Antigua Vc Bird Airport

✅ Trip Verified | What a joke, 5 out of the 12 booths open to receive customers arriving. After an 8 hour flight to be cooped up in an arrival lounge for over an hour with no air circulation. Additionally, jobsworth staff fussing about where to stand and also three staff checking the same thing is not the ideal first impression of a country.

✅ Trip Verified | Queues, queues and more queues. The worst in the Caribbean. Useless slow staff (most doing nothing and only three actually grilling people) and a boss guy sitting in his office watching. It’s not rocket science - most people are here on a package holiday not trying to come and live here. It’s not like it’s London or Australia. We travel a lot and this place is the worst. We won’t be back anytime soon. And nor should you, unless you love line ups.

❎ Not Verified | Clean, with efficient staff. Plenty of bathrooms available before and after gates. We were out of there in 30 min coming in. Small shopping/duty free area on the way out. Gates were just as efficient. One runway. Expensive, limited food choices. I suggest getting souvenirs before the airport. 10+ experience.

This is the worst airport I have experienced. There are restaurants but it seems they only cook half the menu after 6pm and it is not food I would choose to eat anyway. Digusting! Airport trolleys are not allowed in arrivals. How ridiculous. You have to pay a porter if you want to use a trolley. If you get delayed (which is likely) there are the most uncomfortable plastic seating you will ever encounter, where sleeping is not an option. Finally, never use Liat airlines unless you leave at least 48 hours to get to your island destination.

Antigua airport is new but very confusing - there are not many clear signs to direct you where to go. The queues through immigration were very long and staff very abrupt asking in my opinion pointless questions. The customs officers direct you to the something to declare line when you are heading towards nothing to declare and again ask unnecessary questions and take all your belongings out out the case. Dreadful start to a holiday. Very rude and unprofessional compared to other countries. On departure same experience - staff unprofessional having conversation with colleagues and unhelpful and abrupt.

Sadly had to spend 3 hours in the check in area at Antigua airport awaiting a transatlantic flight - not a pleasant experience. No really worth going off site, or so we thought. Scarcely any seats and those available were not suitable for long delays, but nothing else was available. The tiny cafe closed about ten minutes after our arrival mid-afternoon. The excuse given was 'it's Sunday'. No water machine or vending machine available. The A/C worked over efficiently and it was bitterly cold. After an efficient check in and passage through normal airport procedures, enter into the departure area. This is large and open with the potential for many outlets and stores. However very few are in use, really no more than were in the original old terminal. We were told that rents are excessive and that is why few are in use. Prices were excessive - $8 for a small bottle of water. In summary, the airport works efficiently as far as boarding airplanes is concerned but not for passengers with long waits, either inside or outside departures. WiFi is very good.

The new terminal at Antigua airport has only been open for a few months, and it is quite magnificent. It's up there with the best European airports, although not anywhere near as large. The 2 duty-free shops are amazing - particularly their rum selections which include Clement Rhum Agricole from Martinique and some genuine sugar cane syrup to mix it with. The souvenir shop also looked very good, although I didn't have enough time to look round it in great detail.

This is a brand new terminal that opened just about nine months ago. It is very well designed, spacious, light filled and comfortable with a limited yet sufficient number of traveler facilities. Immigration both coming in and departing was quick and easy. My only gripe is with the terminal and gate announcement system. Every announcement in the airport, even at the gate, was totally garbled and not understandable. There is something horribly wrong with the announcement system which really needs some immediate attention.

I have visited dozens of airports in many countries. The arrival, departure and security experiences were all as expected. What I found shocking, however, were the shops in the terminal and their pricing practices, which could be referred to as a downright scam. The shops and restaurants do not display prices on their items. You have to ask a clerk how much each item is, and they seem to make it up on the spot. And they will quote you an already exorbitant price in EC$ and then tell you another ridiculous price if you want to pay in US$. I was just told that a small bottle of water was $5US, and that a banana (a single banana) would be $7US.

I did not find Antigua as bad as some but it was not exactly trouble free. Immigration took about 40 minutes bad but I have suffered worse elsewhere and the officer was polite and welcoming. Departure is rather chaotic you queue to check-in (about 20 minutes in our case) and to go through emigration (over 30 minutes) though security was cleared quickly. Once in the terminal it was crowded but had (just) enough seating. The snack bar was reasonably priced but souvenirs can be found cheaper elsewhere on the island. The good news (hopefully) is that the new terminal building is complete and due to open in the next few weeks according to locals it is much larger than the present one and looks a better design - there are several dedicated piers for large aircraft. Antigua is a great island and I look forward to experiencing the new facilities.