Newcastle Airport

A sad little airport that has so much potential but is being badly neglected due to a lack of attention. Starbucks had ran out of skimmed milk - at 10 o'clock in the morning! Security was easy and no problems. Inside the departure area it was a mess tables left uncleared and showed signs of having been that way for some time litter strewn on the floor and under seats. The gents toilet was acceptable. Then it was time to find our gate finally after some difficulty we realised that we had to walk through a shop to get there. Gate 3 was eventually found along a dark corridor. Inside the Gate 3 things were generally the same. My wife sat down and almost immediately fell over backwards as the seat was very loose on the attachment rail. Some lights were either off or not working and at least two (flourescent) lights were flickering.

It used to be one of the best airports but sadly not now. Drop off is a joke - management took a system that worked well and after at least four attempts to screw it up gave up and just stopped people dropping off/picking up at the terminal by fleecing them. Inside every other airport lets you know the gate in advance - not here - you have to physically walk through a shop (having already been accosted by credit card sellers) to get access to the main shopping/waiting area and you are kept there in the hope you spend money until they finally let you go to the gate just before departure. Staff are pretty good but the whole experience is tainted by the apparent overall aim to extract as much revenue as they can from passengers.

My local airport and I'm glad it is. Staff always friendly and helpful. Terminals clean and plenty of shops and things to keep you occupied in departures. Plenty of seating areas and lots of natural light make the whole experience great. Gate areas not always suitable 180 people crowded into a corridor due to a severe lack of seating at the gate. Arrivals usually quick if domestic sometimes can be an eternity if international and you arrive with the Emirates flight. Overall a fantastic regional airport.

Newcastle International is easy to maneuver as it's small but one big irritating thing I hate is their inefficient system of not listing the gate until the very last second! What gives with this sort of mentality? Someone ought to observe that there are many people who are anxiously awaiting to know which gate they need to get to. It does no good for the uncaring officials to tell people to just wait in the departures lounge for their gate to be shown on the screen. It's pretty obvious that the gate is already known by the airline so why keep it a secret from the passengers until the last minute? It would be best to just list it right off like at other airports (although stupid LHR has the same stupid procedure too) so that there aren't mobs of anxious passengers rushing to make their flights. Other than this issue NCL is a fine airport.

Recent return flight to Geneva during snowy period. Huge queues in drop off car park meant there was no way we could be dropped off within the first free 5 minutes and were charged a pound for going over. There are signs plastered everywhere saying "20 minutes parking for just £1"; "Just 20 minutes parking for £1" would be more appropriate. Other than ludicrous drop off charges a good experience. Bags on return journey made it to carousel before we made it from the plane.

Travel out of Newcastle at least once or twice a month on KLM to the Netherlands. Departure wise the airport is fine checking in and security never takes longer than 10-15 minutes and staff are mostly friendly and helpful. Facilities are passable but wouldn't like to be stuck there for more than a few hours. However if you're arriving it's a different story - have been stuck on the plane numerous times as we waited for a walkway or stairs. You'd think they didn't know we were coming. Also there always seem to be long queues at immigration - I know we live in days of heightened security but I never have a problem at Schiphol which always seems to have the same number of officials on duty as NCL. Baggage reclaim is just as bad always seems to be a long wait and don't even think about the words 'priority baggage'. All in all would be a pleasant airport to use if they could sort out the arrivals problems.

I use Newcastle frequently to travel around on business. It's really come on in the past few years and newly built section of the main departure lounge is great clean and open with wonderful views of the runway etc. As many have commented and I can second the toilets are a very hit and miss (often dirty/out of toilet roll/out of order) and this clearly needs to be addressed. The gate areas are probably next for a face lift and the wooden stairs and dirty carpets really need to be scrapped! All in all it rarely takes longer than 10 minutes to get through security and being a small airport it's easy to get everywhere. There's enough shopping/restaurants/bars to keep you entertained for around two hours but not much more!

Check-in was easy and security search was thorough yet polite. A couple of decent restaurants in the departure lounge as well as all the necessary outlets (duty free drugstore newsagency). Flight info screens updating every minute. Toilets a little scruffy but bearable. The gate corridors would also benefit from moving walkways.

Travel through Newcastle International regularly and staff are pleasant and helpful facilities are clean and the ground handlers tend not to lose your luggage or leave you hanging around for ever waiting for it to be unloaded. The only two criticism I can level at the airport are the processing through security can take an eternity (why only have two of the screens open when the queue is out of the door?) and that the Immigration officials need to process the arrivals more quickly (hit the arrivals hall at the same time as the passengers from the Emirates flight and you're in for a wait and a half).

Plane landed at 1155am. We were through customs picked up luggage and out the front door to our waiting car in 29 mins. What could be better than that?