Bordeaux Airport

Do not, I repeat, do not travel from Bordeaux airport. You check in your baggage which takes forever, then you stand in another queue next to the queue you've just been in, again for an age. Flights that are before yours are allowed to push in front. The design is crackers. Fly to / from another airport, as if you don't, the underlying memory of your holiday will be the most backwards designed experience. Heed my words.

The Billi terminal at Bordeaux airport, for easyJet and Ryanair is absolutely hideous. Avoid it all costs especially if you are travelling with children. Without doubt the worst airport I have been to anywhere in the world. We arrived 2 hours before our flight and spent the next 3 horrible hours in multiple lengthy queues. It is chaotic. We only made our flight because it was nearly an hour delayed and because we (and lots of other people going on our flight) were allowed to move up the security queue. Terminal is unbearably hot, grossly overcrowded, virtually no facilities e.g. seats or places to buy water; disgusting toilets. I will never use this airport again.

The Billi terminal in Bordeaux is the worst terminal I ever used. Queuing was a nightmare. The only positive point is the staff who are really nice even if they are working in this nightmare everyday. A lot of people are using low cost airlines here not because they are cheap but because they are the only options available. Even though it's low cost they should not have the right to treat passengers like meat.

We travelled from Bordeaux to Liverpool on 6th August 2016 from the Billi Terminal. The experience was worse than outrageous. I have travelled for business for 20 years and nothing has been worse than this. The Billi terminal is basically a tin box. We arrived at 2pm for a 4:40 (delayed until 5:30) easyjet flight. We were queueing outside of the terminal in 28 degree heat for over half an hour. We got 6 small bottles of water from Starbucks for £17. Once inside the terminal we queued again, with the queue snaking all around the terminal. Once the bags were weighed we managed to cut into the queue to put your own baggage on the conveyor belt because we had priority boarding. We then queued again to get through security where priority boarding meant diddly squat. After security we were called to the gate and queued again with the queue snaking all around the cafe area to passport control. By now it was 5pm and we had been queuing for 3 hours. Another half hour queue to get to the ticket check. Mercifully priority boarding kicked in again and we were first through the gate. The tunnel to get to the tarmac was almost at boiling point and we got through quickly and were able to queue on the tarmac. Those behind were not so fortunate and had to fry in the tin box for another 30 minutes. After 3.5 hours of solid queueing we finally got on the plane. Thank goodness it was delayed otherwise we would not have made it. Cattle are treated better than this. Not once were we offered water or an apology. I will never travel on this route again. Shame on the people responsible for this absolute chaos.

Booked to travel through Bordeaux as these were the only flights I could find that avoided London or a 12hr stopover at some other hub. It was some time later when I noticed the small print, "Billi terminal". What does that mean, I thought? A quick search soon revealed some pretty horrible reviews. I've travelled quite a lot in the last 40 odd years, and usually things turn out not to be as bad as expected. So, fingers crossed. The arrival wasn't too bad, bit of a shed, only 2 toilets, but the luggage arrived quickly enough. But 2 weeks later, the departure. Words cannot describe the awfulness of the experience, but I'll try. Despite arriving more than 2 hours before departure, the queue was already outside the building. It was hot, there was no shade, but at least the rain held off till we were inside. Others may not have been so lucky. Once through the door (about 30 mins later), there were no obvious queues, just a mass of bad-tempered people shuffling slowly towards the makeshift check-in desks. Aha! I have a priority boarding pass. So, after some pushing and barging, found my way to the "quick" check-in desk. That probably saved 30 mins and as it turned out meant we made it to the flight. Heaved the bags onto the isolated scales, all OK. Now what? Ah, you have to join the next queue to send your bag through for loading. Yes, there is no conveyor belt, you have only just started on your epic journey. So, off with the bags to the line waiting for the X-ray machines. This was so long that it snaked around behind and in front of the check-in desks, doubled back on itself twice and cut through the queues waiting for the weigh in. Total chaos. Tempers frayed as passengers, understandably not knowing where one line started and another finished, pushed in, queue jumped and generally behaved very badly. The "air conditioning", provided by 2 stand-alone electric fans, merely served to move the foetid air around a little but did nothing to dispel the discomfort. No idea what would happen to anyone fainting or needing a toilet break? I confess to resorting to some luggage-vs-shins-and-toes myself, merely to avoid losing my place in the queue. Finally, nearly an hour later, we got to the X-ray machines, and then through to passport control. When it came to boarding, only 15 mins late, there was a thunderstorm and massive downpour, but by then, people were just glad to escape the shed and enjoy a cooling shower on the walk across to the plane. This will forever be known by us and others I spoke to as the "Bilious" terminal, and we all agreed that we will never use this route again. Only the airlines, Easyjet in this case, and Ryanair I believe, have the muscle to make improvements here. A pity for them, as the flights themselves were OK. But sorry guys, as long as you are using Bilious, I won't fly with you. Period. Rating: Full marks to the staff for keeping their professional manner in impossible conditions, but otherwise, less than 0 if I could.

The Billi terminal at Bordeaux Airport in summary is woeful. Avoid. Even the check-in staff were apologising about how awful it is. Hot, limited seating, awful queues, limited facilities and one cafe. Try to avoid this place if you can.

Bordeaux is a truly awful airport. I arrived with over 2 hours to spare before the flight only to be met by a shed full of people milling about and no-one to give directions. Eventually found the back of the Ryanair queue and waited over an hour before finding that queue had been vaguely sorted into destinations and people were pushing in. However, eventually got to check in and was told that I had to queue again for bag drop. On questioning why I couldn't leave my bag there (as in every other airport) was told that I was travelling on a budget airline. Another long queue (or rather scrum) to get bag dropped followed by yet another queue for security and finally another one for passport control. Eventually I found where to wait for gate and then more standing around. On arrival at my destination, my bag was soaked and clothes inside wet. I realise this was a busy day but the authorities must have known how many people would be travelling and made no attempt to organise or sort out situation - never again will I use Bordeaux.

A just-about-audible announcement told us our flight had been delayed. The electronic information screen was not updated so we were left hanging about waiting to find out which gate we should go to with the screen showing a flight departure time that had already passed. When an announcement eventually told us the gate, we found that the passengers from two other flights were queueing to get through the passport control desk that is situated, for some idiotic reason, between the air-side lounge and the departure gates. The result of this was that a large number of people were waiting in a massive queue moving at an escargot's pace, unsure as to whether or not they would get to the gate before it closed. The only airport staff on duty were those serving in the over-priced cafeteria and on the security scanning point, and when I asked a lady at the latter station she was unable to provide any help whatsoever. There was no representative from the airline to be seen around and no information desk. Eventually someone appeared and suggested to the queue that the passengers going to Gatwick should push their way to the front of the Police Aux Frontieres desk, and after a few minutes, with the forbearance of the others in the queue, we eventually made it to the gate but in a state of extreme stress.

One of the most stressful experiences ever at Bordeaux airport. We arrived and joined a queue before the given time for check in but we were some of the last onboard. Maybe other passengers who had flown into Bordeaux knew it was chaotic. So disorganised - easyJet had at least 5 flights all leaving this afternoon for the UK and there were no systems in place to cope with the large volume of people they were attempting to process. There seemed to be no one in overall control. It was impossible to hear announcements so staff had to walk amongst the passengers looking for people. It was crisis management, as each flight was ready to board staff shouted out for any remaining passengers and rushed them through. Lots of young kids and there is no space to sit, no toilets, queue was outside the building. Really just an awful place. Felt sorry for staff at desks and easyJet really need to consider the pressure / stress these people are working under.

Having read the previous reviews I can't believe nothing has been done to improve the Billi terminal. Departure chaos today with all the same issues. The staff told folk everything was under control then totally panicked to get people on the right flight when it had been clear earlier that they had problems. The airlines that fly into this disgraceful terminally need to ensure vast improvements are implemented soon. With two small children this was a nightmare but was unacceptable to all passengers. We will be avoiding at all costs.