Lagos Airport

I believe that this airport is in very poor condition. I arrived and departed from Lagos, with a 1 month difference. There is no air-conditioning in the airport, and everybody is asking for money, even at the check-in counters. There are no places for shopping like Duty-Free, which are found at nearly every airport. There is no place to eat, and if you are not entering a lounge, you have to sit in a dark room with no air-conditioning and lights until your flight departs. There are no signs or directions. There is also no Wi-fi connection. Wouldn't recommend this airport.

I guess the airport is still under renovation and I believe my recent visit November shows there's an improvement compared to my last visit. In May my visit was so bad that I nearly passed out because of the heat and the customs were so slow, the baggage area slow as well. This time there was a big difference, the Ac was working, the customes were fast and it took me just an hour to get out of the airport.

This airport continues to get better. Proper queues in place, some improved signage and air conditioning and no asking for bribes (the new President of Nigeria is very anti-corruption). A new bar and duty-free has opened. Seating is still poor and all water bottles removed from passengers pre-boarding which is not very agreeable, given you may have to wait an hour in a small hot area for up to an hour, pre-boarding. But its certainly improved since my last visit two years ago.

Lagos airport is certainly one of the worst aspects of this gigantic city. It is old, dirty, badly organised not to say not organised, with lousy Aircon and worst of all no plans (at least according to my Nigerian friends) to modernise. We would be in a poor African country this would be understandable but we are there in the economy capital of possibly the wealthiest country with an extremely busy airport. Be ready for endless queues and if your travelling business don't hold your breath regarding lounges: I have been to 3 of them, all lousy. Terminal signs and directions are virtually non existent, ambulators out of order etc. etc.

In a nutshell, once off the plane I had to pay a $20 "fine" for not having a yellow fever vaccination certificate with me, even though this is absolutely not required for a transit passenger coming from the US. The money I'm sure just went into the officer's pocket. Then, all the US passengers who were transiting to another flight had their passports confiscated for about 4 hours while we were basically paraded from one spot to another in the airport, finally ending up in a cockroach-infested office of the army officer who took our passports in the first place. Eventually they were given back to us, with no explanation, some 45 minutes after a member of our captive party complained to someone at the Emirates lounge. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could ever convince me to go back there again. If I could give a less than zero rating to this place, I would.

Lagos though one of the busiest airports in Africa do not have facilities of an international Airport. Terminal building is under renovation and has been for the last 4 years hence you may expect some inconvienience. However situation was much better at immgration area this time. Air-conditioning was working. They have done away with the arrival form, immigration process was much faster. Not much improvement in baggage services, had to wait for 30 min post immigration. Improved a lot from my earlier visits. Could come out within a hour. They have started pickup vehicles in arrival area which had been stopped last year. Lagos airport has improved a lot as compared to last year.

Definitely one of the worst airports in the world but believe it or not it was a lot worse a few years ago. Toilets are ok and always attended facilities should be a lot better considering how much revenue the airport must earn from airlines using it. The security situation although improved can be improved a lot further.

Just arrived a LOS and it was 13 years since I was last here. I was lucky to be met by a company facilitator who was able to have me processed with ease. The toilets leave a lot to be desired but worked. Luggage took two hours to arrive and there are limited seating or refreshments available. Advise that you keep a bottle of water handy just in case. Officials seems reasonably friendly and helpful. Did not encounter any signs of people looking for "tips" just to do their jobs. A polite smile will do if asked I believe. Customs were Ok and more concerned with Nigerian nationals but then a dreadful bottleneck occurs at the exit door as people tend to stand there with lots of baggage trolleys and make phone calls. But all in all it serves it's function. Just be prepared for an extended luggage wait. it is however somewhat reassuring that no one gets irate at this wait as it is just past of the process. Bags do appear eventually.

I am a traveler and I've been doing this for a quite long time now. I found the airport nice and competitive enough to other airports in the world. It was a great place to arrive and depart from.

Considered amongst the worst airports in the world I've flown into Nigeria twice and was worried about it the first time. Because of that my host decided to buy me into the country and handing some Naira's to officials. Even though I normally hate to see it I was picked out of the line by an armed security officer after which my passport got stamped. Welcome to Nigeria. I decided not to ask for such a pick-up anymore and tried normal waiting in line the next time looking how others bought their way through customs this time. For the first time in my life I noticed the line for 'Other nationalities' was four or five times shorter than with 'Nigerian nationality'. After all this is not the most popular tourist destination. After passport checks I had three other custom staff coming up to me relatively asking me for yellow fever-document (which I had) asking me how much money I brought along (I told him 200 dollar after which his colleague sent him away and told him to leave me alone) and looking into my luggage. At departure it was unclear where to check-in and to make things worse the entire check-in system for all airlines was not working leading into a 2-hour delay because each ticket and passport needed to be checked by hand. Looking how a Nigerian airport staff disappeared in the crowd with my passport after saying he would return with a few minutes was scary but in the end he did return. Next time I will just go with the flow again and see where it ends up but I do understand why some people are well-willing to pay a couple of Naira's for a fast-pass on this airport. It is also the only airport in the world where they take away your lighter at security checks and the only smoking-area is in a restaurant where consumption has to be taken in order to smoke but where they can't offer you a lighter either. When people did not order without a lighter they brought one after a couple of minutes and for one of the people turned out to be a familiar lighter which was taken away at security check shortly before. Enjoy your trip.