Belgrade Airport

So - what have happened with the update of International part of the terminal building? It is obviously still ongoing process that causes horrible feeling in this gloomy airport! Not to mention the amount of smoke inhaled in that sad-looking bar on the first floor.

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is undergoing heavy expansion and reconstruction works which are scheduled to be finished by May 2004. Because of this the International Terminal has been closed and all passengers have been re-routed to the Domestic Terminal which was 'adapted' to handle International traffic. This was done in a less than perfect way which makes the airport look really bad. First off all the Domestic terminal was built in the early 60s and has never undergone works to 'update it'. It is much smaller than the International counterpart (built in the early 80s) which expands on three floors. Hopefully when the airport re-opens in late spring thing will go much smoother. In the meantime airport officilas should display some 'Sorry for the inconvenience' and explanation signs.

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is a true time warp - it's like a small journey back to 1960's (behind the iron curtain!). The airport facilities are poor and not well maintained there is only one overpriced restaurant duty free shops are not well stocked (i.e. no malt whiskeys and no Marlboros!) and there is no internet connection available. If you couple this with the fact that it is one of the most disorganized airports I have ever seen in my life (only 3 check-in counters for ALL Yugoslav Airlines international flights with almost no distinction between business class and economy class check in then one can only imagine what kind of a mess it was) and with very rude staff makes it one of the worst airport experiences I ever had. If you ever travel there make sure that there is someone waiting for you because taxis available there will rip you off. Do not even think about buses because they look like they had leased them from a museum. However I must say that some things are improving and I hope that they will finally put their act together and make it comparable with other Central European airports.

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is a small airport. From 1990 to 2000 the country was in terrible condition as well as the airport. But now it is turning in to a world airport. On level one of the airport as well as on level number two there are duty frees and shops. The ground staff is very friendly. I just hope the airport expends even more.