Leeds Bradford Airport

Not Verified | I have never had such a bad experience at an airport like Leeds Bradford! It is very dirty and chaotic. On arrival we had to go to a very small baggage carousel where luggage from three flights had to be collected. On the return flight to Schiphol, it turned out that there were far too few seats. Then only two desks were opened for check-in. The other desks remained closed. It was very slow and the staff clearly thought that was very funny. At security I had to take off my slippers, very inconvenient with gout. I was also not allowed to bring a bottle of water and my bag was checked for drugs, unbelievable. After I had handed in my shoulder bag I had to go back to the back of the queue. The staff is super unfriendly and unprofessional. Even after me and a colleague went to eat something, we suddenly had to go to another room because they wanted to clean. There was no indication in the lounge from which gate we would fly. It was very stuffy. In the end I saw in the app which gate it was, while there was still nothing to see on the board. Even the pilot I met knew nothing. The flight was also delayed an hour. In short, a very poorly functioning airport.

✅ Trip Verified | By far the worst experience I have ever had so far travelling from an airport. This review reflects the poor quality of the services I have encountered from the moment I arrived to the moment my flight departed. Parking: I have opted for the premium short stay parking. First of all, does not make any sense, you are close to the terminal by a couple of hundred feet. The parking is extremely poorly signposted and with most of the roads being one way systems, if you miss the correct turn, you end up going through to the meet and greet, where you have to pay 5£ even to go through it. Which is easier said than done. The contactless/card payments did not work. I tried cash, only to be presented with a message saying that payment method is ineligible, but only after eating my 5£ note. So in the end had to call for assistance to get through. Check in: The number of check-in desk is grossly insufficient. 6 operating in total for the entire airport. After queuing for a while we got to a desk eventually, and one of the agents started our check-in process, only to be interrupted mid-process by another agent on the phone with someone requiring access to the computer. With no explanation after 15 mins we were directed to another desk where we had to wait for another 15 mins before we started the process from scratch. No explanation or apology issued for the delay. Security: We opted for the fast-track lane option on booking the parking. Which worked well, as we moved straight through to the front of the queue. The attitude of the staff at the security was appalling. Asking for the boarding pass I presented the opened 1st of 4 boarding passes on my phone. As we were travelling in a family group it was obvious that we were four of us. But because I only presented a pass, as this is the only way to access them on the phone, having to swipe for the rest of them, we were met with a sigh and with a rude tone by the security agent who made the obvious observation saying “one...”. I explained that he needs to swipe right to bring on the next pass, which was obviously something the he already knew, at the end of the day that is his job and what he does all day. He than preferred to hand over the phone back to me for me to swipe for each pass while he waited impatiently for me to pass the phone back to him each time. His colleagues at the next security check were not much better. Gates: The gates are extremely cramped with very few seats available far too few for the a normal flight most passengers having to stand in a very small space waiting to board the plane. Nothing seems to be working smoothly over there, so the issues is not only one particular area but in all or most of them. I will avoid this airport in the future and I advice you do to if possible as it’s offer and appalling experience and an awful way to start any journey or holiday.

Not Verified | First time at Leeds Bradford Airport booked long stay parking slot arrived at airport, went to the wrong parking area, stopped to ask the directions to long stay parking area, sorted my mistake and found the correct car park no problem. Guess what I got in the post three weeks later a £100 pound ticket for stopping. Welcome to Leeds Airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Due to long waits for security, I missed my flight. Being 6 hours early and still couldn't pass security. No staff to assist apart from special assistance (they received many complaints from others who missed different flights while I was there). To make matters worse, I've contacted Leeds Bradford via email 6 times in 3 months and still haven't heard back from them. Too many flights leaving at the same time didn't help the situation. Other airports have spread the departures to avoid customers missing flights, unfortunately Leeds Bradford haven't. Avoid

✅ Trip Verified | Arrival - the plane arrived 10 minutes early. It parked as far away as possible from the terminal, I am convinced it was in Lincolnshire! That would not have been a problem if it hadn’t taken the airport nearly an hour to get a bus to the plane, no staff. Departure - The queue for security stretched outside so I had to pay extra for slow fast track. Once through security there was not a seat to be had, not even in the bars etc. It was hot and very unpleasant. The flight was delayed for 90 minutes because the airport was short of baggage handlers. Ryanair was fine, the airport is a disaster. I regret I cannot give a zero rating.

✅ Trip Verified | Nowhere to buy a drink prior to going through security, sat for over an hour. Most of the shops shut. 1 bar ran out of 2 types of beer another bar was closed the other bar no Guinness or other types off beer. No Aircon and it's currently 27 degrees. Every seating area is filled with mess that people have left, yet there's people walking around that look like cleaner but are not cleaning. Given people should take their own rubbish. Saying that their are no visible bins. The airport is like a run down bus station. Worst airport in the UK

Not Verified | All staff very friendly and chatty but seemingly totally incompetent! I have special assistance for a spinal problem and things started well with the ambulift being prompt on arrival and transported through baggage and immigration but then we were dumped at the entrance with no offer of help with our luggage for the service bus to car hire/park (only with other passengers help did we get on) and the same on return. We then checked in our luggage but my rollator/walker was deemed oversize and was taken by the special assistance employee to the unmanned Jet2 oversize baggage desk in spite of our telling him we were flying with Ryanair !!! He assured us that 'no problem, he would see to it'. Nontheless my rollator (on which I depend to get around) did not make it to Faro. The worst aspect was that on going to the Ryanair desk at Faro they could get nobody at Leeds to either answer the phone or reply to an e-mail to check the situation - see my Ryanair report. I also tried phoning and e-mailing with same result !! How can an airport function without connections to the outside world ?

Not Verified | An absolute embarrassment! We were lucky & purchased Fast track before hand for security but my heart went out to those that were wasting there lives stood in that queue that went on for hours! One belt Two men for 100’s of people, again an absolute disgrace! No water in the toilet taps to wash hands which is absolutely disgusting when you think we are just coming out of the other side of a global pandemic. No sandwiches or bottles of water in the shops! Of course we were sat on the run way for hours because we waiting for those poor people battling through security! I will avoid booking any flights from LBA in the future.

Not Verified | Abysmal experience, expected long queues but nothing as bad as this. Two hour wait for security early morning, people fainting in the queue it was so arduous. The place needs shutting down or a number of flights should be cancelled until they are in a position to handle the number of passengers departing. It is not acceptable to treat the travelling public in this way.

Not Verified | I was flying from LBA to Amsterdam at 6.20 on the morning of the 13th. I arrived three hours early, but there was already queues stretching from one end of the building to the other. This wasn't the problem, however - the issue was that not a single member of staff was walking up and down the queue to direct people to where they needed to be. The queue was so long that people at the back had no idea what it was for, meaning that people who had already checked in ended up waiting an hour or more only to find out they were in a check-in queue, or people who needed to check in waited hours just to reach security and be told to leave the queue, find a check-in desk and then wait hours more in the original queue. This is basic organisation - the staff were available, and all they had to do was walk up and down the entire queue instead of limiting themselves to the end of it, which would have prevented a huge amount of additional wasted time and panicked queue bumping. As it stands, their remedial organisation failures meant that people like myself who arrived many, many hours before their flight still ended up repeatedly rejoining queues - I made my flight by literally seconds, after a member of staff told me not to skip the queue for my flight, only for me to find out other people on the same flight had been fast tracked. Not being bothered to walk an extra few metres to save vast amounts of time and effort attests to a poor working culture with no clear management (or incompetent management who aren't physically present in the situation). No individual staff member was negligent or rude, in fact quite the opposite, but the failure to walk that long queue might have been the sole reason a "crisis" existed - of you take away people being in wrong queue, the entire thing might go away. Naturally this situation was not present in Amsterdam or America, both countries still operating under strict COVID control - this means there is no inherent problem because these slick, functioning airports also dealt with COVID and must still contend with more COVID bureaucracy than the UK. This is poor management, through and through.