Marseille Airport

The airport is nice, very clean and the queues are quick. The bathrooms are good and it is easy to know where to go as there are many directions signs and the seating is good. When I arrived, I had a long distance to walk and our passports were checked at border control, even though we were coming from Lisbon.

What a sad end to a wonderful week in Provence having to depart from this terrible airport. My wife, who has hip problems, had to stand for 20 minutes whilst two officials took their time in processing a queue of around 200 passengers. The solution to the un-acceptably long queues at the passport control is to have holding areas after passport control instead of leaving it to the point when passengers are boarding - can management not see this? The facilities in general are very poor. If we ever visit this part of France again it will certainly not be via this airport. Poor show Marseille.

✅ Verified Review | I have never seen such a poor terminal except Yangon's domestic terminal in Burma - that's how bad it is. Specifically: The building is like a warehouse with inadequate seating, poor design and cramped spaces for passengers. Metal barriers snake back and forth towards security and baggage drop. Signage is by hanging a metal sign on hooks instead of digital display. Toilets (only upstairs) were unclean and broken. No men's toilets had any seats. Disgusting! Snack points were expensive. I paid 10 euros for four tiny coffees in small paper cups. Waiting areas by the departure gate were too small and cramped. This airport is a disgrace to the region and a terrible introduction to Southern France. Avoid it if you can.

Marseille airport can only be described as a cattle market. There was a self service bag drop, followed by a slow trip through the security gates. Breakfast was a very expensive croissant and tea. However the passport control beat all this hands down. The queues were slow and although we had queued for 20 minutes, it looked like we would miss our flight. An announcement came over the tannoy in French and one of our fellow travellers let us know that if we didn't get a move on we'd miss our flight. We decided that we had no other option than to jump the queue. Wrong I know, but in the circumstances necessary. One of the passport controllers came bursting out of his cubicle shouting and gesticulating at us and ordered us back to the queue. Our pleas were dismissed. Now, you might think that we were teenagers intent on getting ahead, but no, we are 3 ladies in our late 50s. We had spent 5 days having a lovely time in France, and in 2 minutes this man has ruined our memories of a lovely trip.

Had read a lot of not so great reviews of Marseille airport. Not much to look at on the outside or inside but it was wonderfully efficient from bag drop to security and to boarding. Not the warmest of Air France staff but everything else was really smooth.

Most reviews are for the awful budget terminal. But even the nice 'looking' full service terminals for international flights are run haphazardly. No bag drop off until two hours before departure. This means for an international premium class ticket you will queue until two hours before your flight. The lines stretch across the terminal and they don't crowd control at all. People will cut in line, 'save' spaces for another 5 people and the entire experience takes more than an hour. For the only flight on that airline for the day, with a business class ticket. Then immigration, then security. Two hours is barely enough time given the illogical and inefficient setup they have created. This only applies to international - we split into 2. One international (terrible) and one domestic (fine - still with the stupid 2 hour rule, but much smoother and faster).

The terminal MP2 is appalling - it's easily the worst terminal I've ever used, both when arriving at Marseille and also leaving. I used to travel to Marseille regularly (as I used to live here), often flying Easyjet. However, this was my first experience of MP2 and I hope it'll be my last. I don't know what the airport shopping is like as I spent so long queueing in the endless and chaotic queues that I didn't have time to go shopping.

I use this airport at least twice a month, as a business passenger almost nothing is done to improve your passage through security - even if you checked-in online, you must still go to the check-in desk to receive a pass. No priority business lane for security and loud complains of other travellers if you want to pass in front of them (understandable), security staff lacks motivation and quite often only one lane open with a long queue while at the next lane the agents are chatting while doing nothing. Toilets are often dirty and even clogged for days. The business lounge has no windows, is noisy. The employees at the boarding-side cafeteria are not obliging.

This is the worst airport I have been to. Massive queues for security with one lane open for checking/x-raying bags while 4 other members of staff sat in adjacent lane doing nothing. After queuing for almost an hour there was no time to even go to Duty Free as we were told to go straight to Gate only to find another massive queue where our passports had to be checked again (this was the 4th time by now). Eventually, as it dawned on someone that the London passengers were all going to miss the flight, they brought us out of the queue and let us go first. When we got to 'departure lounge' we were herded into a small overcrowded area with no seats. I agree with an earlier review that there seemed to be a 'couldn't care less' attitude about the whole thing but I think it is the management that is at fault - it was the most inept management of resources I have ever seen. Also it looks like a dump.

Marseille itself is a wonderful, buzzing, cosmopolitan place, but this airport, or possibly just the Easyjet/Ryanair sector of it, lets it down. You enter into a general hall that includes a very nice café area, where you can wait for your flight check in to show. The use of computers and digital displays in this airport is almost non existent. When we noticed our Easyjet check in was open, it was via a wooden or stiff cardboard board above the Easyjet area. We had speedy bag drop which that weekend, might just not have existed (see my Gatwick review). There were two queues. We were second in the speedy queue but you'd not have known it. At least 5 people went though on the other queue before we were called forward. There were two check in desks but our attendant seemed to have a lot of admin before she could start the process. We eventually were called, showed our documents, the tags were put on our luggage. Then we were told to take our luggage through and to the right. This was via a crush barrier, not the sort that you see in the bigger airports but solid fixed steel like a cattle crush! We traversed this maze of a barrier, to arrive at another point where once again our credentials were checked/scanned and our luggage put on a conveyor. We then went into a general holding area, that had a news shop and coffee area, and quite nice seats. But the loos were upstairs. This next floor was obviously an overflow area as there were lots of seats and no one in them. Ladies, these loos were the worst I've been in even on campsites. There were three that I would not even go in. Clearly there is no regular check/cleaning. Gents were apparently good. Down in the general waiting area, we could see a doorway that appeared to lead to passport control and the gates, but signage was minimal. There was no digital departure board. There was a board that showed all current flights, but it didn't seem to be updated as an announcement for the first flight didn't result in any change on the board. Our flight was meant to be 11.20. At 10.40 we decided we'd best move closer to the gates/passport control. We found passport control, through another of the fixed barrier mazes. There were 4 booths, three of them manned.The two guys in the ones immediately facing , simply ignored us. I moved forward, the woman in the other booth told me to wait. There was a digital board facing them and clearly they were able to see flight information which we couldn't.As it was there was chaos at Gatwick, so our flight was delayed, but no-one told us. Eventually at 10.55 we were called forward, and I noticed one of the attendants from the check in desk carrying the Gatwick sign from the desk. She was setting it up at the gate as we approached. Speedy boarding, she said, to the left by the window. Given that one wall is a window, difficult to know where to stand. There was a door in the middle, and one at the far end. Eventually there was an announcement in French and English telling us to move down. It got to 11.15. The luggage was on the tarmac, as was the fuel, and two sets of steps. No plane. Said plane eventually arrived at 11.20 (for said 11.20 flight) There are no loos after passport control. (There is a warning notice) and no seating in the gate area. We were eventually boarded at about 11.55. Unfortunately the first step on front set to the plane was a little high for my arthritic knee, and no attendant there to help. Poor service!