Lisbon Airport

I was 'lucky' to have to transfer through Lisbon a day when there was a strike. Arrival was 3 hours late I could just see 'Last Call' for my connecting flight but when arriving at the gate at 12 pm it was closed already. So I went to the customer's service centre. It took until 3 am until I got my replacement flight by Air Maroc my luggage and the voucher for taxi and hotel. The next day looking for the check-in counter for Maroc it was written 'Check-in Closed' although 2 hours before departure. So I lined again into the queue before the service desk. After half an hour I got the answer to go to the check-in of TAP. There I got told that I am too late (although 90 minutes until departure). Calling around the message got through that for Maroc a service company was doing the check-in at a specific counter. Still the screen showed 'Check-in Maroc closed'! On the return flight things were running much smoother also because there was no strike. The passenger area at terminal 1 makes rather the impression of a distributed cafeteria with Art Nouveau gallery. I have never seen an aesthetically more pleasing airport. Information screens are visible from every point this in contrast to most other airports where one has to walk a while to see a screen. My conclusion: avoid Lisbon in possibility of strike else it may give some pleasure.

Terminal 1 is ok for shopping or wandering around: Terminal 2 is just a big warehouse with seats doors and some small shops. The biggest problem with this airport and it makes the overall experience poor is their huge reliance on buses. Almost always transit to and from the plane is on a packed overcrowded bus. Transit often takes place only after the last passenger has arrived so you can be standing in the bus for 30 mins or more. They always use the minimum number of buses and if they could pack the contents of a jumbo on a single bus they would. They use buses even when the plane is parked right in front of terminal 2. They use two kinds old fashioned normal buses and the airport buses where the driver is in a completely separate compartment. The reason I highlight this apart from the fact that I hate the experience myself is that I witnessed an obviously claustrophobic lady being rudely treated by staff when she baulked at boarding one of the latter buses which was patently overcrowded. Not good.

Arrived from EWR in March. It was a fairly long walk - although not unbearable - to passport control where the line was about 2 minutes. By the time we got to the baggage carousel the bags were already there. We were at the taxi queue within 20 minutes of landing - perhaps my fastest arrival in Europe ever. We took a regular cab to our hotel at the north end of Barrio Alto for 14 Euros - this was significantly cheaper than the pre-pay option and we had no problems with the cab. This included luggage surcharges and tips - you may want to skip the pre-pay option. Delighted by arrival in Lisbon.

Improving all the time. New Duty free area. Pier Nord of Terminal 1 finally allows passengers to embark and disembark via jetways. This makes Lisbon a surprisingly good transfer airport as it is not too big. All TAP flights are now in Terminal 1.

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.