Lisbon Airport

Ground services must urgently be improved. Queuing time at check-in is not acceptable but the variety of stores is satisfactory and terminal 1 is comfortable. Terminal 2 doesn't even have jetways to the aircraft.

This airport is possibly worst for transit passengers in Europe having flown 3 times in to the airport over the last 2 months from Manchester London and Rio I have not yet been able to walk off the plane into the terminal it has always been bus transfer from another part of the airport. It normally means getting on the bus being pushed to the back and then waiting for the bus to fill up and being the last off and last in the immigration queue. If transiting it's one long walk down a corridor with no moving escalator so hardly suitable for the old or infirm and no flight information apart from gate numbers 41-47 which is fine if you know your gate. As this is the home hub for TAP it does them no favours as transiting should be seamless and not a hot and exhausting process to change from one plane to another. I saw a number of signs displaying that they are making the airport better I would suggest the airport authorities try flying transiting via their airport and experiencing it as passenger.

LIS-MAN at 08.00 am. Arrived at check-in at 06:00 am and just managed to board to plane on time without having chance for Duty Free or snack. TAP Air have 7 desks for flights all over Europe which were many as being an early flight. Once we had checked in we had to queue for security which took over an hour in humid conditions with no a/c. Seeing that the temperatures outside were 35c you would expect it. People queue-jumping all over place because they had turned up late and would miss there flight was the major issue. I believe until this airport sorts it security procedure out you should give at least 3 hours check in if an early morning flight.

Terrible experience arriving from Newark - massive queue to get through immigration for non-EU travellers. I had a 2 hr wait nearly missing my connection. Little responsiveness from airport personnel except to apparently pull some complaining travellers out of line and let them go through the diplomatic passport line. Poor signage for luggage pick up although that may have been because the wait was so long through immigration that many other flights had come in and displaced mine off the carousel notification board. The experience was bad enough to male me want to avoid any future travel through Lisbon.

GRU-ORY with connecting flight at LIS. Overall a good experience. Airport clean well-run and with lots of natural light. Staff courteous and helpful (special mention to immigration staff who volunteered to call for medical services when noticed that our young daughter was dizzy). A wide range of options for shopping and dining inside security area close to gates 1-26 (intra-Schengen) – if you have spare time stay here before heading to gates 41-47 (flights outside EU) which requires passage through immigration. Negative point was walking distances inside the terminal for inbound/outbound flights to/from outside EU.

LIS is a nice airport to transit through though it has some drawbacks. A lot of the times buses are used instead of airbridges and quite often you can find yourself standing in a bus for ages before it moves. Another drawback is that in the newest part where the non-Schengen flights leave there is only one place to get food or coffee. The food is neither bad nor overpriced but there are often long queues because there are no other options available. The best thing about the airport - others have mentioned it - undoubtedly is the EUR3 (return!) bus to the city centre.

This is a modern looking airport but on arrival it was surprising how far it was from our gate to immigration and baggage after a few travelators and escalators the trek became corridor after corridor at least 10 minutes of walking. If you have an e-passport you can use the fast lane machines at passport control. When we went through they were being temperamental but a helpful immigration officer managed to persuade the reader to accept our passports and let us through. Buses into town (bus stop directly outside of the exits from customs - 3.5€) are advertised as every 20 minutes but our wait was far longer than that and some hopeful passengers had to be left behind. We had checked in online and had only hand luggage so at departure we did not have to join any of the check-in queues. Security queues were short as was immigration. The gate was the usual long distance away with a lot of walking. Water was very expensive €1.85 for 500ml.

What a contrast between the smooth arrival and the chaotic departure ! The arrival area is ok my luggage was quickly delivered I used the prepaid taxi counter although it seemed overpriced (22 € to the centre while it was only 10 € including the tip one week later in a regular taxi with an honest driver !). But leaving from Lisbon airport was a nightmare : the check-in area is completely disorganized you need to queue up for approx 30 minutes before getting to the check-in desk and god forbid it is the right counter otherwise you have to queue up again and again ! No ground staff to help you with the queues. Something I would not have expected to live in Europe... Security staff courteous but indisciplined passengers made the queue longer than it should have been. Poor signage if any to find the gate almost missed the flight because of this. Allow plenty of time if you have to leave from Lisbon. Post office closed on a friday morning at 8:30 and the vending machine were inoperative.

The Signage in Terminal 1 is a complete and utter joke - allow yourself plenty of time to navigate this place or you will miss your Flight.

Car Rental return is a nightmare in LIS. There is a single entrance road to a covered car park used by all companies. Unluckily we rented from Hertz who were the last company in the queue. We arrived 90 mins before our BA flight to LHR and still missed it as check-in was closed at least 45 mins before departure. We were placed on stand-by for the next day and charged more than EUR 400 for the privilege. BA would not be flexible with our ticket. The BA Sales person told us this happens a lot. Please be aware.