Munich Airport

I'm a very frequent traveller, with over 70 flights per year (single direction) to different destinations all around the globe mostly for business reasons. Out of those flights at least ten depart or arrive at Munich airport. Positive is the overall organization of the airport. There are short queues at check-in and security check. Excellent is the location of the Lounges. The waiting time for luggage at arrival is acceptable. The airport is clean, which included the toilets. Very negative is the unfriendliness of the ground staff at the security check, it's among the worst I've experienced. Hence I avoid Munich airport, whenever I can. Here are some examples: On my holiday trip with my family this year, a male 50+ and a female 40+ officer at the security check (Terminal 1) shouted at my 2-year old child, who I was carrying, they forced me to immediately remove my child from my shoulder. The outcome was a scared, confused, crying baby, for no reason. They repeated the same with another mother with her baby right after me. On a business trip a female security officer and her supervisor (Terminal 2), both 50+ questioned me in a very unfriendly manner about a cosmetic item I had with me and they forced me to throw it away.

Munich Airport Terminal 1 gates C are a mess. Security lines impossibly long. No signage to go to upper floor check-in. Queues are disorganized. No fast track for frequent travelers. 1-star experience - you think they would realize it was holiday season and be prepared?

The check-in and immigration pocess at Munich Airport Terminal 1 is simply horrific. It is terribly disorganized for a country such as Germany which is ostensibly known for organization and efficiency. I arrived on 6 August and was in line at immigration at Terminal 1 for close to an hour. The EU citizen line and the other passport holder line both converge at the end where, despite several available immigration kiosks, only 4 employees were checking passports. There was a family at the front of the line having an issue with their entry that bogged down the line the entire time I was processing through the queue. Departure was even worse. The check in lines for the carriers at Terminal 1 were backed up and, after a while, melted into what was the most horrific immigration line I have ever been in. This is from someone who has gone through airports in Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and other spots not known for high airport quality. For well over an hour the line plodded while family after family and individual after individual further added to the delays by cutting to the front of the line after speaking with a junior airport official who at no point checked their tickets or verified their passports or boarding documents. Of 6 available stations only 2 were manned the entire time. I am glad I arrived nearly 3 hours prior to departure but I should not have to. Munich Airport, you are an embarrassment.

Utterly unimpressed. The airport was totally disorganised. I wanted to get to a bag drop desk but the entry to it was blocked by two separate queues side by side running across the entrance to it. What were the two queues for - no way of knowing other than to follow them. (It turned out that one was going to a set of check in desks and the other to security). The queues were unregulated with people joining from all angles. Appalling. Security had to stop the queue of passengers while they dealt with somebody who failed the basic screen - they could not segregate him and continue to check other passengers. They did have a problem with Delta airlines at the time so the lack of space inside the secure area is more understandable but they did not cope with that well with only limited announcements and only one board giving airline/flight/gate details.

I am flying from Munich airport Gate D01 and there is not enough seating for the 4 gates boarding at once. Staff not friendly. One place to eat I waited for 30 minutes to get a coffee. No thanks, Frankfurt is nicer. Security check was passable. Cleanliness was also fair.

Long queues and very inefficient at Munich Airport. Used to be known for its efficiency and was a pleasure to fly to / from. Just arrived from London and have been stood waiting at immigration for an hour. Not a great welcome to Germany.

I was hoping initially that in Germany airports, things will be efficient. My hope was dashed at Munich airport. Arriving at the airport 3 hours before scheduled departure and things did not go well from the beginning. Took 1.5 hours to get boarding pass, 1 hour to clear immigration, leaving pretty much as one of the last groups to enter the plane. Let me describe the immigration queue at the B terminal. 2 counters for EU citizens, at the time only about 10 people queuing. 1 counter for first class / priority, which is not me. 2 counters for the rest of the folks, where about 100-120 people are waiting. There are I think 3 more counters available at the time, but unmanned. There is no initiative to shift counters, or open up more counters. It does not take a genius to figure out that it will be a long queue time. We were not the only one complaining, even the locals were complaining. Ended up running all the way to the gates and no time to enjoy this top 10 airport.

Great Airport. Had a 11 hour transit while traveling to San Francisco. So took the liberty of roaming around both the terminals looking for Lounges and various shopping centers. Terminal to Terminal travel by both airport buses and trains were both fast and easy. It has a number of shopping centers especially in Terminal 2 to look into though the prices as expected from a International airport were quite high.

We flew from Munich Airport from one of the C gates. I was really surprised by the chaotic system to go through the passport control into security. There were 3 desks and about 5 queues. A staff member kept changing the dividers around so that parts of one queue were joined and separated repeatedly from other queues. So some people were through in a few minutes but others (like us) took 45 mins to reach security. I spoke to a staff member about this and he said it was "Not his problem". Beyond security in departures there were more queues for food etc and no seats. Staff seemed unhappy (perhaps too many complaints). Not a great experience.

Transited through Munich from San Francisco to Cologne, having elected to avoid FRA. Nice airport. New, spacious, clean, and easy to navigate on foot without needing shuttles or complicated transitions between terminals, easy to get through security/passport control. Very nice food options, interesting shops, spacious gates. Flew Lufthansa and had excellent on-time and connections. Really liked the end of the H terminal with large area for passengers to gather before the long haul flight. Get there early and you can grab one of about 8 "gravity" chairs where you can lean back with legs up. Nice touch. My only complaint is that in some areas of the airport, the shopping mall feel is so predominant that it overwhelms the airport signage and to reach boarding areas it feels a bit like taking a side hall out of the mall. Once in the boarding area, though, signage is very clear. Also spent one night at the airport Hilton on the inbound flight. Super easy to just walk over and check in.