Kuwait Airport

Absolutely horrid experience. Arrived at Kuwait airport after a 20 hour trip from New York only to meet with the completely inefficient, complacent and rude staff at the immigration counter. There is no system. There were hardly anyone at the counters to cater to the multitude of people who arrived. They kept taking breaks and were completely apathetic to the people who just arrived to their country. They were completely unprofessional, demeaning and condescending to the people standing in line, often making people change lines just to accommodate "GCC" citizens. They have 8 counters marked for GCC citizens while they have one for all other nationalities. Absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. It took 2.5 hours for something that shouldn't have taken no more than 15 mins. The airport in itself is poorly maintained. Will never ever consider traveling through this airport ever again. The people here have no sense of what it is to have customer service. They sell their country very poorly.

Avoid it of you have other options for transiting in other airports. First airport is very small, very dirty, plus a very weird rule here forbidden staying in the airport for more than 8 hours, Kuwait Airways employee took my connection boarding pass forcing me to obtain an entry visa and asked me to stay at hotel until my flight's boarding, of course on my own expenses! Bathrooms are dirty. Inside the transit area there are few choices of shops and prices are very high. But if you decided to go out and enter Kuwait there are plenty of shops and restaurants at the departure & arrival areas, however very limited chairs! And for some reason it's 24 hours crowded, I think locals come here like if it's a mall! At last, there is no airport hotel! Yes the nearest airport is around 5km and you have to take a taxi.

I was flying Kuwait Airways from NY to Mumbai with a stop over and flight change at Kuwait Airport. We had a long stop over of 6 hours at the airport. The airport is just about average. Seating facilities for transit passengers are inadequate. Washrooms too are pretty average and unbecoming of airport wash rooms. The airport has barely 6-8 duty free shops. There were shops for perfumes, chocolates, cigars and cigarettes. It had a few restaurants and food courts but again not up to international standards. Nowhere near an international airport.

Kuwait Airport was okay in terms of air conditioning. The gates are not too far so you don't have to walk alot. The attitude of the staff is inconsistent and some don't try to be nice or respectful towards you. Overall it provides a very average experience.

Dirty chaotic and unorganized. While waiting in the check in line for Emirates, groups of rude and arrogant passengers appeared, going to the front of the line in front of everybody as they think they are entitled to. This happened twice. The airline staff made no attempt to ask them to line up politely. In fact one of the airline staff took a group of young men to the front of the line, laughing and joking with them. The toilets are dirty and smelly. The departure hall is overcrowded with inadequate seating. There is a final security check before boarding the plane which is ridiculously slow - expect to wait 30 minutes in line for this. Avoid Kuwait Airport.

I normally arrange for hala (meet and visa) service with hotel, so that part of trip went smoothly. Left in afternoon so passport control was very quick. Food is limited but adequate. Toilets leave much to be desired, last one I used was partially flooded and had no toilet paper (I always carry tissues in region). Porters are annoying to say the least, grabbed my bags without asking and then different ones wanted to be paid twice, one before x-ray at check in counter and another again after the 50 ft from the machine to the counter. Very little seating outside of gates. Small airport so not hard to get around and flight anouncements were fine. Main issue is that Kuwait is a wealthy nation and could/should do a lot better - no comparison with Doha and Dubai.

I honestly have been to this airport far too many times considering that I have once lived here in Kuwait before (but this will be my first review on the airport). 1) Upon arrival, for some passengers, it is required of us to obtain a visa on arrival before heading to the immigration counter. I have noticed huge improvements with this service as they now photocopy your passport getting your passport stamped at the visa place (which did ease up the whole transaction). I did notice however that there was no information with regards to the price for the visa. Last time I came, I paid 5kd but my boyfriend (on an American passport) didn't pay for any. I actually had to Google up the actual cost and turns out its only 3kd. Anyway the whole visa process was easy thankfully. 2) It was not notified to us that those who already have their passport stamped at the visa application area can just walk through the immigration without going through the queue as you already have your passport stamped. 3) Coming back to this airport and heading out to Abu Dhabi almost gave me a heart attack. This airport has a weird way of organising their check in counters as they would group some airlines in one gate/area (e.g. Omanair, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways would be in the same check in area). Passengers are required to stand out the airport and look at the direction to figure out which gate/area they need to go to check in. Anyway, as I entered the airport, I noticed there was a long line at the luggage check going out to area I needed to get my boarding pass. I have already checked in online and all I needed to do was get my boarding pass. I didn't even have any luggage to scan as I flew in the same day as I am heading back out. My flight was due to leave in 1.5 hours and I noticed that all those that queued up were ones that were flying with Emirates. Thankfully, the security guy at the luggage check allowed me to jump the queue (scan just my handbag) and proceed to the counter. 4) There are hardly any shops in here. Both before and after immigration. I'm happy to see the new coffee shops area at the end of the terminal which is usually less crowded and more peaceful. Overall, it is an OK airport to be at for a short transit. Not one you would want to spend more than 3 hours at though to be honest.

Kuwait needs a larger and more modern airport forthwith. The existing one is overcrowded and just not up to scratch. Its bursting at the seams. Kuwait should do a Singapore.

In my independent travels to 106 countries I have never been less impressed by an airport than with Kuwait International. First and foremost the staff spend more time on personal cellphones than on customer service. This is true at every level whether it is security personnel looking at their phone screens instead of baggage scanning screens immigration personnel tapping at their phone keypads between passport checks or gate personnel making private calls while passengers await assistance. The terminal and hallways leading to gates are filled beyond capacity with people. Acoustics-killing tiled floors and densely populated spaces make announcements virtually impossible to hear or comprehend. The airport provides a terrible first impression when arriving in Kuwait and a terrible last impression when departing.

We have used this airport for 20 years and I could not understand why it has now got so bad. The airport road is chaotic the queues at zone 1 are incredible and the Kuwaiti officials are more interested in their smartphones than passengers. The immigrant staff work hard but have no leadership resulting in chaos. The only good point about this airport is the Flydubai terminal. Ensure you leave plenty of time when using this airport as you will need it.