Katowice Airport

Not Verified | Literally the worst airport experience I’ve ever had. My plane arrived after a 6 hour flight. Passport control took 2 HOURS! Three plane loads of people came into the hall and they had four members of staff working! Even the EU passport line was going out the door and took hours. Never, ever using this airport again. Added to which, when I eventually got through security, trying to find a clean seat to rest for a while before my journey home was impossible, filth everywhere on almost every section of seats. Bad management is the cause of this. How can you expect 4 border control staff to deal with such huge queues? Awful.

Not Verified | I am from EU, so I should not care. Terrible experience for non EU visitors passport control waiting time. Do something with that… It is shame to have airport like this in the middle of Europe with feeling like 3rd country airport. How you can keep complete empty windows for EU travelers and let few hundreds of non EU people wait in line of 4 windows for hours. It is not about capacity, it is about organization. Small change can have a great impact. Please reconsider it

Not Verified | I was rather disappointed by the lack of knowledge from the staff and security control. I suffered a Sudden Cardiac Arrest in April 2018, and due to no cause for this incident happening, I was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) later that month. This is a small metal device, wired up to my heart that acts as a failsafe, if the situation arises that I was to have another Cardiac Arrest. As this is inside my body, it is near impossible to take it out. Due to the nature of this device, I have been advised not to go through metal detectors, as it could trigger my device into action, and as such I contact the airport before flying to do so, explaining I will be carrying my Patient Identification Card on the flight, which gives the information in English, French and German. This normally is suffice information, and when I inform a member of staff at an airport, they allow me to come round the side of the metal detector to be searched by a member of staff. However, when doing so at Katowice, I was rather rudely told to put my Identification Card in the tray with my bag, while I was trying to explain to another staff member what it was and why I couldn't go through. I was told to go through anyway and it would be fine. As expected, my device did set off the metal detector, and I stepped aside to be searched. On being searched, the staff member felt where my ICD was, and asked me to take it off, despite it being inside my body. I explained how it was inside my body and couldn't be taken out, and while he seemed to understand this, my body search seemed a lot more rough than normal. I felt this was a very inappropriate comment for a staff member to make, and I was very disappointed at the way I was treated by the staff, almost with suspicion. While I am fine with flying now, the first few times I did so I was very nervous, and grateful for the support given by staff members who I explained my situation to. My worry is, if someone else travelling for the first time was treated like this, they may have a panic attack at the airport and be reluctant to travel by plane in the future.

Not Verified | Avoid if you can. This airport is a joke. No organization at all. Spend over 3 hours at border control on arrival from Liverpool. What a lack of professionalism. What a waste of time.

✅ Trip Verified | I cannot believe what unprofessional customer service we received. Most staff is making very unpleasant comments especially for those that don’t understand Polish language. They have no idea who they are checking and how many people they are checking for the passport controls even though they were given all the passports, checking every possible luggage even for those who are travelling with small children, repacking backpacks as they were over the limit by 3 cm. I found the airport staff absolutely useless.

Not Verified | The worst security screening I’ve ever experienced. They are creating their own rules and give you a small plastic bag(one per passenger) for your liquid cosmetics even these are properly packed in see through cosmetics bag. The comments workers make are unprofessional and offensive. I’ve lost very expensive and not replaceable items because I had to make a choice which will fit into their bag.

✅ Trip Verified | Departure section totally unprepared to safely operate during Pandemic State. Heavily overcrowded departure section of the Pyrzowice Airport (Aug 1 2020) with long lines of passengers awaiting for check-in and security control (with only two positions opened) with no chance to respect any physical distance required during the pandemic state. No reaction of the airport staff to passengers wearing no masks or using them incorrectly, let alone to stinky restrooms. The whole track from the arrival at the airport until boarding the aircraft under tremendous risk of potential infection by coronavirus. I wonder how such an unprepared airport was allowed to operate during the pandemic state. So much surprising, the airport is located in Silesian district, the then epicenter of COVID-19 in Poland.

✅ Trip Verified | Airport was absolute chaos this Sunday, the security line snaked through pretty much the entirety of the terminal with no clear beginning or end and took well over an hour to navigate. Once I got to the departure area in Terminal A, I took the escalators down to the bottom floor however the room was so crowded, I couldn't actually properly get off the escalators as the whole floor was blocked. Because the whole area was so busy, there were no real clear lines to see which queue people were in for which flight. The temperature was 32 degrees outside and there seemed to be no AC in the building too which caused the very long wait to be very uncomfortable too.

Not Verified | Staff apparently does not understand the principle of (paid for) Priority Boarding. First, they mixed up the gates, switching from Priority to Non-priority back and forth, causing confusion and causing people to run from gate to gate, pushing each other and annoying each other from losing their spaces in line over and over. The duty free shop in Terminal A cannot be classified as functional as they told me they do not have 10 grosz to return me from 9.90 purchase (when I paid with 10 Zloty). Very hard to believe since there are 3 cash machines in the store. In addition, staff hardly knows any English and the safety control staff once regarded my Nintendo game console (released around 2015) for a dangerous device - could use an update on recent technology. Despite the many negatives, there are some positives about the airport worth pointing out. These would be: functional phone charging stations, plenty of seating, piano in the waiting area. Nevertheless, many aspects to improve in.

Not Verified | Massive lines for non EU citizens. Bad experience! Some officers were doing nothing. Many counters were closed. Not recommended for traveling if you want a great experience.