Buenos Aires Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Seriously unprofessional immigration officer. I was in transit and going through immigration. I am walking with crutches because I hurt my leg. There was not one person in line, seriously not one person. I don’t mean just a few people, I mean nobody! So I tried to skip the long serpentine and go directly to the counter but the officer said I had to do the serpentine. So I rolled my eyes and walked back. He got angry and told me I had to calm down. So I am limping, I had only rolled my eyes and he is telling me to calm down? I just smiled at him, walked back and did what he asked. I get to the counter and he is still rude with me, annoyed I don’t speak spanish. I keep on smiling and finally make it through. After a few steps there’s the metal detector she asks me if I had gone through immigration. I say yes but she doesn’t believe me and goes to the immigration counter to verify. Come on! Just to complete the picture, I had arrived in Buenos Aires on Aerolineas Argentinas from Rio de Janeiro. I am first row business class so I ask the hostess if she can place my crutches somewhere and she just tells me to fix them on my own in the overhead compartment. Fine, I can do it but is this the service you give me with a 5.000 euro ticket? Even if I had not paid for my ticket, don’t you just automatically help someone with crutches out of your good heart? I travel the world for business very much, about 2 intercontinental trips a month but this was my first time going through Argentina and on an Argentinian airline. I have always thought that french people were unpleasant but wow, meet the Argentinians and you will definitely change your mind. This was a big surprise as in general the South Americans I know (Brazilians, Colombians, Chileans) are so nice.

✅ Trip Verified | Not terrible, everything is long and poorly done, very unpleasant staff and no help, it is quite dirty and poorly done. In work and for a moment. Many things are broken down or defective, a lot to do. Almost no seat before checkin. | Pas terrible, tout est long et mal fait, personnel très désagréable et d'aucun secours, c'est assez sale et mal fait. En travaux et pour un moment. Beaucoup^de choses sont en pannes ou défectueuses, énormément à faire. Presque pas de siège avant le checkin.

✅ Trip Verified | Terminal C domestic departures. Luckily queuing for security was not too bad about 20 minutes, but the facilities are dire. One tiny cafe with a queue time of 30 minutes to get a coffee. As I write a line of about 30-40 people were queuing to order. Florida cafe outside departures was also dire, waitresses service but so busy never came to our table despite hailing her twice. Very disappointing.

✅ Trip Verified | The arrival area was modern and immigration was fairly fast and friendly, despite the complexity of photos, thumb prints, and taking down your hotel. Then you get to wait for baggage collection - 30 minutes before the first of our bags arrived, then another 20 before any others came. This gets close to the worst baggage handling that I’ve ever seen. Also, this is one of those airports where everyone crowds around the belt several rows deep like a pack of savages. If you’ve ever seen Port Moresby’s domestic terminal baggage belt, this is worse. Customs was easy, just random baggage x-rays, then through a door are the airport taxi services, which seemed fairly well organised and honest. Good thing they take credit cards because all the money services are through the next door. ATMs charge 200 peso fees with a 3,000 peso withdrawal limit but that’s the same as in downtown Buenos Aires. I couldn’t even find the cash exchange booths (maybe over near check in?) and there’s a crush of people at the exit dissuading you from looking around - people really like to get in everyone’s way at this airport. Make sure your taxi is using the toll roads and you can be downtown in 45 minutes.

❎ Not Verified | Terrible immigrations lines with half the windows open, more than one hour waiting, only to have my passport not stamped. After contacting immigration for help they referred me to the information web page, which really only gives, the email I contacted them by. Incompetence at its finest.

✅ Verified Review | The immigration processes have improved considerably in the last few years and the lines were not long. Perhaps also the arrivals and departures to Europe are now more dispersed over the day so that there is less chaos of several jet planes arriving or departing at about the same time. My principal concern is the quality of restaurants and cafeterias. After the security control, you have obviously a very limited choice, but at Ezeiza, it is limited to about one company. At Bellini's, a "Lady Di salad", a 'Parma' ham salad with a coke cost about 17 euros - and the quality of the salad was lowest ever in Argentina. It was a huge bed of lettuce, two small and thin slices of ham, a thin slice of processed cheese and five olives. In Argentina, you used to worrying what to do when you always get more food than you can manage, but this was the total opposite. A salad that cost as much as a good meal in a quality restaurant - and you are left with hunger. The service was also badly organized - a combination of self service and table service, which combines the poorest sides of both: having to go to the counter, slowness, dependence on the waiter who is just chatting with other waiters. Future passengers are advised to bring their own food or otherwise check in as late as possible. These would cause problems in the customs, or delays in passenger arrival. I say this to show that it is really important for the whole airport function that people can arrive in good time and rely on getting something decent to eat while waiting. My rating is mostly defined by this restaurant.

Buenos Aires is a decent airport. However, the customs form is very confusing (not the airport's fault) and when filled out there is no one to take the form from you on exiting. You just drop it on a pile by the side of the exit baggage scan. Not sure if they even look at it. Also, there is only one branch of the Argentine National Bank that is hidden away and not easy to find. It took over 45 minutes for me to exchange some money. Otherwise it is a nice airport and easy to navigate. Immigration had sufficient number of stations open and was not a problem

Aerolineas Argentinas' departure terminal is primitive and chaotic. Instead of everyone standing in one check-in line and being served by the next available agent, you stand in line by flight. The lines snake through the building and there is no one to tell you what you are supposed to do. The check-in area was dirty and overcrowded. Our gate was at a beautiful, new part of the airport with a few services. But, getting there from check-in is stressful and very unpleasant. The road to the airport was strewn with burned cars from rioting over power failures during the heat wave. I don't recommend this airport, but if you are flying international, it is your only option.

A nice airport: Convenient for city good flight arrival and departure displays. Relaxed atmosphere. Rapid and straightforward security. Security people pleasant and helpful. Decent range of places to buy food. Clean toilets Plenty of seats in gate area. Bus ride to and from plane (if needed) short. Bags arrive quickly. Taxis outside airport well organized.

Much improved infrastructure relative to my previous visit February 2011. Immigration (passport control) took 15 minutes despite huge lines (at least one other large international flight clearly landed just before ours from ATL). 32 passport control lines all staffed (why doesn't the US do this?). Another 5 minutes to send luggage through X-ray at customs. That's the time to nip over to Banco National to get Argentine currency at good exchange rate. Easy and convenient to get taxicab to center of city at kiosk in center of arrivals hall. Leaving spent 15 seconds in outgoing passport control. Both entry and exit passport control officers actually smiled!