Faro Airport

✅ Verified Review | First of all we arrived at the airport and instantly were horrified by the old and deteriorated terminal. The terminal looks like it's owned by Ryanair being painted yellow and blue. The passport control was quick but bags were very slow. Then when we come here to depart check in with easyJet was very quick at 1 min and 30 seconds. This part of the terminal is very nice and smart then the hell starts. Security has very long queues but once through it gets worse as you enter the old terminal. No seating, 2 duty free shops and 3 restaurants all very crowded! It's under construction but it's seems to always be under construction. However our gate was called quick and we couldn't wait to get out of the place!

❎ Unverified | Departure at Faro Airport with current redevelopment work is an utter shambles - this is hopefully temporary. It is in no way a reflection of how things run generally in Portugal and the people of Portugal I'm sure will be horrified seeing this. Seeing other reviews that say how bad the planning has been for the last year or two shows that it was not just an 'off day' I experienced. It seems these chaotic scenes have been ongoing, and as there is no evident complaints procedure or official customer acknowledgement of this chaos, that there must be an increasing number of angry customers. Overcrowding and lack of safety planning in design which needs serious attention as this is not up to standard. The departure food hall was insanely small for the number of people passing through at the same time - it was a health and safety nightmare and not something you expect to see. Families struggling with children and older people had no chance it what became a survival of the fittest and quite panicked situation as people realised there was no space to sit - even on the floor - and there seemed no planning in the flow of traffic whatsoever with crowds pushing in all directions. This is not Portugal. The people, their pride in everything they do and the cleanliness of this country are a complete contrast to this mismanaged mess. Never seen such a beautiful, clean and efficient country - outside of the airport. Other than this we had a perfect time in a phenomenal country.

✅ Verified Review | Total chaos here, people missing flights because it was taking too long to get through security, long queues in sweltering no air conditioning heat. Food and drink strewn over the floor, only two of the security scanners working out of 10, all the electronic passport machines switched off. The staff had long given up trying to give information or help, just surly and aggressive, understandable maybe. Most people would understand that there may be delays etc due to the on going building work but this is mis management on a grand scale. Somebody at the airport is responsible for this farce, they should be ashamed at creating such misery and instantly sacked.

❎ Unverified | This is, without question or reservation, the worst airport I have ever flown through. It's a disorganised tangled web of chaos with less than no thought put into the planning. Bag drop queues are about average for most airports and this is the most positive thing I can say. Once through the bag drop you start the nightmare that is security, if you like queuing for an inexplicable amount of time then this will be great for you, if however you're a normal human then you'll be driven insane by the ridiculous inefficiency of the staff - albeit they are quite pleasant. So, once you've died of boredom waiting to get through security you move to the gate area/foodhall: or so you are led to believe. What you actually have is a paltry duty free that you have to queue through to get to an unnecessary passport control in the middle of the airport preventing you getting airside. Once they've checked that you have a passport and can leave the country (not something that is needed at all but still) you arrive airside where there is seating for maybe 1/20 people and the only source of any sustainance is a Costa....that you have to queue for an hour oh and it's also the only place to get water! To top it off the air conditioning is abysmal so help yourself and dress lightly! Sadly I have to give the airport 1 star as I cannot submit zero, but zero is a true reflection of my review!

❎ Unverified | I'm Portuguese living abroad and Faro airport used to be very good! Now it's the worst I've ever experienced. I'm recommended by the staff to arrive 2.5 hours before my flight. Last time during Easter I arrived 1.5 hours (just in case) and ended up being the last person on that plane. It's still under construction but that's not the real reason why it's underperforming. A staff member told me they had more people in May than in last year's peak time. There are 3 or 4 bag check lanes (if you're lucky). There are 2 passport control gates. Expect almost 1 hour waiting times for bag check and 1.5 hours for passport check. The reason I was able to take my last flight was because I politely skipped most of the line. Such a disappointment.

✅ Verified Review | Arrival last week was excellent. Short walk to passport control then baggage hall. Cases were there ready and waiting and so were pushchairs. Same can't be said for departures. It's like a cattle market and we are the cattle. Enormous queues for bag drop. Endless walking through a maze of barriers to security although once there it was quick. Airside though is a nightmare. Hardly any seating after security and before passport control (yes you have to do this before full airside) and we struggled to get pushchairs through the crowds of passengers waiting to know which passport control to go through based on their gate number. There is a Burger King with massive queues and the same for Costa. After passport control there is just a Costa and tiny duty free. Water can only be purchased from Costa in a 20-30 min queue or for €1.80 for 75cl from vending machines. If you don't have coins there is nowhere to get change. Worst departure airport I have experienced in the whole world. And only tiny gate info boards so really difficult to read.

✅ Verified Review | I have travelled to the Algarve many times over the last 15 years and love it there. Faro Airport has never been the best place to pass security, but is now a chaotic mess. I travelled back on 17 June and it was a nightmare. 30 mins to get through security on a Saturday night when it was not particularly busy and only about 25 people in front of me! No air con, or if there was it wasn't working on the new side, so everyone was dripping sweat as it was 38c outside. Once through you a greeted by a packed waiting area and duty free shop, where hot angry people push and shove you. Hardly any seating and few information screens. Surly staff on the whole, who if questioned have a set reply. Horrible experience and will certainly make me think about going elsewhere. I also flew 3 other people during the week out from here and their experience was similar. The toilet facilities are inadequate for the amount using them. Our flight was delayed because of lack of bus capacity and waiting for people who could not get through. Come on Algarve you need to sort this - It is in your interest to do so.

Faro Airport is a complete disaster. Crammed like cattle near passport control area. No seating worth mentioning, people sitting on floors, staff who are not very helpful. We stopped near passport control area looking for a toilet, only to have a female in uniform keep shouting at me no stopping no stopping. I tried telling her I was looking for the toilet, again she shouted no stopping no stopping. After finaly finding the toilet, we went into a pizza place in the same area. I was heading to some vacant seats to order some food only to be bounced on by a manager who prevented me sitting down telling me seats were for customers purchasing food. At this point I told him that due to his manner I was taking my custom elsewhere, which I did. The whole place is a shambles.

✅ Verified Review | My husband and I travelled through Faro airport today, 2nd June 2017 with a flight at 11.50. From reading previous reviews on this site we were very worried about the airport and the expected congestion because of renovations. We therefore decided to arrive 3 hours before departure instead of 2 hours and everything went very smoothly. We travelled with Jet2.com and although the queue to drop off bags was long it kept moving and the staff were very helpful and friendly. Following this we went through security, again with a small queue which kept moving. Eventually we found ourselves in the duty free and onwards to the departure gate area. All in all it took about 1 hr 20 minutes from the time we arrived at the car park. We were not stressed and everything went smoothly and the flight was on time. On the other-hand if we had only arrived 2 hours before the flight then we would have been panicking whilst waiting in each queue for fear of missing our flight. Moral of this story is give yourself an extra hour at the airport and everything will be fine.

✅ Verified Review | I'm currently sitting at the cafe (Paul) not too far from the entrance to the check-in desks. I should be on my easyJet flight arriving at Southend airport in the next 20 mins. The reason why I'm not on the flight: the exceptionally bad management of this airport, and the resulting chaos of too many people. Having already checked in online we were greeted to queues stretching from every bag drop and check-in counter that I could see, the worst of it was the easyJet counters, we had 2 bags to drop off, but had to stand behind 50+ people for over 50mins, when we reached the counter and dropped our bags off, the lady behind the counter said we should get through security quickly. So we hurried to security via the escalators, only to be greeted by about 150 people waiting to get through security, we spoke to two staff there, both of whom suggested we ask every person in front of us to let us go past them, as they are security there's nothing they can do. I've yet to see anyone try asking 75 people in front of them in a queue if it's alright to pass in front of them, without a fight erupting. So finally getting to the X-ray machine and metal detector 30 minutes later I ask if I should take my shoes off, the staff member says "it's fine", I ask "are you sure" and they reply "yes it's fine". I go through the metal detector, and it goes off, the security personnel pats me down, and asks for me to take my shoes off and he puts it through the X-ray machine again. At this point I realise there's a very slim chance of getting to the boarding gate, but there's no one to speak to. So I'm rushing to get to the gate, but am greeted to a duty free shop busy with people, which I need to get through to get to the desks, there's a complete jam of people near the end of the duty free shop as some very smart person thought of putting the entrance to the border control gates right there, I had to push past people going both ways just to get into the queue for the border control, I got into the queue for electronic passports, thinking this would be quick, but no, these machines weren't allowing some people through, and they weren't all working. Finally getting to one of the gates, it reads my passport and I wait for it to scan my face, but instead of adjusting it's height for someone who is 6 ft, it adjusts for someone who is 4 ft, and so it can't read my face and I'm trapped between the barriers until it can, then magically the barrier opens up (a major security flaw in my view as a facial recognition system shouldn't accept someone's stomach as a facial ID, I will be reporting this to the relevant international/European authorities). So I finally get through, check the displays for my gate (which doesn't say the gate is closed), run to the gate and find out the flight has already left. Easyjet staff takes us around to Arrivals to pick up our bags and takes us back to departures to speak to easyjet information, they also don't have luggage storage here currently.