Rome Fiumicino Airport

My husband 6 year old son and I flew out of this airport yesterday. We arrived 3.5 hours early to find our flight was an hour delayed easy plenty of time to get organisedâ- so we thought! After an initially good experience with the Emirates check in desk we waited over an hour queuing at the 2 part VAT refund process what a convoluted system that is. By the time we went to security we still had over 2 hours until check in begun. What little staff were around were not helpful at all. Unlike at customs at least there was an attempt of a queue process here although no one seemed to pay much attention to it and pushing in was rife. Once through that we thought our troubles were over until we walked into the poorly ventilated cattle shed that serves as customs€¦ aside from 2 small ropes at the entry determining EU or non EU passengers it was a giant free for all. We had no idea how we were meant to tackle this but certainly civilised wait your turn queues were not it. People were swarming and surging and pushing through. There was no staff to be seen. After our boarding time had passed and flight was 15 minutes from leaving we finally saw an Emirates staff member who had a final call card. We got his attention but had to keep contending with the crowd. The very rude and slow customs officers seemed oblivious to the chaos. The grand finale was walking onto the plane to have an Emirates ground staff member yell at us. I have never been treated so poorly by any customer service person anywhere in the world and after the ordeal we had just been through it was the icing on the cake for me. I will never fly into or depart this airport ever again and would strongly advise others to do the same especially if travelling with young children.

I travelled to Rome this past August and this airport is the worst I have had the misfortune to experience. I could have dealt with how filthy and disorganized it is if at least the employees were courteous and efficient but no far from it. It didn't matter whether people worked for a specific airline security customs or the information desk they were all rude and incompetent. Don't expect to have your passport stamped and be ready to explain it if your travels take you to other countries (although as soon as you tell them you're coming from Rome they understand). Do expect to have your passport thrown back at you. Assume that you will be given incomplete or incorrect information if you are "lucky" to find someone to even answer. Otherwise expect people to ignore you as they stand around. Save yourself the headache and avoid this airport.

By far the worst airport I've been to. There seemed to be one person to check everyone in at security and the check in counter they were in no hurry to get people through the line. The security officer even stopped to enjoy a coffee while the line remained still for 30 minutes. It would seem that whoever is in charge of this airport would be concerned but obviously not. Likely my last time flying into or out of Rome if I can help it.

Flew out of here on 26/10/13 after a wonderful cruise. I must agree with other reviewers. This is the worst airport I have ever been to in my life. Huge queues at security dirty airport filthy toilets (when you can find one open and working). Restaurant staff rude and aggressive. This was my 1st time in Italy and I have to say has totally put me off ever returning to Rome. If that is the standard of the "international" airport what must the rest be like?

Horrible and most unhelpful airport I have ever been to. For an international airport no one spoke English except the tourist information. The tourist information did not give any advice that was correct. The internet cafe has a lot of computers but with no internet. I slipped on the floor as the cleaners throw buckets of soapy water on it to clean and do not mop it up properly. (They still throw water even when you are walking past). I dread to think how bad this will be when the world cup starts. Good luck if you do not speak Portuguese.

This has to be my worst airport experience in 60 years of travelling world-wide! On an Easyjet flight I allowed 2 hours to get through security et al and have always found this more than adequate with only hand luggage to cope with. The first obstacle came with security who seemed to be on a "go slow". I have no way of knowing if this was the norm or not. The crowds were surrounding the desks and some unpleasant incidents were in danger of developing as people were near to their gate closure times. When one is through security there is still a huge distance to walk to the furthest gates without any rolling walkways. If you are elderly unfit obese or unwell you will not stand a chance of a pleasant access to your flight. On arrival at what looks to be the "gate" you then have to take the train then a bus! With my 2 hours lead time I made it with 40 seconds to spare and that was by pushing in at security.

I am from Rome and fly often to this airport. It really pains me to see how low things have sunk and it is certainly true that in the third world it is possible to find much better airports. There are however two positive things: the transport links to Rome both by train and bus are decent also the four terminals are all interconnected so it is a fairly easy airport to connect compared with say Heathrow or CDG. The positives end here. This is basically a monster that has grown out of proportion architecturally ugly dirty dingy. The security lines as others have pointed out are totally unacceptable and I have witnessed borderline ugly scenes between stressed passengers and stressed security officers. The VIP lounges are pathetic the toilets dirty and smelly and the general atmosphere one of confusion and mayhem luggage delivery takes ages and the staff are tense and defensive. There are apparently big plans to upgrade the facilities and extend the capacity of this airport. My advice: pull it down and rebuild it altogether. This airport is beyond upgrade.

Security lines appallingly slow. Staff inefficient don't care much. Avoid the so-called fast lane for business and first class. The longer lines for coach passengers take less time.

We arrived at the airport at 9.00 am. For a noon flight on Delta. We were in the fast track lane that took us 90 minutes to manoeuvre. Regular lines were moving considerably faster. Security was requiring that even iPad cords be removed and checked. Many people in our line missed flights. Then the buses to the gates were ridiculously packed and again flights were being missed. Queues were not marked and mob mentality was taking over.

Flew from Fiumicino to Gatwick on Easyjet the evening of Monday 14th October 2013. Queues at passport control before departure gates were absolutely appalling. After standing in the queue for 15 minutes and not moving an inch (due to people ahead who were about to miss their flights pushing in) we also had to push in and run like crazy to the gate where we just made it to the bus. Others were not so lucky. Not enough police and those who were on duty were either taking ages and ages to check each passport - like a go-slow - or were otherwise engaged joking around and waving at each other. Never seen anything like it at any other airport. Experiences reported here mirror hours. We've learned our lesson and if we had to fly from here again would leave a ridiculous amount of time to get through security. Oh and the toilets at the airport are filthy and smelly and the terminal looks like a building site both inside and out. Heathrow Terminal 5 all is forgiven.