Belfast Airport

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.

✅ Trip Verified | Has to be the worst airport in the UK. Barely any seating, hopeless information boards, really just one big booze and feed hall. Felt like a third world country airport.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is shambolic. Recently they have tried to upgrade their security. There seems to be little improvement. I was travelling at a quieter time, about 3:00 pm. The queues were not too bad about 5-10 minutes, but the security staff were surly and over officious, stopping about 1 in 4 passengers. I assume this was to justify statistics to the airport. Once through the airport airside is a dump, metal seats in the public area, and few places to sit I have travelled through many airports internationally, and the only worse experience I have had was Tripoli Libya when it was operational. As previous reviews have noted this is a disgrace to N Ireland, and travellers should expect better.

Not Verified | This airpost a disgrace. Tried to book speedy sercurity before arriving at airport but website wouldn't let me. Got to airport and queue was down the escalator. After queueing for 40 minutes, went to fast lane to ask if he would let me through has flight was about to close. No chance. Continued to queue and saw others approach him. Some he let through (maybe it was their accent). I had to go under the barrier into fast lane while he wasn't looking to make my flight. City airport from now on.

✅ Trip Verified | Travelled on 12 March and arrived 3 hours before departure time due to the check in disaster the previous day. NO queues! However, I agree with so many of the previous reviews that this airport is an embarrassment to N.Ireland. To get to the plane passengers have to negotiate series of narrow, dangerous stairs and concrete floored corridors cracked in many places with hand luggage and eventually out into whatever the N.Ireland weather throws at us. On return its the same procedure plus baggage handling is a joke. It would appear that they only have one donkey and cart which has to make several trips back to the plane and if your baggage is last off you will be waiting for an hour. Dire! And that is after standing in a queue for passport control which seems to have some system from the dark ages. There is zero respect for passengers at this airport and as a lifelong resident of N.Ireland it makes you ashamed.

Not Verified | Horrible, horrible, horrible. Just don’t use it. It’s worse than some of the most awful. Staff are the most unprofessional and unpleasant I have ever encountered and I travel every week. Obviously hate their jobs (who would blame them I suppose) so the only little bit of amusement they get is to make life difficult for customers. I had one roll her eyes and talk about me before and during a search which she then deliberately did twice. Next I was called out publicly in a packed departure lounge, I had held on to a small bag to remove water, iPad and phone at the gate. “I’ve told you three times she said” like I was a three year old child (untrue, she had said it once and I responded I was waiting to get to the seats, amidst the chaos, to put my little bag inside). Other people around me had actually got two bags but she chose me to try to humiliate publicly. She had chosen the wrong customer. Save yourself the pain, use another airport. Customer service here is non-existent

Not Verified | I am a frequent flyer and unfortunately have no choice to fly from this stuck in a time warp airport. I get filled with dread everytime I walk into the place as whenever getting near the stairs to rise one floor upto security, as, although I hope and pray this trip might just be different, I am met with a queue stretching down the stairs. A near 2 hour wait to get through is something to really get your spirits up. For anyone looking to come into this airport - don't - it must be one of the few and I mean very few international airports without a rail link into the city. It's a bus or a extortionate taxi ride. Its 2019 not 1979