Melbourne Airport

Give your self at least 1.5 hours or least a bit longer than the time allowed/provided by the airlines on international departures from Melbourne airport. I was shocked to see the immigration line in the secure zone. The immigration service serves its purpose but leaves a lot to be desired. If you only have 2 hours of transit time between a domestic and an international flight get to passport control as soon as possible!

The international airport is a disgrace. Arrived from Seoul at 9.30 it took until 11.30 to clear customs and leave the airport. The queuing is horrible and security staff officious and unhelpful. It is actually better to fly international to Sydney and catch a domestic flight to Melbourne.

I have travelled through Melbourne more than 60 times in the past couple of years and I can't wait for them to clean this Airport up. The ceilings are low its old parking costs a fortune and if you want to catch a flight on a Monday morning be ready for a 2km queue on the freeway. Arrival is terrible long queues with customs is very uninspiring. The only good thing about the airport are the people who are friendly.

Melbourne Airport the worst I have ever been through. I've been through it a number of times in the last 1.5 years and every time it takes 1-2 hours to leave the building. This morning I thought I was in luck because I only had carry on luggage so expected a 15 minute journey maximum but no somehow it managed to keep me in for over an hour again. Why don't you look at Changi Auckland or Munich and see why they are so much better.

I use Melbourne Airport regularly and it fails miserably on all fronts for arrival and departure. Throughout the airport the toilets are always filthy. For departure the queues at check-in security and immigration are not only unacceptably long but are staffed by impatient officious and surly staff. Arriving back there are belligerent and impatient government officials to welcome you and it is best to resign yourself to long delays and more offence when collecting baggage and clearing customs.

Very good airport nothing out of the ordinary - clean as is most of Australia. It has all you need. One thing that bugged me was the security staff/police - they were quite rude.

Despite living in Melbourne I try to avoid flying internationally out of and into Melbourne. Prices are extortionate food is of very poor quality parking embarrassingly expensive terminals are not spotless and toilets can be utterly filthy. Customer service is not high quality and staff can be embarrassingly rude to overseas visitors who try their best with limited English. SmartGate technology never works for me. If you arrive in the morning with 5 or 6 major flights arriving at once the Baggage Collection Hall is nothing short of a disgrace with queues for Customs and baggage collection mixing in with each other. No connecting rail service to the CBD a minus as well. Everything needs an upgrade and not just renovations or add-ons before I consider thinking better of my hometown airport. As alluded to a classic example of how other Asian countries are leaving Australian infrastructure far far behind.

Melbourne guided us around ever decreasing circles to access facilities with no moving pathways to help us. Absolutely exhausting toilets difficult to find few refreshment areas selling decent food or hot drinks. Parking charges extortionate with again a long walk. Recent building extensions badly designed quite unwelcoming.

Melbourne should be ashamed of this outdated and shabby structure. I have used the airport at least a dozen times over the past 2 years and it has to be one of worst I have ever been in. On inbound international flights you enter a bland and underwhelming building only to be met by long lines at immigration (worst wait is about 2 hours) then you trudge down to the baggage carousel area which has been under construction for 2 years and still has bit of ceiling falling down. Then another huge wait of 200+ people to get through quarantine. Departing flights are just as bad. A cold concrete structure with little natural light and poor design. Domestic security is fairly easy to get through and the Jetstar terminal is acceptable though more seating is needed at boarding gates. International departures again have huge line ups to get through immigration which then leads to a marathon like jaunt of twists and turns to get to your boarding gate - easily a 10 minute walk through duty free shops restaurants that make it the least direct route to boarding gates. Parking is the most expensive I've ever experienced. I read a report that the airport rakes in over $100 million a year in parking. So how about using that money to build a new airport.

The airport is ugly from the outside with countless signs barriers poor locations for buildings few gardens and so on. The car parking is ridiculously expensive. The inside is tired and old. The floors dirty the concrete floors near the taxi queues filthy. The taxis are usually horrible and dirty. The shopping is miserable the food average and outer suburb grade. When you land the entrance is underwhelming. The baggage queues are ridiculous and test everyone's patience. Customs and baggage queues can stretch 200-300 people. Overall its abysmal compared to Singapore or Bangkok or Hong Kong. Its a shocking example of how Asia is leaving this country behind. Industry ratings of this airport (good) are highly unrepresentative.