates check in security was no more than 10 minutes and immigration less. Shops at the airport are very expensive coffee normal expensive airport prices. Found the airport bus with free Wi-Fi at 4 Euro per person fantastic takes you to Romes central bus and rail station in just less than an hour.