Gold Coast Airport

Fantastic Little Airport. Arrived from MEL for a weeks holiday and the airport was a breeze bags came out quickly and easy walk to the hire car place. On the return check in was easy in fact our queue was shorter than the online check-in one. Walked straight through security no line at all. Being as interested as I am in planes I was delighted to see a row of tables along the window as the charging station which was free to use. I did see a baggage driver loose a surfboard off the cart by making a sharp turn! Boarding was via the stairs as there are no aerobridges even for the wide bodies, which could be troublesome in wet weather or people with wheelchairs etc. Took off on time though.

Wearing a knee brace I went through about half a dozen international airport security and always got a bit more attention for this, but it never was a big issue. Normally this is solved with an individual scan and tapping. Not so in Gold Coast airport. The whole line was closed, I was brought to a separate room and had to let my pants down - down the door was opened repeatedly and people could see me standing there. They didnt even close it for long moments. The 4 people searching and questioning me behaved well and polite, even though appearing quite incompetent, the responsible officer did not know how to spell the word "brace" in his report and there seemed to be a lot of confusion about how to proceed. When I tried to get my possessions back from the security, where it stayed save while I got special attention, a woman yelled at me to stay away from my stuff, even tho I asked politely for it and did not make any approach to grab it. I was treated like a criminal in front of everybody by this very aggressive person, which was ridiculous, unnecessary and embarrassing. In the future I will go via Brisbane and take the bus.

I'm a 70 year old American senior citizen and arrived at Gold Coast Airport from Kuala Lumper for my first trip to Australia. On entering the customs area I noticed it was very crowded with just a few customs agents working like mad and a bunch of customs agents just standing around. I was one of the few westerners in line with most people from Asia. After going through customs I retrieved my bags and was accosted by a customs agent and directed to a long table where they took everything out of my bags, unpacked everything and forced me to open my computer. I felt very threatened and intimidated. I was the only one they did this to. Some way to be welcomed to Australia for the first time.

25 years past its use-by date, I used to fly in and out of OOL (Gold Coast Airport) regularly in the late 1990’s and even back then it was well past its use-by date. There has been an upgrade since then, but you wouldn’t notice. Arriving on Jetstar from Sydney we had to negotiate the stairs (no airbridges) then literally battle our way between two 30m lines of passengers, with hand baggage, waiting to board flights. The gap between the lines was about half a metre and my small wheeled back-pack was hitting the bags of the waiting passengers. What a totally ludicrous situation! Surely the designers of the upgrade could foresee such a situation and keep arriving passengers separated from those queued to board. Departure 5 days later at 0700 was much more comfortable experience through gate 3 at the other end of the airport. With an increasing number of international flights arriving at OOL, well-travelled passengers must wonder about the backwardness of Australia when they step into this terminal. It is a national embarrassment. Ideally, a totally new terminal is required, and required yesterday!

Have flown in and out of the Gold Coast 4 times in the last 6 months and have had no problems. Jetstar services have been good and immigration has been thorough but quick.

Upon arrival from Singapore I cannot believe that it took 50 minutes waiting in a hot crowded room to collect our luggage. With so many more international travellers using this airport this needs addressing. After an 8.5 hour flight it's extremely frustrating to have this delay. It's great to have more international flights in and out of the Gold Coast but this service needs to be addressed. Not a happy experience to return home to.

Mess of an airport. Check in queue for our Tiger flight opened late with all the passengers standing in one queue and when the girl finally turned up to check us in she brusquely told us we were all in the wrong line and had to move across. On a warm day the airport is poorly air conditioned and departing and arrival passengers all push together to get to and from gates. This airport has always been a shambles in all the times I have been there the one saving grace for me is to be able to sit at the big glass windows and watch planes arrive and depart. Needs a good overhaul.

No Qantas self service baggage drop and no Qantas service desk. Joy. And to top if off when one of the baggage carousels decided to stop working all of that flights bags were shoved onto our carousel causing a huge pile up and congestion.. My least favourite airport in Australia so far.

We arrived on an AirAsia flight at 0700 on 9th March. We got through immigration without too much of a delay then we waited and waited and waited for our luggage. What a joke. Having come from Thailand where it took only 15 minutes to get our bags to return home and wait almost an hour. There is just no excuse. Not a good first impression for overseas visitors. What is there excuse? They had better get their act together before the 2028 Commonwealth Games.

Check in area with Jetstar fine and efficient. Security check point fast. No space to sit in food court as people What a shambles! We arrived on time but were kept on board for 30 minutes because an international flight was boarding. Apparently they had no other way of segregating the two sets of passengers. This airport is just a big long glorified barn with no proper departure lounges no air-bridges.