Barbados Grantley Adams Airport

Be very cautious when considering a holiday or flight in/out of Barbados airport. The staff break open suitcases even when locked padlocked and a locking strap around them. We flew back from there last Sunday evening to the UK - to find two of our suitcases damaged. Missing electrical items including camera with holiday pictures.

Arrival into Barbados 16th June 2007 from London Gatwick with Virgin Atlantic. This being my 7th time to this airport I have grown used to its "unique experience" however I was in for a pleasant surprise as this was the first time I had been here since the overhaul of the arrivals and departures facilities. These were immediately visable as were were taxied iinto the gate. Still no jetways in sight. Passengers use steps to board/disembark. The new air conditioned immigration facilities mean one fast moving queueing system to all immigration booths as opposed to individual queues of varying lengths to each immigration booth. A new air conditioned reclaim area with working belts is a breath of fresh air for weary air travellers. Licenced airport taxis are available at the outdoor meeting point immediately after customs clearance. We were approached by several touts who tried to coax us over to their cars in the car park however we insisted on a licenced cab which advertise their rates to all the main points on the island in BDS$ and US$ at the meeting point. The overall impression to arriving passengers is now one of a well run and efficient airport. Departure back to Gatwick on 30th June 2007 also a pleasant improvement over the old. Extended check in facilities run the length on one half of the departures area and then run as far into the terminal itself. Departure tax is now collected at the time of purchasing your ticket so no need to keep $25 in cash handy for leaving the island. The only downside to the revamped departures area is that there isn't a great deal of seating before going through security. The new immigration and security screening point is also air conditioned and queues were managed well to allow 4 wide bodied jet loads of passengers to pass through seamlessly without too much delay. New retail outlets are positioned after security which all passengers have to walk past in order to approach the gate areas. All jet departures board from this gate area where there are plenty of seats. There is also a small VIP lounge airside which allows you to buy access on the day (subject to availability) for BD$40 per person. Regional prop flights board from their original "open air" gates however regional passengers still wait in the same area as international passengers. There are also extension "remote" gates with shuttle busses to/from the aircraft for when the airport gets really busy. Toilet facilities clean however sparse in number. In summary a thoroughly pleasant experience only let down by by a few niggles. a complete change in experience from my expectation. It now feels like an efficient airport facility.

I have never been to such a chaotic airport with so little customer service and following our experiences on 16th December 2006 we hope never to have to travel to/via Barbados again. Late arriving connection flights are a standard issue in today's travel world but to find no transit facility and an hour-long immigration queue when you only have an hour left to departure following the delay is beyond frustration. Why does an airport that has so many transit passengers not provide a transit facility. Many people on our incoming flight from Grenada/Tobago missed their connections and we only caught ours due to persistent nagging of the Information Desk staff one of whom was charming the other disinterested and the goodwill of Virgin Atlantic possibly enhanced by the fact that we had checked in online from Grenada in the morning. I will recommend to everyone I meet that they do not travel to/via Barbados in future. I can understand congestion and extenuating circumstances but the complete lack of interest from the majority of staff was incomprehensible and totally adverse to tourist relations. The stress caused by this experience at the end of our holiday to the beautiful island of Grenada almost totally destroyed the benefits of a relaxing Caribbean holiday. The fact that no-one can be bothered to reply to my emails requesting an explanation of the issues only compounds the issue.

The new expansion really in an improvement - as are the new luggage belts - if only people would leave bags that don't belong to them on the belt! I eventually found our second bag amongst a pile of others that had been removed and dumped! There are a lot of improvements that could be made such as a single queue for immigration services by all the desks rather than the current shambles where you pick the queue you think will be the best - I'm able to use the locals queue but it's regularly a source of annoyance amongst other passengers! I've not had a problem with check in but we normally check in early and either visit friends or go for a drink. It can be hard after 8 hours in a plane from the UK to remember that you have arrived in a country where "western" ideas of timeliness and service aren't really going to fit in - my experience is that the airport staff have two speeds and if you don't like the one they are working at now you are going to hate the other one! My only major gripe is customs - why is there always one really unhelpful rude and ill mannered woman trying to see to a whole line which often contains passengers from several big planes all at once!

I have been through Grantley Adams twice in the last month. It looks as though it will have a very nice landside terminal when the the work is finished and once through security the (I hope) temporary shopping arrangements will improve once the new units are finished. Things must have moved on quite a bit since October because the airside waiting areas at the gates seemed adequate with four wide-bodies on the stands and no sign of overcrowding. Improvements could be made in the way that check-in queues are managed with handling agent staff positioned at the entry to the queues rather than down at the desk end. On the second occasion I used the airport the signage above the desks clashed with airline information displayed on the monitors above them and resulted in some annoyance among people in the wrong queues - hence the comment about need for agents at the tail end of a queue. The public address system could also be improved (they REALLY need a good sound engineer to sort out the audio). There also seems to be a problem with the way airlines access the PA system. It would be better if there was a single person making all the announcements. That would reduce the variation in announcement "styles" (some barely decipherable) and techniques (some too close to the microphone and some to far away) and would ensure that all announcements were aired. One last improvement would be the change of access to the business lounge so that it was from airside rather than landside. That would make it a much more relaxing place because users would already be through security and not have to judge when to join the security queue so that they would be on time for boarding. I suppose the down side of that would be that the lounge would need to be bigger to accommodate a greater number of users. Overall a fairly average airport experience that will improve once the building is completed.

I use the Grantley Adams airport regularly and it is as efficient as any other airport in the Caribbean. It is bigger and more organized than other island airports. I have encountered problems and long waits but I have learnt to check-in a couple of hours before hand. I have encountered similar problems at JFK but that to me does not reflect on the island as a whole. It is an airport so there will be delays and crowds. All in all Barbados is a great place one of the best islands in the Caribbean and a great get away spot.

Mr Dabney you are right when they opened Grantly Adams it might have been one of the best in the Caribbean. I have been in and out the Caribbean for 15 years now. Since my first arrival a lot of other airports in the area have been upgraded: Port of Spain Fort-de-France Point-a-Pitre Santo Domingo. They all can handle more planes than BGI. Today BGI is crowded staff is not the friendliest almost no shops and the departure area is an overcrowded nightmare if you have to handle more than 747 back to LON at the same time (The problem is that all flights to Europe leave around the same hour and you can have 5 of them at a time!). Same counts for baggage handling for incoming flights from Europe. The two or three belts (with one under repair most of the time) are a joke.

Grantley Adams Airport has had the necessary upgrade - pity that they could not improve the quality of the announcements (still very echoey!) - distinct lack of fresh water available and finally why are the prices of alcohol in the duty free departure area significantly higher than the prices in the duty free area in arrivals?

Horrific! A mass of people in one line for 3 hours in 90+ degree heat just waiting to check in only to join another 25 minute line to get through security. No air conditioning no water anywhere no seating absolutely no airport personnel visible. Why a single line for several airline ticket counters? USAir had slips of paper tacked up to indicate their counter space. Ticket agents were rude and slow. Be advised you may have a long walk to the airplane (across the runway) carrying your child & your carry on luggage - and will have yet another security checkpoint to pass. The plane was so late taking off that people were told to just run to their connecting flights and forget their luggage - it would be delivered the next day. So much for Barbados. Never again.

I have been traveling in and out of Barbados since 1960. In the intervening forty plus years I have arrived and departed from the old Sewell International Airport and since 1979 Grantley Adams International Airport. Since the opening of GAIA I have transited the facility more than 30 times. Have I had any unpleasant experiences? Of course. I cannot name ANY international airport or cruise terminal where I have not encountered problems on at least one visit. However I am compelled to say that the Barbados facility is one of the best most modern facilities in the Caribbean. There are few airports in the region with the capability both in terms of terminal and runway to handle all components of major airline fleets from the B747 to until recently Concorde. The current expansion programme brings to mind renovations at many international facilities worldwide. Yes there are inconveniences that must be endured. But these must be seen in the light of "temporary setbacks for permanent improvement." My personal pet peeve with GAIA has been the lengthy walk from planeside upon arrival to the immigration and customs areas. But when put up against the walk to immigration when arriving in San Juan Puerto Rico on American Eagle Airline I'll take Barbados any day. I applaud the comment from Mr. St. John of the airport authority that one of the conditions to be attached to the letting of new vending contracts at the completed airport will be the requirement that restaurants be open as long as there are passengers in the terminal. This has long been a problem as pointed out by other posters to this forum. I would urge passengers arriving at GAIA to remember that you are not in New York or London or Frankfurt. You are arriving in the Caribbean! The lifestyle is slower (not a BAD thing!!) and the people friendly. Enjoy your visit to the airport. Take in the lush vegetation that is all around you. Enjoy the sounds sights and smells. And let your arrival be the harbinger of a wonderful visit to follow.