Almaty Airport

Almaty is among the worst airports I have ever visited. Jetways seem not to be used, requiring passengers to walk down shaky stairs, antique buses to the terminal. I thought this was the 21st century. Additionally just going to the transit area involves more red tape than immigration into many countries. Why would someone want to subject themselves to this? Services are almost non-existent, and lack of ATMs or even ability to use a credit card at anything other than the duty-free store makes getting food and beverage is quite difficult. WiFi access is abysmal. I spent over 2 hours trying to just get one phone connected to the WiFi. Even then it frequently disconnects. I would never come to this airport again.

Almaty is a very basic airport - I was transiting from Astana-Tselinograd (domestic flight) to Bangkok (international flight), and in order to do this, you have to walk from one building to another one. Bad signage, quite dark at night. Very few facilities in the airport, waiting area crowded and not very comfortable. Free Wifi and good duty-free for drinks, at excellent prices. Announcements in English difficult to understand.

Small airport, not so far from the city, easy access. Not a new one. No good indication to knwo where to go when you arrive. Check in was quite quick. Lots of people for controls and stamps! After control, no real shops - one coffee. no problem for Check in . Not much of seats to rest.

As always a good simple airport to negotiate. Smoking areas by the gates which many airports could learn from to reduce delays. Friendly little cafe bars scattered about (the cheapest downstairs) which although expensive by Kazakhstan standards provide quality products and are spotlessly clean and tidy. Very relaxing place to depart from although the announcements are totally unintelligible

I have passed through Almaty airport a dozen times in the last year and I can hardly imagine a more unfriendly one. The area is ridiculously small, untidy and you need to go through all sort of checks one after the other without any logical sense. Different clerks fill up the ticket with stamps. Rudeness is the general rule. Restaurants and bars overcharge you. Seats are few and half of the seating area is infested by a fridge constantly playing a Spanish beer jingle. So annoying. Finding someone speaking English is a big time rarity Such a big shame for a developed and ambitious country as Kazakhstan. I wonder what's wrong with it. The Astana one is much much better.

I have travelled through the international side of Almaty airport approximately 25 times over the past 2 years. If it is possible for an airport design, staff or management to cause a traveller unnecessary stress and hassle then count on Almaty airport. Announcements always at maximum volume and almost always unnecessary. Queuing completely disorganised and always different and with plenty of rudeness from other passengers. Consider a typical international flight and you must wait in line for a minimum of 5 times to show your documents with my personal best of 7 times. Cleanliness is poor. Staff give a whole new meaning to ignorance and rudeness. Facilities, toilets, food, shopping, seating, business lounge are hopeless. The domestic half of the terminal has recently been improved, perhaps there is hope for the international side.

Almaty airport is a tiny and dilapidated building compared to most international airports. The international terminal is cramped when you are waiting for an overseas flight and sometimes you'll be lucky to even find a place to sit. As you are coming in passport control is fairly swift and quick and collection of luggage and exiting is fast as well. As you are coming out be prepared to be greeted by a horde of gypsy taxi drivers. Most of them will overcharge you if you don't speak Russian so if you don't feel comfortable there is an official taxi booth near the exit charging 3500 Tenge. If you do decide to utilize a gypsy taxi driver come to an agreed upon price before getting in a price of 1500 - 2000 Tenge is reasonable. When buying something from one of the shops at the airport if you don't speak Russian it's important to not agree to buy anything unless there is a price tag on it. Shop keepers routinely over-charge foreigners double and even triple the amount. Overall it is not a comfortable airport to be in especially if you are waiting for an overseas flight. Limit the amount of time you have to spend there to as little as possible.

An old building with old services although parts are modernized. The domestic side is on the right side with no connection to the international part. You have to exit the building to get to from domestic flights to international flights. You are not allowed to go to the airside terminal before your flight is announced for check in. This means you have to wait outside in the departure hall. WiFi is available for free but do not expect great speed. Check in is in a rather small area. Passport control is reasonably swift as is customs control and safety control. There are no shops on the domestic airside. The business lounge is almost always closed. And the local airline Air Astana does not provide this service for domestic flights. There is a small restaurant in the old and new part. There are shops in the international airside. There is a small restaurant/bar. The business lounge is available and open 24 hours. Use of this service is based on the airline. Lufthansa gets a limited menu of drinks and food. KLM seems to be more generous (no apparent restrictions). But it is an old room with plastic leather seating and not much else. There are enough ATM´s available to get cash. There are no newspapers/magazines for foreigners. Only taxis ordered or outside at the official taxi stand have decent fares. But agree on a fixed price no meters installed. Ignore offers inside the building. Almaty is no longer the capital of Kazakhstan (1997 Astana). No plans to upgrade the facilities here in the near future (April 2014).

Passed through Almaty on transit - Immigration control was prompt and without problems. Service from the Business Lounges was very poor/non existent particularly in the domestic lounge. Domestic area was very busy and overcrowded. Departure controls were OK both for security and immigration. Business check in OK but not up to standards in some other better airports like Bangkok or Istanbul. I would not choose to use the airport as a transit unless there is no other choice.

This is one of the worst airports I have ever been to. The transit area is almost ridiculously uncomfortable and the business lounge is not only almost ridiculous! You get about one free mineral water included in a business ticket but more than that the lounge is noisy worn and broken sofas from about 1970 no comfortable seats at all no wi-fi. Basically no nothing apart from airport staff that come in and turn up the television only they watch! A total pain and never more a lay-over here!