Johannesburg Airport

Transferred through JNB from domestic to international flight. Domestic terminal is good modern with a lot of space. Baggage handling seems to have improved no end since I was last here 6 months ago. Good catering facilities on mezzanine level. Major construction upgrade in progress on a new connecting concourse between domestic and international terminals and a new underground train station link to down-town Johannesburg. At present you have to walk through the Parkade to change terminals but the way is well signposted. International departure area is still pretty dreary & cramped. Lots of check-in desks but due to 1980's configuration of the area there is no space to marshall Paxes queing up in front of check in desks properly. This produces chaos when lots of flights are departing at the same time (evenings). Funny system of pre-weighing in all baggage before proceeding to the actual check-in desk. Once past this area Security & passport control is a breeze - much better than most large airports in Europe. Very large duty-free shopping area in international departures concourse. The new international arrival/departure pier is fantastic - large clean toilets airy. Lots of seats at the gates - good view of aprons & runways from all gates. Good catering facilities. Once construction work is finished on the new international connecting concourse in 2009 transiting through JNB should become a very pleasurable experience.

Arriving late in the afternoon from Perth getting off the plane was easy as it was empty - however downstairs to customs is when it hit me! Plenty of construction going around and a sea of people already queuing and me not knowing where it started it was all confusing! It was over 30mins til my turn. Backpack already in belt - called the hotel I was staying at to pick me up and a kind staff informed me of my location - very unexpected and pleasant! I heard all sorts of things about JNB and jo'burg itself but was pleased with the hospitality and good humour of the people I came across in this brief stay. Intl departures is one of the best duty free zones I've been to! Overall JNB needs a lot of work - very confusing and slow but the SA people make it up for it!

I was expecting worse but was pleasantly surprised. We arrived on an early morning (8 A.M.) flight from Mumbai and despite being at the very back of the Economy section and at least one other flight being processed at the same time immigration took no time at all - maybe 10 minutes in line tops. Baggage was a bit slow to come out but at least nothing was missing. Customs was a joke with one officer randomly waving people through or directing them to an x-ray machine. The signs directing you to the domestic terminal are a little hard to follow and beware the "porters" outside who will charge you R150 just to walk your bags 1500 feet to the domestic terminal. Domestic departures was a breeze - no queues at check-in or security adequate seating space and clean toilets. Domestic arrivals was similarly hassle-free though it's a rather long walk from the gates to the baggage claim area. International departures was a real pain due to a check-in queue stretching the length of the terminal building - though I attribute this more to SAA's incompetence than the airport as no other airlines seemed to be having issues. I had to ask one airport staff where the queue started and she was friendly enough and pointed me in the right direction. Once again security check and passport control took less than 5 minutes to clear. There seemed to be a good selection of shops but I didn't have time to look.

We transited JNB on the outbound to Cape Town and expected chaos at the arrivals section – it is a bit of a mess with a lot of construction work. However we breezed through the immigration in 15 minutes - perhaps because we were among the first off the plane – and found the staff manning the desks fast and efficient – definitely less fussy than in Bangkok or Hong Kong and way faster than Heathrow – and when handing our passport back we were thanked – unheard of elsewhere. Overall the impression was that SA welcomed you. The baggage took awhile to arrive but once in hand there was no hold up at Customs. We exchanged our USD at the Amex counter at the exit – excellent rate and least fuss. We had a 4 hour connection time for the Cape Town SAA flight and the five minute walk to the Domestic Terminal along the broad walk was clearly demarcated – turn left after you exit the arrivals section. We took the fully loaded trolley up the inclined walk-way escalator to the first floor which is fully taken up with food outlets of all description – they have self service and also al la carte - we chose the latter and our steward was fast humorous and helpful – a great introduction to the country. Another inclined walk-way led to the second level for Domestic Departures. SAA being quite busy the queue was a bit long – but if your flight is imminent they have people who short circuit this. Your trolley with ALL bags is weighed before you get to the counter – if overweight you are given a slip to pay the excess amount. At the departure counters we found a complete lack of urgency – at one of them the staff had got into an argument among themselves which went on and on with no concern for the waiting queue before them. Two counters were manned but had no passengers before them – no one bothered to call for the line to move up – lot of DIY initiative helps here. Once past this everything else is smooth sailing. When departing SA we found that they had opened the new International section – it is huge and certainly not cramped. There were eight counters for the Economy class and check-in was a breeze. The staff here was fast and efficient and we were through in 15 minutes. They have a nice Duty Free section but we found everything over priced.

The luggage handlers are notorious for losing your luggage and to make matters worse their corporate navigation of the paperwork to reimburse you is non-existent. Heaven only knows how they will accommodate passengers coming to SA for the 2010 World cup.

The check in and arrivals area are the worst areas of the airport simply because they do not have the capacity to handle the number of people that actually pass through. The check in area is very cramped. All the flights to London leave within a few hours of each other on a variety of airlines so you can imagine the chaos that can ensue. Funnily enough though once you have navigated check in the airport becomes much more pleasant. The only thing I can complain about from there on is the lack of seating at the gates. On another plus side the construction currently underway does not seem to be interfering with what is going on inside the terminals.

I arrived from HKG at 0700. There was no queue in immigration or customs and I was from the plane to curbside in less than 20 minutes. I did notice that our arrival was into Terminal A2 while some other widebody flights were arriving in Terminal A1. That may have been our good fortune for the quick processing. The airport itself is a mess of construction but signage was good enough.