"passport control is terrible"
C Priestley (United Kingdom)
Passport control is terrible at Alicante airport. It is automatic and offers no help. You have to be very lucky to be able to proceed. Numerous passengers had to join new queues to get through. Staff very unfriendly and offered little help. Instructions totally inadequate. Use Murcia which is much more user friendly.
Experience At Airport | Arrival Only |
Date Visit | June 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"massive queue of hundreds"
David Goodday (United Kingdom)
So called intelligent passport control designed to reduce queues. Arrived on 2nd May 2016 to a massive queue of hundreds and if they had stuck to this procedure it would have been several hours before all of us cleared. Instead they went back to basics and had an officer on each desk checking passports visually. What a waste of money and time this new system is.
Experience At Airport | Arrival Only |
Date Visit | May 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"needs better efficiency"
S Paterson (United Kingdom)
My main complaint of Alicante Airport is that we waited about 40 minutes for our bags to arrive off the conveyor belt upon arrival from London. Otherwise this is a pretty standard Spansh airport-large and airy (although yes, as other reviewers have noted, the accoustics are therefore dreadful) with very little to do landside and the normal selection of overpriced food and drink airside (10 euros for a Burger King meal, for example). On my depature, one security guard had something of a 'jobsworth' attitude, telling me to put my i-Pad in a separate tray for screening next time (this has never, ever been commented on in any other airport) but having lived in Spain previously I didn't have particularly high expectations for customer service, and am quite glad to have avoided a 'shopping mall' experience as so many other airports are fast becoming. I actually felt sorry for the Spanish staff who did a great job of dealing with British holidaymakers refusing to make an effort with the language. All in all, nothing special but needs better efficiency in dealing with incoming luggage.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | May 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"very distressed about it"
Elaine Sullivan (United Kingdom)
My elderly mother was left for an hour in the sun outside while waiting for assistance that we had arranged for her. There is a buzzer to call through and repeatedly she was told that someone would come for her, in the end she had to struggle to get a trolley and struggle into the airport terminal as she needed to use the toilet and had to get herself to the check in otherwise she would have been too late. She was texting us and there was nothing we could do for her so both she and myself were very distressed about it. Then, despite Monarch saying the check in would print out her boarding card the woman on the desk was rude and offhand that she hadn't got it and moaned and muttered about printing it. Remember Spain, many of the visitors to your country are getting older and you wouldn't treat your family like that so do not treat mine or others like that.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | April 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"fiddling with mobile phones"
Nick Jackson (United Kingdom)
On my last 2 departures from Alicante airport, I have accidentally left banned items in my hand luggage which weren't spotted during security checks. On the first occasion I left a pack of non-safety razor blades in my case, on the second occasions my wife had inadvertently left a pair of scissors in her polythene toiletries bag which were visible as they went along the belt. The system at the hand luggage scanner is that the person viewing the x-ray images, stops the belt and rummages through any suspect luggage so is under pressure to get the case cleared and the belt moving again rather than suspect cases being flagged for further checks off to the side as is the case in other airports I have travelled through. I have seen the person monitoring the x-ray image screen fiddling with their mobile phones.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | March 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"beware when using"
Nicholas Ingram (United Kingdom)
Please beware when using Alicante Airport that it operates or is complicit in a number of scams. Firstly, there are never any bottles of water in the drinks machines, so rather than pay the extortionate €1.50 for a bottle that costs 20 cents in supermarkets, you pay the incredible €3.50 charged by the restaurants and shops. Then there is the 'free' wi-fi. I used this and was given the option of filling in a 'sponsors questionnaire' to get free wi-fi or paying about €4. After filling in an annoying and time-consuming questionnaire, I received spam texts and emails. One of the texts cost me £4.50 to receive. Very free. The airport must know this happens. It is a pity because in many aspects (bag drop, time taken to get through security) the airport seems to be improving.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | January 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"wifi is the worst"
1 reviews Russell Eldridge (United Kingdom)
Travelled from this airport on numerous occasions and the free wifi is the worst I have ever experienced. Never been able to connect which is a farce if you're delayed. There must be a substantial amount of business users that travel from this airport so I assume they rely on their own data as the airports internet is garbage.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | November 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"toilets should have smoke sensors"
Patricia Moore (United Kingdom)
I am a wheelchair user and have been using Alicante for the past 13 Years. It has come to my attention that people use the disabled toilets for having a cigarette as they can't smoke in the terminal - surely these toilets should have smoke sensors. This has happened to me on several occasions the latest being on 7/12/15 - I came out smelling like an ashtray.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | December 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"wouldn't like too long a delay here"
P Driscoll (United Kingdom)
Not too bad but wouldn't like too long a delay here. No comfortable bar landside to wait for flights to arrive just a couple of cafeterias with rather hard seats. Acres of space but nothing going on. Through security (reasonably efficient) to airside area with a big "pub" which was fine. Duty free shop good, other shops a bit specialised and pricey. Staff I encountered were generally polite and friendly but a bit slow taking our order in the pub - I ended up ordering at the bar as time was getting on. Boarding area was standard with everybody starting to queue despite being called up in stages. They generally got away with queue jumping which caused a few delays in the boarding process.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | September 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"lacks air conditioning everywhere"
Sinead Donohoe (Ireland)
Alicante Airport lacks air conditioning everywhere. Not enough staff at check in area, staff extremely rude talking away in Spanish to my husband when the bleeper went off as he walked through. They treated us as if we were criminals pointing to us and our carry on luggage, all was ok in the end but when I said to one member of staff 'we do not speak Spanish' I was ignored. We were then left to wait afterwards for the bus that takes you to the plane for at least 15 mins with no air conditioning or air for that matter with babies in buggies, parents, elderly people etc. Why in this day and age should passengers have to endure this sort of unacceptable behaviour. I will never go to this airport again.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2015 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |