Keflavik Airport

I found this Keflavik very busy for the month of April and can imagine how much busier it gets later on in the year. Poor food service - hot food choices awful, over priced and tasted horrible. Nowhere to sit, tables unclean. Had to be bussed to the terminal. I will never use Keflavik again as a transfer point if I can avoid it. Very unsatisfied.

Keflavík's KEF is a very easy to navigate, modern and clean airport. Upon arrival, we were placed on a Parking which wasn't very convenient. However, Immigration was very fast and the queues were only a few minutes. I followed very clear and explicit signs to the arrivals bag reclaim area. The restrooms were very clean and modern and bag reclaim took not long at all. After receiving my luggage, I proceeded through Customs and out of the airport. The arrival zone of the airport is very open and inviting. On departure from KEF a few days later, the Check-In machines were great and the staff were very helpful and friendly. Bag drop was a quick procedure. Security lines were very short and the agents were very nice. The majority of the terminal is very modern. The choice of restaurants is not great but there is a good selection of shops and the area around these was very open and contemporary. The gate area from Gate 1 to 15 is not the best, but the following gates (after the Immigration check) and their corresponding area is awesome. However, some of these gates do not have jetways and require air stairs.

Staff at the VAT desk receiving receipts were rude. When one of windows opened up I proceeded (I am deaf so I didn't know if I was being called) and when I arrived I was completely ignored. I went to the next window when it cleared the other staff member was very unfriendly and stoic. Part of the departure terminal is under renovation so you could smell the fumes and they made us stand at gate in line with the doors in full blast allowing cold air to come in. We all were freezing waiting for about 15 minutes to board the shuttle to our plane.

I can only agree with the most recent reviews and nothing has improved. Huge queues for check-in, I tried the self check in machine but the it didn't work. The snaking queue occupied nearly all the floor space. Security was a nonsense - signs said to have boarding card and passport ready (they weren't looked at), belt off, watch off (I seemed to be the only person who did this so it didn't make a difference), shoes off (not everyone did this and no-one was pulled up for it), coat off, mobile phone separate, all electrical items in tray out of cabin bags, make-up and liquids in clear bag etc - how on earth are you meant to carry all these loose items? Not complaining at all about the security in theory but the practice should be relevant, standardised and carried out according to protocol. Like most airports the shopping area is now of prime importance making it difficult to find the gate while forced to wander a route through unrequired marketing opportunities. At the gate there were no seats. I had arrived at the airport at 06:15 for an 08:00 flight and was standing in queues till 07:25 when we arrived at the gate for a final 15 mins of standing before boarding. Sadly if you want to go to Iceland from another country you have no choice. Apparently tourism in Iceland is growing at an enormous rate as it is being encouraged since the devaluation of the kroner but come on Iceland - everything else you do is well done surely the airport departures can be improved.

People are great. Not much in the VAT line, lots of food places. Passport control well staffed. We showed up early for a 5:00pm flight but had too much hanging around time. As well run as any other airport I have been in.

Very busy transfer terminal with few facilities. Lack of seating is not acceptable given the number of flights arriving and departing at a similar time. Very unhappy with the baggage handlers leaving suitcases out in the rain during transit.

I could not have been more excited about travelling to Iceland. The only disappointment of the trip was the departures process when I left. Check in had a line that snaked for ages. The staff on check in were a little short and informed us of the wrong gate. We passed through security with great ease and did a little shopping in duty free and had something to eat. Then came the nightmare of getting to our gate and boarding. They changed the gate while we were walking to it. This involved going upstairs and downstairs a number of times. We also had to pass through Passport control to leave the country. The staff covering passport control were just plain rude. They kept us waiting for ages to open the desks and barely even looked at our passports. When we arrived at our gate we had to stand and wait for 50 mins over the time set for boarding. No explanation was given. When on the aircraft it felt very much like they couldn't get us pushed back quick enough. If you can ignore the blatant disorganisation and rude staff at Keflavik, you'll find Iceland is the most beautiful, friendly and relaxing country you'll ever visit.

Warning, if you arrive at this airport after 5.30pm on a weeknight there is no hot food available at all. You can buy a sandwich and a pasta salad but that is all. For travellers like us who had been out all day and were looking forward to a hot meal before our flight, it was a real let down. Other travellers were in the same position with later flights than ours.

Terribly disorganized at departure. An hour wait going through passport control leaving the country?

The arrival was quite uneventful. However, the departure from Keflavik was another story. I have travelled the world over and never have I ever seen so many people queuing to check in at the Icelandair desks. It was complete chaos and no-one seemed to be around to ask questions. The check in queue was so wide it took up practically the whole of the ground floor area and people werent able to pass one another with their luggage. There was no queue in Security which was a bonus. Even though we arrived at the airport 2 hours before our flight because of the huge queues we didnt have time to look around Duty Free and as we wanted to change our Kronas back to UK pounds we had to stand in yet another long queue. When we made our way to Gate 28C we had to walk a very long way and then go downstairs and through another Duty Free shop! We made it to the Gate with 15 minutes to spare. Lovely country but marred somewhat by the chaos at Keflavik Airport.