"needlessly badly run"
Robert Murphy (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Needlessly badly run. Can't handle peak passenger flows on Saturdays in good time. Over an hour to get through security, not all scanners open. Boarding cards must be scanned exactly at the x-ray machines, so if someone forgets which pocket the card is in the machine is effectively out of action. As an example of how badly run - the toilet paper doesn't even fit the dispenser. You have to go out of your way to be that bad. Use another airport of you can.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | March 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"obviously run by amateurs all over"
1 reviews Gary Spencer (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | If you want to fly from an efficient airport just cross this one off your list as it is useless in this regard. First of all the car rental company Avis charge extra for everything so you could end up paying over £300 for 4 days only. Check in is so slow, it's like the escargots have taken over, 10 people in our line took 30 minutest to check in. Then I asked for seats at the front and was given seats near the back, friend given 2A/2B so were available, had to go back and swap from row 21 to row 3. Only 1 person on passport control for 6 flights in half an hour, ridiculous as there are 4 windows. To top it off the coffee bar had one person serving so the queue was over 30 minutes wait. Obviously run by amateurs all over so if you want good airport experience fly through Geneva or Milan or Turin for trips to the Alps. Oh now they say flight delay for one hour but no reason given over tannoy, better explanations please for flyers.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | December 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"no resources for an international airport"
K Rose (United Kingdom)
45 minute security queue for first flight of the day at Lyon Airport - flight left late and missed landing slot at LHR. One desk open at security - this airport has been a continued joke for twenty years - our arrival was the same with one immigration desk open at 11pm and a long wait. This has no resources for an international airport. Most of the staff don't really care as well. I will choose not to fly through LYS.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | December 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Terminal 3 departures a farce"
Samuel Tucker (United Kingdom)
Terminal 3 departures a farce. Building works never ending, which means a 50 minute queue in security at a peak time (peak - 3 flights leaving!). Most annoyingly, they have 6 security lanes but only staff 2 due to understaffing. Feel more like cattle than a customer.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | December 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"can't handle peak times"
Stefano Speck (France)
What a shame, good choice of flights but terribly pricey connections to Lyon. I fly every week from Lyon throughout Europe for my work and I am horrified by the "performance" of the security and border control who are visibly understaffed and can't handle peak times. Two simultaneous flights is enough for you to spend 20 minutes at border control so you can exit the airport, ridiculous! The problem with the shops is not quality but quantity as there are barely any and you often need to queue (again) for coffee and a sandwich. Come on Lyon - get your act together.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | November 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"the airport is getting worse"
A Kayan (France)
✅ Verified Review |
As I'm living in Lyon, I travel from Lyon Airport at least once a year. From year to year, the airport is getting worse. When arriving at the airport especially during peak times (all Summer), expect a massive crowd, first, at the drop-off zone, where you must be lucky to find a car space within 10 minutes (otherwise you'll have to pay 0.50€ each 2 minutes). Then, at the departures floor, when going to your check-in counter, you must "open a path" through messy lines, often reaching the wall. There is few to no seating area in front of check-in area, and sometimes these few seating areas are very dirty. At least the staff can be helpful, but I don't know if they are good at English. Then, expect at least 10 minutes of queue at security, which is also a pure mess. The staff are not professionnal at all, but some are friendly. The guy in front of the X-Ray controls was not looking at the screen. After this, you'll have to find your gate. There are a few airside stores and cafes in T2 but everything is very expensive. The seats are still very dirty, and not enough seating at some gates (this is the case at bridge gates, the bus gates are strangely wider). The terminal can be very dark, even if it's sunny outside. Expect very long queues when boarding, because staff are very slow. For non-Schengen flights, passport queues are rather quick but not very secure control (not professionnal). When arriving, you go down to a low-ceiling floor, which can rapidly give you a headache. The passport control is just horrible. It took us more than 30 minutes because only 2 booths out of 8 were open. The border control staff were the worst I've ever seen and not friendly at all. There can be more than 2 flights per baggage carousel, so expect a lot of waiting time (sometimes more than 20 minutes). This area is definitely disgusting. The floor is dirty, and most of the toilets of the airport are not well cleaned, and feel rather outdated (so is the airport). One important point: the low-cost terminal was better than the full-fare terminal. Wifi is free and very fast in the entire airport, and that's one of the only positive points. I don't care about my welcoming, but for foreigners, the welcome at the airport can be a very bad picture of the beautiful city of Lyon. But against all odds, I recommend flying thru this airport, as it's very convenient, not far from the city, and very useful if you don't want to drive to other airports. A new big terminal is being built at the airport, I hope it will be better than the old ones.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | August 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"airport is annoyingly dirty"
S Matthews (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Much is written about the amazing architecture of Lyon airport and railway interchange. It is indeed impressive from a distance, and the rail link is in a well-lit, tranquil modern building linked with smooth walkways to the terminal (where the chaos commences). Whatever the architect was briefed to provide, what now exists at Lyon is a massive white elephant. Beautiful curvilinear roof lines do not make up for an absence of systems aimed at smoothly processing high volumes of people. The refreshment and seating in the airport is poor and for a building designed to be light, everything is gloomily dark. I suspect this is because the design made the building too hot - secondary tarpaulin-type ceilings have been inserted, presumably to provide shade. The air conditioning is obviously inadequate as fans were running at key points. The airport management's apparent inability to organise makes using this poor building even worse. What we encountered on a fairly ordinary Saturday morning was a seething mass of confused and upset humanity, with lines reaching across all of the concourse for certain check-ins and again for security. This is a major airport, but individual airline check-ins have maybe 3 yards of control / guidance barriers for customers. Compare this with other major airports e.g. Manchester where there's clear separation between walkways and waiting lines. After checking in the security scanning lines are poorly managed, with simple procedures not in place e.g. nobody owned the task of removing emptied plastic trays from the conveyor belts, which then became immobile, holding up passenger progress. The airport is annoyingly dirty. This is disrespectful to customers, especially when they are required to remove footwear. It is unpleasant to experience a dirty gritty floor under your bare feet. All around there is a general absence of detailed cleaning - edges of floors, windows, ledges all show an accumulation of general muckiness that shows cleaning staff aren't briefed closely or checked. Lastly, I was interested to notice that despite its claims to be a major airport, all announcements were in French only. On the plus side it has a good free wifi signal.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"queues for busy destinations are mixed"
U Di Sanza (France)
Lyon Terminal 3 for easyJet - only because the price of tickets is low that one can accept such a service. Piddly food bar, even with 45 min to spare the queue and the speed of service does not always allow time to buy a coffee. The queues for very busy destinations are mixed with others - one wonders why they put so few seats.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | July 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"queue for security stretching back past check-in"
H Riesner (United Kingdom)
Last night I was shocked to see the queue for the door to security was stretching back past the check-in desks at Lyon airport Terminal 1. Once my boarding pass had been scanned, there was still another queue before getting to the scanners, only two of which were operational with another massive queue at border control which I was still in at my flight departure time. People coming off the scanners were not joining the queue at the end but pushing in front, with officials not caring or dealing with this. I agree with previous poster that those on earlier departing flights were pulled out to go to front of the line which meant that others waiting were delayed longer. It seems like such a shambolic system. I've made this journey several times this last year but this is the first time I've experienced these terrible delays, although sadly it seems like a very common occurrence according to reviews here.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | July 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"departures very poor"
K Cordina (United Kingdom)
Arrivals in Lyon was OK, but even dashing off plane from the front row, immigration took 30 minutes. Departures very poor. BA check-in didn't open until 1.5 hours before departure, then a huge security queue and the departure area ispretty grim. No BA lounge available.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | June 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |