Guangzhou Airport

One of the worst airports I've experienced. The staff have poor English skills. The airport is disorganized. The queues at security check were extremely long and I spent 1 hour there at customs and that was enough for me in Guangzhou Airport.

Sydney to Manchester. The flight was via Beijing and Amsterdam. When the flight arrived an official pointed my self and several other passengers to a corner took our passports and motioned for us to stay there. We were quite worried and had no idea what was happening. 15 minutes later he came back with stamped passports and pointed us towards some steps. With difficulty we worked out which direction we were supposed to be heading. On the way back a similar situation took place. This time about a dozen of us has about an hour to get from one plane to another our passports were taken and only at this point were boarding passes issued. One lady was arguing with the airport attendant who had taken her passport then lost it. It took several other passengers to point out that she had taken the ladies passport. After running to get to the plane going to Australia it set off 30 mins late due to other passenger not being able to get there on time. I will never take this route again.

Paris to Hanoi via Guangzhou return a 16 hr transit time on the way in and 8 hrs on the return. The transit area is small albeit rich in hard seats. No room to relax and sleep. Shops overpriced no books in English available restaurants overpriced security staff particularly rude and impolite the boarding calls are loud and attacked my nerves. There was no available free drinking water on the way back. I managed to place a call to Vietnam using my French Visa card - I was charged EUR 42 for 1minute. Yes 42 EUR. I will never again travel via Guangzhou - no sense of customer relationship customer management and comfort facilities.

Was curious what CAN would be like before I flew there. The airport was humid and the air conditioning system was not turned on when I arrived at 5am. Eventually it was turned on when the crowds started coming in around 7am. I was transferring through the airport and I did not have to queue for more than 2 mins at any counter. It is a very large terminal and I could see janitors cleaning the area from time to time. The smoking areas were located downstairs along with the lavatories too but I managed to spot another lavatory on the same floor as the departures. A lot of seats were allocated in the waiting area and I found a corner to sit and rest for 8hrs waiting for my next flight. China Southern has really applaudable transfer staff. Avoid the over priced shops and restaurants in the departure hall.

One of the worst airports I've seen. Untidy bad service and very unorganised. When the queues at customs were really long they only opened 2 counters one for Business and First Class and the other for the rest. When I arrived there in July it was around 40 degrees and they didn't turn on the air con. Staff had terrible English and foreign language skills. Check in counters are terrible - passengers to 5 different destinations checked in at the same counters. When I was at customs here there was only 5 mins till the plane was scheduled to take off and I asked the staff politely if I could go to the front they said no. Flying there is cheaper than HKIA so cheap service is what you get from cheap airports.

Similar experience when arriving during December. Total disorganisation meets you upon arrival - the Chinese have no concept of Transit Passengers so everyone has to Book Out and then Book In! China Southern staff then brought Passports and Boarding Cards for the onward journey to Manila - they did not speak English and it took 10 minutes to distribute three Passports.

It's freezing baffling and poorly organized. Even the color scheme evokes misery. We had the misfortune to have two 5 hour layovers there in the course of a week. Both were awful experiences. The ridiculous way they handle transfers - taking your passports and then waving them around to a large group of people is strange. Then you go through additional security where they are sure to confiscate things that got through your departure airport fine. In the terminal the selection of restaurants is very poor. Each was overpriced and the food was awful. One of the restaurants offers a plate of pringles for ten dollars. The stores are strange - I bought a bottle of water at the same store during each layover. That same bottle of water cost me a different amount each time. The price they charged my boyfriend for a can of beer was in two currencies - they wanted two dollars and two yuan. I'm pretty sure they were just arbitrarily choosing prices. The place was the bleakest airport I've ever been in and I never want to go back.

If you fly into CAN during the winter bring plenty of extra clothing. No heat. It is the largest most disorganized coldest airport I have ever entered and departed. International to domestic or domestic to international is the worst I have ever seen. But the schedule of flights is great. You can get to any where in the world form CAN so I guess you cannot have the best of two worlds. Just prepare to be cold during the winter.

Looks like an impressive building but with some problems. Transiting was a hassle as mentioned by others before. There are long queues at security and probably due to Asian Games they will frisk everyone. The worst part is the smoking areas at the international departure are a serious design flaw. There is no separate room with proper separate ventilation system. The smoking areas are just designated corners right next to the washrooms nursing rooms and drinking water! Worse there is one smoking area for every two boarding gates. All the international holding areas for the boarding gates are filled with putrid smoke. While my family with children were waiting there for 4 hours waiting in transit we had to escape to somewhere near the immigration counter further away from the boarding gates. Anyone coming to Guangzhou who doesn't want to inhale second hand smoke please bring a gas mask.

We passed through CAN as transit passengers. We missed our connecting flight because there was no one at the transfer desk for China Southern Airlines for a good half-hour after we arrived causing us to miss our flight. We were rebooked on a flight several hours later giving as ample time to enjoy the departure area. Transfers at this airport even between international flights require passing through immigration and the process seems fairly disorganized. Someone takes your passport you wait and wait and wait not knowing what's going on. Eventually you are escorted to the departures area where you have to pass through another security checkpoint. When we were there security staff were not allowing transit passengers to take through bottles purchased in the duty-free areas of their initial departure airports which caused considerable argument from passengers. Once through security the departures area is spacious and clean enough. There is no airport-wide wi-fi although one can surreptitiously find a connection and log on if standing close enough to one of the airport lounges. There are a number of the standard kinds of duty-free liquor tobacco and luxury goods shops and several souvenir shops. The one bookstore has books and magazines only in Chinese. There are some restaurants/snack bars with comfortable chairs and good views of the tarmac and planes and staff don't seem to mind if you camp out there for awhile if you order something. Food prices are probably high for China but didn't seem outrageous. Still given the badly organized transit procedures and in our case apparent lack of concern for customer service from airline staff. this airport is best avoided if you're only transiting through it.