Larnaca Airport

❎ Unverified | Absolute shambles of an airport. Arrived two and a half hours before the flight and the queue to security stretched back to the entrance of the airport. Paid 5 euros to use the fast lane but was no quicker than the normal lane. Apart from only a few lanes open at passport control, it also looked like the staff were on some sort of go slow and taking most people 3-4 minutes to get through to yet another queue to have carry-on bags checked. In total it took 2 hours to get through to the departure hall. Another point to mention is that the Cypriots don't seem to understand what a queue is and tried to barge in where people had been in line for well over an hour. Get your act together Cyprus.

❎ Unverified | Extremely busy airport (unable cope with volume of people late on a Sunday night). Bought tickets for express lane for security checks which moved slower than the non express lane. Loud arguments broke out between frustrated passengers - would not use this airport again if I could help it.

✅ Verified Review | Our arrival at the airport inbound was as near to perfect as you could wish for. We arrived at approx 1330 on a Friday afternoon. The airbridge was connected within minutes and the disembarkation was started soon after. At the top of the ramp there are clear and easy to follow signs directing you to the Passport Control. There was a queue to the non EU passport desks due to the large number of flights that had arrived from non EU countries and all desks both Non EU and EU were open. There was no wait for the cases and we were in Central Larnaca checking into our apartment (1415) within 45 minutes of arriving at the airport. Having read the reviews and the demise of Monarch. On Friday we decided to allow slightly more time than the recommended time on the airport website. A tip is also to check what flights are leaving around the time of your flight and adjust the arrival time to allow for the queues at passport control and security. This tip paid dividends as we were passed both within 15 minutes of arrival at the airport. Again all lanes were open so the queues were moving fairly fast. All the staff were polite and smiled, they seemed happy in their work. There is a good range of tax free shopping and food outlets at the airport. The staff at the information point were helpful and able to give you your gate number if asked before it was displayed, the gates are a few minutes walk from the shopping and food court. The only slight disappointment was the gate staff who seemed to be more interested in playing with their mobile phones or chatting. They gave the impression that the passengers where a nuisance and disrupting whatever they were doing, which no doubt was not work related as they were running around in a state of panic when boarding started.

✅ Verified Review | This was our first (and will most definitely be our last) trip to the 'new' airport at Larnaca. I only wish I had read the reviews on here before travelling out to Cyprus. At least forewarned is forearmed. We too arrived at the airport 2hrs and 20 mins before our flight departure. Despite checking on online - the bag drop took over an hour. Thankful that ordeal was over we headed to passport control. What a complete nightmare - anarchy ruled - it was everyone for themselves - the queues not only 'snaked' round the usual barriers but round the whole terminal building. Tempers were flaring as people who had politely joined the queue then had to contend with selfish and rude passengers jumping in front of them. As detailed on other reviews even after passing through passport control you then had to merge with (or as some passengers preferred barge into another queue) which led to another huge snake like queue for security. We made it through security with 10 mins to spare before our flight departed. What an absolute joke - this airport has not improved for the better. We were herded like cattle for 2 hours - I have never experienced anything like this in my 30 years of travel. Will never fly into this airport again.

❎ Unverified | We arrived at 20.20 pm in plenty of time for our flight and from arriving queued and queued and queued. First at check in and we could already see the enormous queue for the next part - security, passport control etc. The airport just could not cope. Long story short we finally got through to departure lounge with no time for duty free or even to go to the toilet or get something to eat (luckily we had eaten at the hotel before leaving) as we were directed to departure gate 17 immediately as it was so close to our departure time. We arrived there and were told to take a seat - my husband commented nobody had checked our boarding card or passport. Many people were told to be seated and once the seats were full the queue built up again. The young lady at the desk seemed to be struggling with the computer and eventually an older more proficient man arrived to show her what to do. Once she was shown she then told those of us seated to go join the back of the queue again to have our boarding cards and passports checked. The queue was enormous but we duly joined it - sweltering in the heat! Once we got through to the seating area again it was packed but we were told by the same young lady to move forward to let more people in - we were crammed in like sardines as it was. There were several young children who were getting very upset and crying causing parents to stress and many people were starting to feel ill with the heat and discomfort. We were finally freed from our glass cell onto the bus to take us to the waiting plane feeling very uncomfortable and angry to put it mildly. We will never again travel to and from Larnaca airport - not enough staff to cope with the number of flights departing from here!

✅ Verified Review | Although a very pretty airport to fly from the queues here are horrendous! The security part of the airport is not equipped to deal with the amount of flights that depart from the airport on Sunday nights. There were 17 other Thomson Airways flights departing last night along with the large number of flights operated by other airlines. Once I had checked in my family and I proceeded to the queue for security. We were going round in circles. No-one was at the priority line therefore those who would have been able to pass through this line had to wait with the rest of us, causing even more congestion. Once we passed through border control everyone was fed through to the main line in security. As there was only one line before being separated into the different screening areas this meant that everyone passing through passport control had to push into the line. This caused me to become separated from the rest of my family as others pushed in front of them. It was noticed that due to the long waiting times for security other passengers were nearly missing their flights even though they had arrived at the airport in plenty of time. One other problem is that the announcements made were extremely hard to hear due to the noise inside the terminal therefore the flight announcements need to be much louder. Once past security everything else was fine. There is a good selection of food and drink places and there are a good number of duty free shops. The directions to the boarding gates are well signposted and easy to get to.

✅ Verified Review | The most unorganised airport with untrained staff. The only positive point I have to offer is that they had plenty of toilets. Almost every 100 metres there was a toilet. No clear priority line for families/disabled and everyone siphoned into one line for both general entry into passport check. I was body searched - the most intrusive experience ever. The lady proceeded to look for a metal detector wand and had to wait for one that was being used two Q's over. People were shouting and complaining about the wait from the other side of the scanners. General chaos all round. Very little food variety within the airport.

Arrived at Larnaca airport and was treated with total chaos. All Thompson UK flights we're channelled into a single queue which was so long that it was the length of the check in desks and round the side and ended at the security queue. The air conditioning was inadequate and made for a very long sweaty queue, the tills were off line in the shop so it was difficult even to buy overpriced water. It took roughly an hour to get to the check in desk although the agent there was very efficient. Having checked in we then joined the queue for security which proved worse than the check in queue. There are 17 stations for security checks and only six were open eventually. The situation was was not helped by the fact that it was obvious that two of these were chatting to each other by land line from there adjoining stations rather than do their job. Once passed this point we were pushed back into the chaos to get through the security station. At this point people were starting to panic it was 22:02, our flight was at 22:05, the people behind us flight was 22:00. At this point the blue lane markers started to collapse as passengers began to push forward. There was no one there to either organise or retain some semblance of order. The few staff that were there were either unable or incapable of controlling the situation or giving any direction. As a result we were being paged over the public address system and still had not cleared security. Clearly the airport was allowed to run understaffed and many of the staff we did encounter would benefit from training in their relevant roles. It is not that the authorities did not know the numbers coming through heaven knows that flight was booked almost a year ago. I think the faults clearly lie with the management who I understand have a 25 year contract and would need a rethink on their policies if they think this is an acceptable way to run the premier Cypriot international airport.

✅ Verified Review | Larnaca is a good, small airport on shopping - but that's it. Management is clearly terrible, staff do a give a damn. The experience starts with a long wait for staff to open check in despite sitting there on the phone. Dare to ask and you receive an aggressive response. Security is chaotic, poorly organised, staffed by people who appear unclear of their job and those clearly paid to stand. Two months on and the premium lounge is still an area of the departure lounge due to 'ongoing refurbishment'. Food terrible, staff ambivalent at best.

Larnaca is an impressive well designed latest generation airport. Moving walkways everywhere, fast check in, clean toilets, lots of cafeterias, restaurants, duty free shops etc. What I disliked was the fact that at duty free shops and security staff did not speak the local language and were rather rude. Not to mention the very expensive cost of consumer goods such as bottled water, soft drinks etc. Comparatively at Athens airport which in general is not cheap, water sells at 0.50 euros and at Larnaca - a cheaper destination - selling price is 2.00 euros.