Belfast Airport

✅ Verified Review | We travel through Belfast International Airport a lot and over the last 40 years have traveled to many airports worldwide. Belfast International is by far the worst airport experience and we hate having to fly in and out of it. We are proud to be from N. Ireland and love to see visitors coming but the airport is a disgrace. We traveled through Dec. 2016 and my husband who is 72 and had recently received a cancer diagnosis forgot to take his braces off. The security guy put them in a tray and threw the tray across the hall narrowly missing one of his colleagues. We want to be safe but does the behaviour and environment in Belfast make us feel safe - absolutely not!

❎ Unverified | Worst airport I have ever been to. The service was absolutely terrible. Took forever at the passport check, people were awful and everyone was rude. They lost my friends luggage. Terrible experience and I've been to airports all over world. Do not fly here if your going to Northern Ireland, fly to Dublin and take the bus.

❎ Unverified | Overzealous frisking. I bleeped going through security and was then asked if I had a metal hip implant to which the answer is yes. I was then frisked repeatedly three times, despite wearing only thin trousers and thin short sleeved shirt. Then my waistband was checked a fourth time. Lastly he ran a hand held device all over my body twice. It was as if the guy was determined to find something suspicious. What a contrast to Newcastle, where I stood in a sort of kiosk (a scanner?) quickly checked with the hand held device and given the all clear. Once past security, there were far too few seats and our plane was an hour late. My final gripe is that the toilets were not signed till one was almost outside them.

✅ Verified Review | I would really like to see something done at Belfast International about the queue (there usually is only one screening line open!) through security. I travel extensively to many airports, including much busier airports like Gatwick, where they are much more efficient at security. At Belfast International they had one line open, I queued for 45 mins just to get to the security - this is totally unacceptable. It was fortunate I'd arrived early. The worst part is the reason that there was only one open, they also have a priority line which you can pay for in advance and I know they are deliberately providing a very slow service to encourage people to buy priority boarding. No other airport does this. What made it worse was that there were about 4 people on the priority line standing about and laughing with each other as it wasn't busy, while hundreds of passengers queued for the standard security screening where there were only 3 people. They really need to open up more screening gates. This is just letting your airport down in a very big way!

✅ Verified Review | Our last trip through Belfast international must be the first time in a long while that we've passed through and not found significant development changes from our previous visit. So either the ongoing development has paused or it has reached a state that management feel meets their needs for the time being. This was easily one of the best experiences we've had in quite a few visits. It's also the first time we've travelled through in peak season for some time as well. We were one of the first flights out at 7am and were checking in around 4.30am with the airport already getting a little busy. I'm not sure if this process both at check in and security was better because they were geared up for the busy season but we were there at a comparatively quiet part of the day, or we just witnessed a genuine improvement in service. Security was faster and most importantly (based on previous issues encountered here) much more professionally courteous. Airside the shopping and food retail outlets were also largely unchanged, a decent choice of shops and food but the food being largely overpriced. Even the Fed & Watered cafe was decent and the staff attentive enough this time, this place has a history of disappointing for us. The only real complaint would be the same for departure and arriving back. The gates, expecially those of the higher numbers on the pier are a little shabby and 'backwards'. After presenting boarding passes passengers are taken down what feels like back corridors and flights of stairs that feel like a temporary workaround while the proper facilities are being worked on! Arriving back is much the same. The decent updating and renovations that have been done to the departures facilities have not been carried over to arrivals. Passengers depart the plane and are taken down a rabbit warren of sparse back corridors to boarder control and baggage reclaim, and though some customs sections that look abandoned. All in all the airport has been improving a good deal over the last few years, but there are still some areas that need to feel a touch of love to make the experience feel like travelling through a truely modern airport.

❎ Unverified | This was a very unpleasant experience at Belfast Airport. The overall impression is 'grubby' dirty tables and floors - the Lagan Bar was disgusting. Even Starbucks most unpleasant - cold and dark - nothing appealing at all. I had the most disgusting Caesar salad ever in the Lagan Bar - £10.00 for 2 little pieces of chicken - not even half a fillet and 5 very large lettuce leaves. An absolute insult! Shops ok but eating and drinking horrible. My husband's comment - remember not to arrive so early again - spend as little time as possible there. Having spent a lovely weekend in NI we couldn't wait to get on a plane out of the terminal. Time to get your act together.

❎ Unverified | I travel quite a lot with work so get to experience lots of different airports, some good some bad, but this is the first time I have felt compelled to write a review of one. I'm originally from Northern Ireland and am fiercely patriotic so it is with a heavy heart that I find myself about to be very critical of the "international" airport. However after 7/8 business trips to NI in the last 3 months I keep seeing the same problems with the airport. My first criticism is the queues to pass through security, they are by far the longest in all the domestic airports that I would use. On my last flight I counted 13 security with one scanner open, surely it doesn't take 13 people to operate a line! Most were chatting with each other. This however is not my main criticism, it is the general disrepair and cleanliness that makes transit through the airport a very poor experience. A few years ago the airport spent a few quid and updated the loos in the departure and arrivals areas. I'm not sure how often they get cleaned but the frequency needs to be increased, as every time I visit there is loo roll on the floor, blocked lavatories, filthy urinals, water all over the counter top and floor. They also need to speak with Starbucks on how often they clear away the rubbish from the tables as it is rare I don't have to clear a table to sit down. It is clear that the airport is either struggling, or airports worldwide have decided not to invest. None of the USB ports in the cafe area work, vending machines are often empty, and when it is busy there are few places to find a seat. The choice of shops is also very poor, do you really need 2 shops selling NI merchandise? And they all seem to shut about 9pm! I could go on, but all I really want is for NI to give us an "international" airport that I could be proud of. My advice would be to fly into George Best if possible.

✅ Verified Review | Outward trip 10th May, all was well with check in and security, terminal was very busy. Wifi good and easy to connect, long queues at retailers for food etc and vending machines expensive compared to Euro airports. Return trip May 21st, as a disabled traveller I use the superb OCS teams amb-lift so I avoid stairs and steps as I have severe walking difficulties. Our OCS lady had said when we (3x wheelchairs and me) get up to top corridor to keep left as it was very busy today, usually I am either in a wheelchair or when I feel up to it I amble along down the long empty corridor the other walking passengers having long been through passport control. Imagine my shock to see this rather long corridor, maybe at a guess 1/4 mile long absolutely bunged full width and almost full length crammed with folk from X amount of flights with feeder lanes of people forming on the airport apron all heading into an already bunged 10 feet wide 8 feet high rectangle crammed with returning international travellers. The heat was stifling, it didn't feel as there was air con if there was it wasn't cutting it, as I pottered along as fast as I could to keep up with the OCS in front of me with a wheelchair. We were squeezing past as best we could but it was rather claustrophobic, hot, an uncomfortable experience indeed, and all for Passport control. I know border security is paramount, but the powers that be knew hours before who was coming on them flights, ID had already been pre supplied as per European passport sharing. Finally got to Passport control 4 desks all manned but 4 at a time is not helping when there's an ever growing stream of people piling into what I see as nothing short of a crush zone and fire hazzard as very poor escape exits. Not a pleasant experience and a daunting one for holidaymakers coming to Belfast International for the 1st time.

✅ Verified Review | What a joke for an International Airport. The queues for checking in were slow. Coming back through passport control is even worse. The staff are so rude. One gentleman in particular practically threw my passport back at me. Obviously they are not well trained in customer service.

✅ Verified Review | Belfast is slowly getting better. Arrivals swift. Departures fine and even the security efficient and quite quick for an establishment that has a poor reputation. Smiling staff too who looked genuinely interested and no forced purchase of a compliant bag for 100ml toiletries. Improved shopping and even though the boarding gates area was crowded, it was a short wait until boarding commenced. Well done Belfast. I feel that there must be better improved management in place for this airport that was once almost unacceptable in its customer service standards. Handy tip. Get out at the roundabout 100m from the door to avoid the £1 parking fee which lets its reputation down. I saved £2 total - for both ways. WiFi excellent as well and easy to log on.