Belfast Airport

Not Verified | This airport is the worst I have ever used. They charge £1 for every car that picks up or drops off passengers. Then you have to walk over to the entrance doors in the wet weather (which is very often in NI). Everything in this airport is about screwing money out of you. Over priced food and drinks. Poor seating and lousy security process. This place describes NI perfectly.

✅ Trip Verified | Shocking service, not very busy but had to wait 15 minutes to get a coffee in the departures lounge, no clean cups so had to have takeaway with only one person in front of me in the queue. Then long wait at the only Ryanair check in desk of 4 open. After clearing security went to the bar and had to wait another 15 minutes to get a Guinness but they didn’t have any. All the ladies toilets were being cleaned at the same time and had to wait another 20 minutes with a young child needing the toilet, I have travelled to third world countries that have better airports than this. The staff are all miserable!

Not Verified | Are the management of this airport actively trying to close it because it is deteriorating at a fast rate. Everyone has mentioned the major problems at security, on the way out the queues are bad enough but the rudeness of the staff is something else. (Do they have to pass a rudeness exam to get a job). Coming back into the airport was even worse with elderly people struggling up a flight of stairs with hand luggage, then you end up in a queue to be welcomed back into the country with another surly bunch of civil servants. The queue was several hundred yards long because 2 planes arrived together and staff could not cope! As we sat waiting for our return flight passengers were rearranging hand luggage to take back with them as many cigarettes as possible. When we got to international airport there was not one member of customs present. It would be cheaper to close the airport and put a free bus on to Dublin airport for travellers.

Not Verified | Did the 21st century leave this airport behind? A dirty and old relic, from start to finish. Bag drop is very poor, security is over zealous and will frisk, scan and drug check something like every other passenger. I seen them doing this to small children. Didn't have a bad queue when I went, but that is the problem with this disgusting place - one day its tolerable and another day the queue is out to the front door of the airport. So always arrive fairly early. After security, not much is even here. A really tiny "duty free", typical overpriced burger king et al. This place is just as bad as Manchester Airport. Not recommend.

Not Verified | Queued for 1 hour and 15 minutes at airport security. The airport is a shabby, dirty ill-managed relic. Staff are unpleasant and the security arrangements are clearly inadequate.

Not Verified | My mistake for taking 2 small see through bags containing toiletries instead if one, but the time that it took for me to get through security - I was left standing for around 30 minutes, and the manner in which I was treated was a disgrace. The lady in security very impatiently threw my toiletries onto a table, rifled threw them asking which ones I wanted to keep and the rest would be dumped. She dumped cream that I was using for my arm as had just had an operation and some other items. A young guy emptied out the contents of my small holdall and proceeded to take my travel documents out of their polly-pockets. When I asked another security guy why my holdall which contained medication, phone charger, toiletries and travel documentations was being emptied so many times his reply to me was 'to make sure that you have no bombs in it' To me that answer speaks volumes. Another security suggested that I should have arrived at the airport 3 hours early to allow time for all this, I informed him that I had been at the airport since 11.30 that morning and my flight was not until 16.30. I was not allowed to check in my bag until 14.20. Only I had a flight to Spain the following morning I would have gone home as I was so angry and annoyed with the attitude of the security people who dealt with me.

Not Verified | If you want a seat airside, but do not want to spend a fortune in any of the ten food and drinks outlets, then my advice is to bring your own chair. This airport is deteriorating at a rate of knots. The numerous bars feed and water those travelling to the hot spots of Europe, and the terminal can get very lively at times. In the departure area gates 10-14 there is no air conditioning which made it a very uncomfortable time on the day I travelled. Also, with three easyJet flights boarding at the same time, it was absolute pandemonium. It calls itself an international airport, but as mentioned, most of the destinations are to the hotspots of Europe. It is now the poor relation to Belfast City, which does have a few European destinations, but with the British Airways LHR service you can fly to almost anywhere in the world.

✅ Trip Verified | I’ve reviewed my home airport a few times before. The main reason to keep coming back every few trips is that Belfast Intl evolves like no other airport I know, or pretty much any other commercial business I can’t think of. Each visit, there seem to be more changes to the infrastructure and layout. This time the most significant change comes to the airside and not of the food areas that have had an extension added on to the terminal to facilitate the addition of some new eateries. Perhaps most significantly is what has been going on in security, with the recent addition of 2 extra lanes. Anyone familiar with the airport may well be only too familiar with the recent stories (which made the news) of people queuing right out the front door and standing in line for 2 hours before even getting into the security hall! Well in order of going through the airport then while the check-in hall is largely unchanged over the last few years, there is now a larger cafe in the hall, which is good for those being dropped off as your lift can now at least sit and have a coffee with you, of course this is all pre the dreaded security so I’d recommend being early if you’re going to do that. Check-in was uneventful and fairly quick, but then we flew out later in the evening so the airport wasn’t busy. Then security. It was ‘OK’. The staff although still far from friendly didn’t quite show the surly/flat out rude demeanour I’ve come to expect here, but they did still manage to get in my bad books. My 6yr old daughter set off the metal detector, which is OK, but this meant she had to go into the full body scanner, again this would have bee OK if it was not for the way the security staff went about it, she was basically thrown in and barked at about which way to stand etc and she was very clear to all, left scared and upset. It took a fair amount of cuddles and reassurance afterwards to assure her she had done nothing wrong, so security still needs that customer care training that they’ve been crying out for for years. The security company famed for years to be poor here has been replaced by another (about 6+ months ago now), and yet there is still no real improvement in professionalism. As for times, it was quick enough, but as I mentioned we were going through at a quiet time, so that is just as it should be. Airside has seen a fair amount of development activity, especially for the Fed & Watered, Coco Diablo and Chopped food outlets, which are the ones that had the extension built to accommodate them. Having been burned too many times with poor quality high cost food in the airport we choose to eat en-route. The new eateries ‘looked’ good, though with the usual inflated airport prices but we did get a coffee in Fed & Watered so we could use some of the more comfy seats, the coffee was OK, not great, and the staff seemed a little distant or distracted, something I’ve come to expect here. And that finally brings me to the over arching feeling about Belfast Intl. As others have mentioned it's a money-making enterprise first and foremost. Most are, but Belfast somehow manages to do it less subtly. Every change and development is always something that the traveller has to pay for at each step. With all the developments there is ever less seating, what there is, is of the hard bare metal variety and located in less than optimal positions either in the corridor going out to the international pier (higher gate numbers) or just in the middle of foot traffic

✅ Trip Verified | Absolutely distraught with the quality and queues from security on departures and especially coming home, would prefer to go through Dublin from now on.

✅ Trip Verified | The reviews for this excuse for an airport are horrendous. Is anybody actually listening? Do the management really care? I'm sitting here today having paid a fortune to park about a half mile walk from the terminal, endured the lenghty, over zealous security and taking forever to find a seat. The final insult, £5.95 for a pint and my flight is delayed. Third world is a compliment for this place.