Edinburgh Airport

Having read of delays at this departure we gave ourselves plenty of time for an early morning Saturday flight. It is chaotic. Fortunately we were hand baggage only. First choke point is the escalator to 1st floor security level followed by a walk through a restaurant before reaching security. Staff direct you to stand on numbered spots on floor. There is no signage to instruct what clothing is to be scanned - belts - shoes - watches? One of my trays was diverted for checking - because there was no image. My wife was told to take her tray over to an 'unpacking' however she was still waiting for second tray with her handbag to come through. What we seem to have is a perfect storm for delays. Rising passenger numbers, badly designed layout (forever turning corners), more passengers going 'hand baggage only' so more holdalls, cases etc to be scanned, and poor signage. We've travelled through here regularly for over 30 yrs and airport managers need to get a grip and quickly. Managers visible on the floor while this chaos continues would be a start!

I travel to China on a regular basis on business and try to promote Scotland and encourage Chinese visitors. I am however ashamed to think that their experience on arrival and departure will be tainted by what is in my opinion is the total shambles at Edinburgh airport. Amateurish is being kind - incompetence is nearer the truth.

Edinburgh airport has clearly invested heavily in upgrading the airport to cater for increased volumes. This has included a completely new and larger security search area. Rather than going to school on recent airport security design disasters, they have decided to maintain the trend in non user friendly local infrastructure projects and have delivered a complete abomination of a passenger security facility. The poor staff are trying their hardest to make the best of this shambles but it is a complete mess. Don't expect a modern airport experience at Edinburgh, rather ensure you give yourself plenty of time and expect to be fleeced when you use any services. Better still, use another airport or means of transport.

New security is a total shambles and chaos from start to finish with bored, nasty and obstructive staff. I travel through Edinburgh very frequently and recommend opening up the old security area again. I travelled through the new security area the day it opened and it looked like progress. Now having gone through this area many times since it is a totally dreadful experience. Worse than an US or European major airport. Serious need to question the competence of the senior managers who allow queues of 40-50 minutes to occur. Sends a truly dreadful image of Edinburgh. Glasgow airport here I come.

As a first time user of this airport I was extremely disappointed. Going through security was as you expect busy, however when I went through I had very rude staff who work in the duty free shop push in front of me, and were incredibly rude about it. As I walked through the scanner, I went to get my items, to which the rude employee was stood waiting for her bag. I literally just picked up my coat and she decided to be condescending and rude telling me to move my stuff. I said I'm just picking up my coat. To which she replied abruptly no one else can get their stuff - bearing in mind there was a massive queue of trays before mine, but as she pushed in those people were still filtering through. Not happy. First time users do not know how every single airport works as this one seems very different. Maybe they should come up with a better idea for staff instead of them going through with customers as they seem to not be able to get to work in enough time to allow for the checks.

We arrived from Nice Airport to Edinburgh Airport, 8/6/2015. That in itself was a shock. We appeared to be shuffled to a shabby unused area, no thought was given to anybody with walking difficulties, lots of narrow stairs to access the shambles of passport control. No control at all. This shambles took over one hour. We eventually found our luggage, some passengers luggage was lying in a heap on the floor the rest appeared to be trapped behind the baggage area. Of course there were no staff to help.

For newly refurbished facility outwith peak season the queue just to get up to departures was huge. Once up there was a further queue to get to security. From entering the building it took 40 mins to get to security. No explanation from any staff. Embarrassed this is Scotland's prime airport.

Until last year I have been a frequent user of Edinburgh Airport and as a citizen of Edinburgh I have felt proud of the airport as a gateway to the world. Equally I have felt proud of the way the airport has expanded and has been an example of the progress Edinburgh has been making despite the recession. Now I think the airport has been stretched beyond capacity and I think there is now a danger that people will begin to avoid the airport and once customers are lost it is very hard to persuade people to return. The problem needs to be addressed urgently otherwise the economy of Edinburgh and Scotland will ultimately suffer. Looking at the passenger reviews over the past six months or so the inadequacy of the security hall comes in for most comment. I first used the new hall on a mid-morning in April and went through relatively easily. However I went through the hall twice in late May and both times it was a bad experience. The first time was lunchtime on 21st May for a flight to Dusseldorf. It took over 30 minutes to get through and although I cleared the process with no problems I noticed that more luggage after scanning was being shunted onto another conveyer belt for further inspection than was actually being cleared. was that necessary? I also thought that staff were generally ill-mannered with quite a lot of impatient ordering with raised voices. There was a marked absence of the word please. One person who received this treatment obviously could not understand English adequately but no one seems to have taught the security person that saying something louder does not help a non-English speaker to understand. I almost interfered and then thought better of it. How easily we learn to be afraid to speak our minds in such situations. On the second occasion I had an early morning flight to Madrid. With my experience of a few days before I arrived over 2 hours before the flight and I had Fast Track through using the car park at the terminal. The terminal was in absolute pandemonium on arrival shortly before 5am. The escalators to the security hall were not working and all passengers had to make their way up the stairs carrying hand luggage. Eventually reaching the first floor I asked for Fast Track and was told rather rudely to get in the queue like everybody else. I am 66 years old but at any age one should expect to be treated with respect and politeness. i never did get to Fast Track. The crowding was unbelievable in the security hall. Once again everywhere were the raised voices of security personnel ordering people around shouting at those who were either unable to understand or were too bewildered by the experience. Many of the passengers were visitors guests to our country for heaven's sake! This time my luggage were shunted to the side and I had an interminable wait for it to be searched. While I waited to be attended to I spoke to one of the security people who was standing beside me and said that I thought the system was terrible and asked if it was always like this. She said that she was afraid it was and that it was a disaster. Eventually it was my turn to have my things inspected. The problem with my luggage was that my iPad had been stood up on its side in the tray and I was lectured by the security person. "How can you expect your stuff to be scanned properly if you put the iPad on its side. In future remember to put it flat in the tray." When I explained that it was one of his team who had crammed it in sideways he told me to move along and not waste his time. As well as being 66 years old and relatively healthy I have a heart condition and try to keep stress levels low. Fat chance! By the time I got through security I had to run for the gate. What bothers me most is that my experience is only one of many similar to mine Many people have been complaining of these conditions for over 6 months. Does anyone read the reviews? Certainly there is no response. Does airport management care even though it is obviously bad for the airport itself the city and the country? It is a situation that cannot go on.

Used Edinburgh Airport on 9th May 2015 for 8am flight to LHR security busy but queues never stopped moving. Through security in 10 mins without any problem.

This is the worst airport I have used and unfortunately it is my home city airport and I travel a lot. Nowhere else in UK Europe or SE Asia have I encountered such queues in security before departure interminable problems with (Menzies) poor management of getting on and off planes unnecessary use of buses when perfectly good passenger ramps are available terrible queues at passport control unhelpful and sometimes rude airport staff. Furthermore the management do not reply to emails from customers. The complex chains of corporate ownership of UK infrastructure also make those who run such facilities very unresponsive to user feedback.