Belfast Airport

My criticism is of the entering, obtain car park ticket and getting out of car park, short stay. There was no sign to indicate short stay was not available. I had to reverse back into queue. Went to pick up point as directed. Went back on Wednesday 27th and new complicated ticket machine confronted me. I was used to inserting my credit card but no luck, ticket appeared so got into park. On leaving went to barrier and tried to insert card, but no instructions on this machine. Worker let me out with no explanation for next visit. Back again on Thursday into short stay, got ticket met passengers and tried to pay at Pay Station, yes the two yellow ones. Ticket useless in these, so son told me to try the other machine. It worked, paid money and went to barrier. It worked. Embarrassing if there had been queue behind me. The new machine should have clear instructions or voice activated guidance. Came back to airport on Monday and survived entering and leaving. Nightmare, when new machines confront you it would be helpful for clear instructions. Threaten never to return, if you are at all concerned.

I have moaned about this place to my wife for years but could never find somewhere to complain. The standard continues to plummet. Take my most recent experience from start to finish. The long stay parking barrier wouldn't lift despite being pre-booked. This meant a trek to the parking office to get it sorted. There is no cover from the weather whatsoever for the long walk with a suitcase over rough, pot holed, puddled surfaces to the terminal. The queues at security were enormous and the room was so hot the staff were complaining. Despite preparing thoroughly for security by having no metal objects on my body, I was still 'randomly' picked out for testing for explosives. The route to the overpriced food outlets used to pass by the duty free area, but now display stands have been trailed out across the path and when people stop to look at the displays there is no way through. As usual, after being checked in at the gate we were made to stand for 10 minutes on the stairs. I swear that some day someone will fall and there will be multiple injuries. Then, getting to the plane meant a 150 - 200m walk across the concrete and again there is no cover from the weather. It really irritates me to hear all the advertising in N. Ireland for Dublin Airport but, having used it, it is light years ahead in all respects. It truly is an international airport and puts Belfast to shame. Surely it's time the management had a good look at their customers requirements and invested in modern facilities that all other airports seem to have. Oh, and by the way, the parking barrier wouldn't lift on the way out either.

I have avoided Belfast Airport for years, instead using George Best Airport in the city for a much better customer experience. However the other day I was pleasantly surprised. Security checks much better, no obligatory rip-off plastic bag purchase enforced to comply with BFS "standards" and no silly security questions. Security staff quite pleasant as it happened. The main departures lounge can be avoided with a short walk to outer gates. Air conditioning basic to grim but it was quite warm for NI. I would use again I suppose. The £1 drop off rip-off parking is still in place to those who don't know so be prepared. The airport must have some new management in place as things have become better. And excellent wifi too.

I've never left a review for an airport before, and I've travelled a lot but this place is by far and away the worst airport I've been to. It's disorganised, chaotic, ineffcient, small, dirty, tired looking with unfriendly staff. Lukewarm food, uncomfortable seating and just not enough space to cope with the amount of people using it when I was there yesterday evening. I have a few more business trips to do in Northern Ireland and I'm going to be travelling in via Dublin Airport as it's cleaner, efficient and easier access to motorways.

It may be bigger and busier than the City airport, but it certainly isn't better. Long queue for boarding, seemed somewhat disorganized. Usual array of overpriced outlets waiting to bleed the passenger dry. George Best is a much nicer airport and far more convenient, being only ten minutes from the city centre.

The management of this airport need to take a good hard look at themselves. I usually fly in on a Friday evening and return on a Sunday evening. It is always the same. My partner is stressed trying to pick me up through the traffic queues into the airport. Leaving every Sunday is always stressful. The place is jam packed, not enough seats in the bars/cafes, people sitting on the floor, rude staff that scan your passport. You get a real sensation of how pigs feel being pushed into a pen just before slaughter. It's a shambles. Definitely considering using Belfast City which is soooo stress free in comparison to this place.

Arrived at airport having used the airport twice monthly at least for the last two years. I flew in from Edinburgh on Friday. At security staff have returned to their old ignorant I don't care attitude. This had improved in the last year but I was asked if I had a tablet in my bag after it went through, I replied that there was just a kindle, staff replied with, were you not told to remove kindles, it was a reader not a tablet and they looked at me as if I was stupid. I have never had to remove my kindle from my luggage. I asked when this rule was changed and he thought it changed a couple of weeks ago. That is fine if true, but why not tell people and explain it is the new rules. The lady at the scanner was the worst. Customer service again poor.

Now I remember why I stopped using this place and started using City Airport instead. It's way out of Belfast so the name is all wrong. Security are so surly, the whole place looks run down and finally the system for co-ordinating boarding passes pre flight and the aircraft becoming available for boarding, seem to be totally disconnected. I will not be going through this airport again if I can possibly help it.

Belfast International has been in a state of flux for years as it’s undergoing one of those gradual rolling upgrade programs that started about 5 or so years ago and is set to continue into the future for years to come. So you’re never quite sure what to expect on arrival. On our latest visit last month the place appears to have stabilised a little in terms of the rate of change. It was nearly a year since the last visit before this one and there wasn’t much difference. The airport is well enough laid out and the services for the size of the terminal are very good - on paper at least. The food court offers a wide range of food and drinks and the stand alone places add variety. Trouble is the food court itself doesn’t have any views from windows and so not much natural light either for that matter. If you are sitting waiting to go somewhere you want to be waiting in a pleasant environment. That leaves Starbucks or Fed & Watered to choose from above purely food driven choice. We chose Fed & Watered as Starbucks although fine has more ‘café’ food which anyone who’s been to a Starbucks will be familiar with. We had been disappointed by this place before but went back thinking that its couldn’t be consistently that bad and still be in business, sadly it was. A staff member who had to be continually prompted by a manager in the background to serve the customers standing in front of her, to the food itself that was of a quality that wouldn’t look out of place coming out of a microwave on a petrol station forecourt, this place is a disappointment, especially when you are paying the inflated airport process that most travellers will be used to. I guess it’s the captive audience that keeps the place going. The other issue, is as has been pointed out by others, the awful attitude of surly staff at security. Across the whole airport experience staff have been great at this airport, but it is the negative treatment by security staff that I always take away with me after each visit here. Seating I find to be an issue as well, it is limited, especially in terms of a type that you could spend more than a short wait at, with the food and drink outlets having most of the more comfortable areas, which I'm sure is the point, i.e. to drive you to spend money to sit there. This airport could really up its appeal if they paid attention to quality from food outlets across the range, made sure that security staff undertook their duties with more common courtesy and they gave the very dated and worn arrivals areas a quick make over, that is what many travellers will see of N.I. first after all, and you only get 1 chance to make a first impression!

This review is about Belfast Airport. I have travelled frequently in the past year through airports in America, Europe, Asia and Australia. BFS is the only airport where I note that pax including myself receive consistently degrading treatment when passing through security. It's not that staff are impolite - sometimes they are - but the lack of concern for pax dignity and privacy is appalling. Pax are frequently asked to empty the entire contents of their bags in front of others. Although pax can request a private screening, this is time consuming, and during busy periods will incur the wrath of staff and other pax. Put up a screen in situ - how difficult is that? The airport restaurants are expensive and service is indifferent - but then so is everywhere else. It's really at security these days where proper leadership can make a difference. I note that at every other airport staff can conduct random searches on bags without needing to empty the contents.