Catania Airport

We travelled during the busiest holiday period in August and this airport was completely inadequate and ill equipped to deal with it. There was no crowd management with long and disorganised queues at check in and security. People were pushing in and weaving in and out all the time. It was so bad that other passengers used their phones to film people cutting in the queues as evidence. There should have been more staff on duty and more desks open to deal with the crowds. Hardly ideal after a 2 and a half hour coach journey from the hotel. Also not enough toilets and very few meal options in the departure lounge plus not enough seating at our gate.

On arrival and departure I used the toilets they were the worst that I have ever used in any airport. There was no soap in dispensers. Looking at the general condition of these toilets and wash areas they looked as if they had never been adequately cleaned. A total disgrace. Management should be ashamed.

Totally under resourced. Bar and catering airside very poor. About 5 tables to eat at! VIP lounge poor as noted elsewhere poorly air conditioned few drinks and poor food. Airlines should not support it! Travelling with British Airways.

Quite the worst organised airport it has ever been my misfortune to visit. Only 2 security gates open at busy time and queues backing through the doors. No information and staff denying there is any problem. Little better after security cleared with poor experience at the gate. All in all - dreadful!

What a dreadful place. Light and airy airport but shocking facilities and the VIP lounge is incredibly bad and nothing but a terrible rip off for those who have paid to upgrade. The VIP lounge is tiny the day I visited there was a surly girl on the desk making a private phone call who seemed most annoyed that I requested the Wi-fi password which then didn't work. A few packet of crisps and a tall glass fridge with three bottles of water and a handful of bottles of orange juice. That isn't what people pay VIP fees for. No alcohol and no food and two day old newspapers. The toilets in the VIP lounge were filthy and the toilet roll holder in the ladies isn't even next to the toilet. Someone had also been smoking in the loo. The bars and shops in the airport are incredibly expensive. You can't wait to get out of this place. Once you go through passport control there aren't enough seats for passengers waiting to board so people sit on the floors.

Spacious with lots of seats. Shops are of standard number and quality. The VIP lounge upstairs is clean and tidy. Small but with good view of the apron but the drinks selection is limited to soft drinks and no food other than some miserable crisps. 2 newspapers and a magazine and that was it.

New terminal is a nice spacious building with plenty of check-in desks and several security gates the queuing times are very low. Unfortunately there are no adequate seating facilities toilets are usually almost clean but not so easy to get to there are only a few shops and places to buy food that open quite late in the morning. Staff is not so friendly and speaks only Italian. Once passport control was closed and we had to wait a few moments for the policeman to open. Never had problems with the luggage though.

Have had the misfortune to visit this airport on several occasions and have to agree with other comments regarding the filthy state of the place lack of customer service and very limited options for purchasing a meal. Last night we travelled from Catania to Malta and as usual it was filthy dirty the check-in staff surly and the icing on the cake was that the runway was closed for 3 and a half hours (no reason given for this) we has to sit and wait for 5 interminable hours with everything closed - no shops or bars to break the monotony- really not what you expect at all.

New terminal same old problems: I was looking forward to arrive and depart from the newly opened airport terminal. It looks impressive from the outside but once you are inside it is dirty and badly maintained. Arrived on Swiss from Zurich. Even as we were the only flight at that moment baggage handlers needed over 45 minutes to get all the luggage out of on the carousel. Flight was early which led to the fact that no one was available to operate the passenger bridge. Had to wait on the plane for approximately 10 minutes. Long walk over to the rental-car-offices along the old terminal where beggars and strolling dogs have taken over. Departure - overcrowded departure area. Windows and public toilets dirty. Staff unfriendly and uninterested. The only thing that really worked was the air-conditioning in the building. Overpriced cafés and bars. Catania airport hasn't improved a bit it is still filthy overcrowded and chaotic.

As Sicily's busiest airport CTA was recently given a totally new terminal building: light airy and pleasant. The building itself is where the positives end. The facility is hopelessly inadequate. There are good dining options upstairs and they can be reached by an escalator at the very far south end of the terminal that is is you can make your way past the thronging check-in queues. Looking for the toilet? Back downstairs you go and through a labyrinthine corridor and you will find them but if they are not closed for cleaning they will be reduced to an unusable state. Once you make it past the interminable queue for the security check be sure to keep an eye on the one central FID. Announcements regarding delays or gate changes (for those flights lucky enough to be parked at a gate) simply do not exist. Seating and toilet facilities airside are extremely limited and you will almost certainly have to take a bus to your aircraft on a stand-off bay. If you are arriving be in no hurry to get to the baggage carousel; you will stare at it for what seems like an eternity before it starts to move and even then the delivery of luggage will be erratic. In true Italian fashion this new airport looks nice but simply does not work.