Nadi Airport

Spent 6 hours in transit at Nadi airport from Auckland to LA. The airport is still being renovated so some parts looked shabby, but the transit area itself wasn't too bad. There were a couple of food places (burger king and a sandwich/pizza place) and a few shops to look at. The majority of the staff were polite (the ones in the normal stores - book store and clothes stores) but the staff in the duty free stores were a bit rude and constantly followed us to see what we were doing. By follow I mean they literally a couple metres away from us from one store to the other. The staff there didn't know what personal space was. Overall it wasn't too bad of an experience, and I'm looking forward to my return tomorrow when I arrive back in transit from LAX.

Nadi Airport is small and manageable. The departure hall has many shops, so you can buy some last presents before you fly to your destination. The arrival hall has many travel agencies, so if you do not have accommodation when you arrive, they can help you. Fijian airport staff is very helpful. They also give you a welcome song in the arrival hall, which is very cute. The only thing which was new to us was the disinfection of passengers within the airplane when we landed. They sprayed us, before they let us out of the plane. Otherwise the airport is easy to navigate and is manageable.

Awful and painful experience. We got a 300€ fine for forgetting an apple in the bottom of a bag and got forced to sign that we had "willingly" taken the fruit to Fiji. Custom officer didn't speak and was basically rude. Shopping is uninteresting. The worst is really the contrast between the fake welcoming atmosphere and the overall rudeness of staff.

Our experience at this airport yesterday was a complete shambles. They are building the new airport around the existing one. The departures area is extremely small and very claustrophobic. Once through security, there is no view of the outside world until you go up the escalator and out to your aircraft. There are 2 areas for passengers to sit. Option 1: A white square room with seats that resembles a prison cell. Option 2: An old section near the airline lounges which has no airconditioning and resembles a coffin. There are 2 duty free shops and 2 food outlets in the airport, which when we were there was filled with passengers for 4 flights. When our (and other) flight was called for boarding, we were made to queue at the bottom of an escalator for about 15 minutes until we were allowed to rise up to the next level on the escalator and walk through to open air on the way to the airport. At security, we had already had our bags x-rayed and any bottles of water taken off us, but just before getting to the aircraft, we all had to open our bags again so they could be searched again and any bottles of water that had been purchased inside the airport were taken off us. Finally, after going up the escalator, we came to some steps that we had to walk back down to the ground to get to our Virgin 737 aircraft. It's sad that our last memories of Fiji had to be at this shambles of an airport, but we will hold on to our wonderful memories of Fiji and look forward to our next trip to Fiji in about 5 years when I assume the rebuilding work will be complete and Nadi will have a bright new airport with windows and open spaces to welcome people to and from their wonderful country.

Worn out dirty (especially the stained seats dining areas well every surface) dysfunctional. Information tables inadequate both in terms of technical quality (visibility) and the information. Unprofessional transfer and security services. They said that my suitcase had not arrived but I could see it standing there by the runway on a line reserved for vehicles all the tags correctly in place. Printers and computers out of order most of the time. A widespread neglect in the presence of so many idle hands could hardly otherwise be possible.

I did not expect too much from this airport especially as Fiji is just a small island and I have seen Rarotongan's airport so not much expected. I was however pleasantly surprised. Only a few gift shops and a couple of food outlets before going through immigration and then a few more gift shops and only a couple of food outlets after going through immigration. What impressed me was that the gift shops were not too repetitious and each had something different and although there were only a couple of food outlets there was not much that you couldn't get. My only gripe was the lack of air-conditioning especially noticeable when your flight gets delayed. Overall impressed and it is far better than Rarotonga but then again so if Fiji!

The airport is old it needs more air-conditioned services. Needs more food options and ATMs. The wi-fi needs improvement too.

Arrived in Nadi at about 4pm on a Boeing 737-800 operated by Virgin Australia. The airport had not changed much since the last time I had been there (5 years ago) - still old. Disembarkation was a little slower than average. Immigration and Customs were surprisingly quick albeit laissez-faire and the bags were ready almost immediately. A fresh supply of taxis were also awaiting at the terminal. Arrived for check-in at 12pm about 2.5 hours prior to departure. My return flight was on a 80-90% full Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800. For such a small capacity plane the line seemed huge. Nadi seems to separate its check in desks by airline and flight. So Virgin Australia had about 9 desks - 3 each for the Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane flights. As the Melbourne and Brisbane flights had not started check in this meant that only 3 desks for VA were open while the check in staff at the other desks had a nice chat. The line barely seemed to move at all - the same people stayed at some one of the desks for over an hour! I ended up getting through check in 90 minutes prior to departure: that's an hour wait for a small plane. Virgin Australia generally closes check in 90 minutes prior to departure but when I turned around the line was still very large. This is totally unacceptable. Getting through customs is fairly straight forward. Then you arrive in a large room with boarding gates off to the sides. There seem to be a lot of people in a small space. The terminal is not clean and the food options are not very good at all (albeit better than VA's offering).

Average airport showing its age. Jetbridges connect to an outdoor covered walkway system before channelling you inside. Through-flights strangely must disembark re-clear security then re-board. Smallish departure lounge has old and faded carpet and seats. A central bar is available along with a few other eateries and shops scattered about the perimeter of the seating area. Can be crowded when an Air Pacific widebody is departing but even then a seat can be found. Getting online is a bit convoluted as you must first purchase a voucher at one website and then go to another site to exchange purchased voucher for a set amount of online time but once online speed is reasonably fast. Immigration and customs was quick and professional. A small irritant is that rental car return is to the offices in the arrival area which then requires a bit of a walk outside over to the departures end of the airport. Check-in Security and outbound immigration are straight-forward and painless (Make sure to keep your departure tab from your arrival card which is collected on departure).

Small airport reasonable duty free shopping very small and crowded Air Pacific lounge. As a Business class traveller on arrival my luggage was removed from the carousel for me and placed in a "Business Class Travellers" area for collection.