Geneva Airport

Customer Reviews

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Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
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Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 290 reviews
2/10
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2/10

Geneva Airport customer review

Avoid Geneva airport on Saturdays in the ski season unless perhaps you travel by scheduled flight; on the way in there was a problem with baggage that took almost 2 hours to unload. boots and skis did not arrive - it transpired that they were actually at Geneva but could not be found - eventually arrived in resort on Thursday. Inghams rep told us that there were often luggage problems and some lost/delayed nearly every week. On journey home terrible queues for security - so bad many had to be sent through different gates (very much worse than Gatwick but can't comment on Heathrow) and after boarding we waited for at least an hour on the tarmac for baggage to be loaded - we were told one vanload had gone astray. There seems to be a new charter terminal that only opens weekends and quite clearly cannot cope with the volume of traffic; maybe it will be better next winter
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4/10

Geneva Airport customer review

One exits usually directly in the terminal even with budget flights short walks in quiet corridors with travelators non-fussy passport controls and direct connexions (and now free: free ticket delivery just after the luggage belts) by train to the city center (train/bus 5/10 make virtually all important conference venues and hotels reached in 10 to 15 minutes). The only drawback may be the baggage handling which is slower than for example in Zurich. But this is largely compensated by the short distance to town. Departing from GVA is a bit less enjoyable - not agreeable on saturday : long queues expensive shops that are too rarely open and small (especially the duty free shop right after the passport control). Airside zone A is very modern. zone B seems to be reserved to easyjet and charter flight so it is often crowded and lacks shopping facilities. And the french side is a nonsense: use it only if you arrive from France and rented a car with a french agency or if need to avoid Switzerland for visa reasons. The only advice would be to better manage peak times learn proper english and scrap the french side to add some space and shops.
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4/10

Geneva Airport customer review

Geneva is a very pleasant and efficient facility and there is very easy access to the train station. Loads of shops/cafes in the main terminal or at the railway station. Selection is more limited airside but this will change soon as the airport is being expanded. The negative comments below refer to the times when flights from all over Europe converge to Geneva bringing thousand of skiers heading for the nearby ski resorts. On these days it is true that the airport is stretched to limits and facilities inadequate for the number of people visiting the airport.
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1/10

Geneva Airport customer review

Once again spent an uncomfortable 2 hours sat on the marble foor waiting to depart. The gates seem to serve three flights but only have enough seating for one! You have to go through to the gate early as this is where the security checks are done. I don't know if its just the extra ski holiday traffic but the airport always seems to be absolutely packed to capacity.
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2/10

Geneva Airport customer review

In my opinion Geneva airport rates poorly in comparison to other European airports. Going through can be a major hassle. We arrived and exited via GVA this week on our way to a Swiss ski resort picking up a hire car from the French side. Here are some practical steps that we will take next time: Arrival - Have a 2CHF coin or 2Euro for the luggage trolley. Pass through customs to the French side in the arrivals hall. Get ready for the very small and slow lift down to the car rental parking area. Stop at the border and buy a 20CHF motorway sticker. Departure - Arriving from the north via the A1 look out for the Ferney sign as already posted if you are returning a French hire car. There is a gas station just by the access road to the French side of the airport. You can't take your check-in bags to the Swiss side so check them in at the Swissport desk diagonally opposite the car rental desk and there appears to be no signage to help you with this! Cross over with hand luggage to the Swiss side and prepare for wholly inadequate facilities which are even poorer airside and in our case young and stroppy security personnel who handled their obviously new-found responsibility with no common sense or maturity. When a sensible airline rep was trying to get passengers through in order of flight time their response was to suspend all security checks for >20 mins declaring that everyone should be at security >2h before departure time (I thought that was check-in and in any case unusual for a European flight) thereby making all the flights from terminal B late that afternoon. Oh yes they also refused to speak any other language than French (despite their perfect English) to some poor Norwegians that had been called forward and then sent them all to the back of the queue. Not sure the English would have put up so well with that!
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2/10

Geneva Airport customer review

Travelled through Geneva on a weekend - what a nightmare! On arrival at GVA the baggage collection area is terrible - no where near enough room for people to wait with their bags. We had skis & boards and these were delivered at the back of the carousel our regular bags were coming off on meaning that people from other flights were all standing round making space even more at a premium! When the skis are delivered they are bought out on large trolleys that are simply dumped by the door - no ground staff to even tell you which flight they are from!! The result of this is that everyone searches through all the bags to find their skis. We found ours ok but there must be a better way of distributing oversize baggage especially as Geneva is so popular for winter sports? The link from the train station is the only positive thing I can say about GVA airport with it being well signposted and relatively easy to find with our numerous bags. On the way home we were on Easyjet - the check in area is at the far end of the smallish terminal and it was a real struggle to walk through the terminal building as the queues from the check in desks stretched right back to the opposite wall. Easyjet check in at GVA consists of self service check in machines which print your boarding pass and baggage labels which you attach yourself before dropping them off at the check-in desks. It worked OK the queue to drop bags fluctuated from being nothing to horrendous. As we were just about to step forward to drop our bags a coach party were herded in and the queues were out the door! After check in I was looking forward to some shopping - oh dear. Duty free is a very small shop which gets very hot and stuffy. I got a few bits and bobs then had a wander round the other shops which were very poor in comparison. The only seating available was upstairs near the airline lounges which was very smoky and no view of the tarmac which was disappointing. Our flight flew from Terminal B which is a round building out in the middle of the apron. You go through security on the way out there and then there is no way back with just one small coffee place to keep you watered - don't go there before your flight is called! Overall a very disappointing airport unable to cope with numbers of people at weekends shopping was poor seating poor and the gate lacked facilities.
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5/10

Geneva Airport customer review

EWR to GVA on Continental with my wife and daughter. Other than significant delays due to New York airspace GVA was a breeze. We cleared customs in minutes walked across the street to the Swiss Rail Station validated our Swiss Railpass and were on our way in less than 20 minutes. The return effort was similarly benign (except for a two hour Continental delay with the inbound aircraft from EWR). We took the train right to the GVA airport station and check-in took all of 10 minutes. Cleared security in 10 minutes tops. But admittedly boring and very limited selection of airport eateries and shops. Compared to LHR or CDG GVA is a great gateway.
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4/10

Geneva Airport customer review

I had the briefest but nonetheless favourable experience of this airport on arrival from LGW on a recent Thursday evening. Light and airy but confusing sign after departing the aircraft which said Geneve Transit - not actually mentioning arrivals and thus more clearly indicating which way to go. Baggage return was swift and the station is easy to find for the short journey to the city. The train was particularly easy to use with the Swiss Pass I had for the holiday.
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3/10

Geneva Airport customer review

Airport generally small and a bit messy. Check-in lines for Star Alliance flights on a weekend are huge. Passport control was interesting - on the way out they did not even open our passports (and we're not Swiss!). The small pod-like stores upstairs are not open for early morning departures. Airline VIP Lounges are well-hidden upstairs. Ensure you have enough time to get to the departure area - the travelators are long and not all worked when I used them. Once away from the main terminal building in departure area B there is only a small coffee shop and no way back. Don't go there until your flight is ready since there is no going back.
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3/10

Geneva Airport customer review

I am a frequent traveller to Geneva Airport. I was dissapointed with the lack of organisation that went into baggage collection. Those of you who have been there will know that there are 7 or 8 baggage collection carousels and most of them are in use at the one time. If you take skis or snowboards away with you there is a total lack of organisation when you try to reclaim these items at the airport. There is always a rugby scrum/free for all when you try an collect your items. Most of the items after being taken off the aircraft are just left on the floor in the middle of the room with the carousels in (which is not very big as it is) and with the floor space being taken up by skis and snowboards there is never any room to move. There is also a significant absence of baggage trolleys available and usually these are not available for quite some time after you leave the plane which causes a lot of frustration and inconvenience especially for those who take small children away with them. When flying out fromt he airport on the return journey I found the experience slightly more pleasant than when I was arriving. Although i would say that a little more thought could have gone in to naming and numbering of the gates. There is a very complicated system of numbers and letters which results in a very large hike round the airport just to find the correct gate. Apart fromt this lack of organisation the airport has lots of duty free shops selling a range of items and plenty of bars and restaurants. I would describe the overall service provided as fair.
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