"Europe's worst airport"
Zhang Xi (United States)
Not Verified | This airport should be nominated for Europe's worst airport of 2019. I've traveled extensively in my life, so did my wife, and Catania airport is comparable with those you find in the poorest parts of third-world countries. Just one of the many tortures passengers are put through: The connection between the gate and the aeroplane is operated by 6 flights of stairs, attached to the exterior of the airport building. There was no elevator. Elderly and children were exposed to 40 Celsius for about 40 minutes for lack of coordination. The criminals who manage this airport should not be allowed to operate such a business.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | August 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"chaos at passport control"
Dorothy Whitehill (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | Horrendous and dangerous chaos at passport control. One out of six manned passport control booths to service a queue of circa 500 people in departures on gates 19-22. No control, organisation and passport control and airport security knowingly allowed the situation to build over 2 hours. Never known a situation like it, dangerous and negligent. Rude staff in cafe, appalling food and hygiene standards, utter disbelief this is the parting memory from an otherwise wonderful holiday.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | August 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"I’d avoid this airport at all cost"
John Moulton (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | This is like a third world airport. Restrooms are poorly maintained. Many toilets did not flush. no toilet paper. Disgusting. I’d avoid this airport at all cost. The people who maintain this airport should be fired.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | July 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"far too small to handle the number of passengers"
H Lynch (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | The worst airport I have ever been to in my life. Absolute chaos and far too small to handle the number of passengers. We arrived 2 hours 20 mins before our flight and we are still here queuing. We have not sat down the whole time. First we queued an hour to use the Bag Drop. Only four staff at bag drop/check in desks. In reality it didn’t matter whether you had already checked in or not it was all the same queue. Staff continuously making sub queue-jump-queues the whole time too, for people whose flights were leaving imminently. This slowed the queue down even more and meant that they were continuously calling out sub queues as the main queue moved nowhere! Chaos. Then queued for security. Then for passport control (have never queued separately for passport control when departing an airport). There are very few seats when you get through to the gate so queued again at the gate for 20 minutes - and counting. In short, awful airport very poorly run, leave lots of time!
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | June 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"not too much after security"
R Viktor (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | Small airport, not too much after security. You can not buy cigarettes in the duty free, but can do in another shop. Toilet was dirty. The queue for the passport control was like a never ending story, took 25 minutes. Staff could improve their english knowledge. There was one very friendly young guy at security, the rest was rubbish and even dreadfull. Not a smile or anything. Boarding was ok.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | June 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Useless airport"
C Owen (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Shocking! Flying with EasyJet to London Luton we approached the check in 2.10 hours before departure to be told we had to go to the back of the queue again because the flight wouldn’t be open more than 2 hours prior to the flight. This was in a clear contradiction to the departure board, which told us to check in! Useless airport.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | June 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"second time with delay of 5 hours"
AR Rubagotti (Belgium)
Not Verified | Second time in CTA and second time with delay of 5 hours. This time with a lost connection and absolutely unhelpful staff that in the case of a delay disappear and don't answer.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | June 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"lack of business acumen"
Thomas Berrigan (Ireland)
❎ Not Verified | It is astounding that management at Catania airport has not got the business acumen to display a large sign at the passport control for Gates 19-22 (described as overflow Gates on signage in the airport) advising passengers that there are no restaurant, coffee and barely any toilet facilities once you pass passport control. There were hundreds of passengers crammed into holding area for these gates with nothing other than a small duty-free shop (you could eat chocolate or cantucci) and a drinks and coffee vending machine. There were families and older passengers with small children who could not sit down let alone get anything to eat- that lack of business acumen by the airport managment is clearly impacting the restaurants and other retailers that would benefit from the extra business if the airport managment had the foresight to advise passengers of the lack of facilities at these gates. In addition, the airport management are damaging the reputation of Sicilian Tourism to treat visitors in this manner and for me and my wife it certainly took the good out of what was a really wonderful holiday.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | June 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"there was nothing to complain about"
G Dawes (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Having read the reviews before leaving UK I was rather apprehensive about our return flight (outbound we went via PMO: Palermo) In practice, the airport was fine. The check in queue for SN: Brussels Airlines moved relatively slowly - there was only one fully experienced person there plus a trainee - it was far from clear what their supervisor was for apart from talking on his phone. But everyone got through in good time. Security had three lines running - Tuesday mid-morning, which was adequate for the task. Airside there were plenty of seats, reasonable shops, clear information screens, and a better catering offer than many places. Boarding was handled to a similar standard as other airports and we left on time. Looking at some of the other reviews I realise they were written at the height of the summer season - but I have to say that at the time of our travel, there was nothing to complain about.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | May 2019 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"terminal building is too small"
Alan Punter (United Kingdom)
Not Verified | This is the worst European airport I have used for departures. I counted 7 airlines departing within the hours we were at the airport, approx 1500 passenger. The terminal building is too small to handle this number. Every one of these flights had passenger held in the terminal queuing on walkways 1.5 hrs in queue to board a flight. shop look OK,some food shop to buy snack and the shops had queues as well. No problems with arriving.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2018 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |