Newcastle Airport

Not Verified | It is beyond belief that when arriving back from holiday into Newcastle the queue was so bad to get through passport control that the escalator had obviously been disabled by the airport. The e-gates have been installed, a grand total of 5, when I believe 3 holiday flights had landed, the area consists of around 10% of the overall space of machines and the other 90% for customers to be pushed through the area like herded cattle! When I mentioned to a member of staff that the situation was really unacceptable, having arrived from Malaga where they had 14 e-gates for one area of the airport, I was greeted with “not enough staff, what do you want me to do” I don’t really know when it became acceptable for paying passengers to be treated like animals and idiots but shame on you Newcastle Airport, shame on you!

Not Verified | We live in the North East and choose to fly from Newcastle for convenience, however we may choose to fly from Manchester or Leeds next time. The check in with Jet2 and through security is spot on but once you get through to the departure lounge it is a different story. We were flying at 06:45 and although relatively quiet at the time the general seating was dirty with rubbish lying around. The best is yet to come. £30 for 2 drinks and 2 bacon and egg sandwiches. We waited 45 minutes for the sandwiches and when they came we could not eat them. They looked like slop and they tasted just as bad. No time to argue though as we actually needed to board the plane. It has to be the worst airport we have ever been to.

✅ Trip Verified | This is my third visit to Newcastle airport this year and every visit it just gets worse. No complaints with check in or security, it is the general cleanliness of the whole departure area. From filthy tables chairs floors and fixtures of the establishment's. The dust and dirt is thick and the staff do not seem to care, walking past full tables with litter and glasses. Try and find a clean table, impossible. Coming from Newcastle myself, I feel annoyed that tourists must see this and first impressions of our wonderful city are not great.

✅ Trip Verified | High marks for NCL. Planned my departure so that there would be few people queuing for security. I was number 3 in line and there were three available security lines. Got through in no time. As per usual, these days, one has to go through duty free to get to the gates. Rather good amount of shopping for a small airport, but few services once you get to the gate areas. Doubletree Hotel at the airport, and Metro takes you to city center in about 20 minutes.

Not Verified | We travelled to Lanzarote on 05 June from Newcastle and I will say that it was well organised and we had no complaints. Travelling back in the around hours of 13 June however was a totally different experience! We landed early and entered the terminal building to be faced with a queue for passport control at the bottom of the turned off elevator. To get through the e-passport system took over 1 hour. People with non EU passports actually cleared customs well in advance of us. Should we by chance had a connecting flight we would have missed it. Also approximately 20% of the people failed the e-passport and had to re-queue and go through the old fashioned way. We were given the excuse that 5 flights had landed simeltaneously but I do think that air traffic control knew exactly what time each flight would land so the airport should have organised accordingly. It was shoddy and makes you consider using other airports. We have never had the issues at Leeds Bradford!

Not Verified | I have travelled from and to Newcastle airport many many times without any kind of complaints. During the early hours of Sunday morning landed disembarked via a tunnel downstairs then back upstairs to arrive at massive gridlock of people waiting to go through passport control, it snaked dangerously up a staircase and stopped escalator then zig zagged through the departure area. There were two flights and around 400/500 passengers all waiting at least one hour to pass through. The use of electronic passport checking should speed up things but it was shockingly slow. I would hate to be here in a few weeks time at peak holiday period. For an "international airport" it just isn't good enough.

Not Verified | Took 1 hour to get through departure. Herded like cattle, no time to grab a drink before boarding. We arrived 2 hours before take off. Arriving home to Newcastle the escalators were turned of and again treated like cattle. E-passport system not good and we had to eventually go to border person. It took nearly an hour to get through, it was awful. We all pay good money to go on vacation - why are we treated so abysmally?

✅ Trip Verified | Departing from this airport is a pleasant experience in all aspects, however arriving back to the U.K. is nothing short of a joke. Our flight landed at 12.57 am and after a short walk to the terminal there was an escalator at which there was a sea of people at the top we had to shout to ask people to move forward as there were more people behind us, there could have easily been a nasty accident at this point as there were passengers from 2 flights trying to get through border control. It took us nearly an hour to reach border control to find one very surly woman at a desk who only very occasionally beckoned passengers to her desk to be cleared, thankfully she did usher the few people with children through but most of the time she just sat and watched her 2 colleagues trying to ferry passengers through the e machines and only 5 e-passport machines at that, there should have been more desks manned considering there would have been over 400 passengers trying to clear customs at this point this is quite clearly not enough and is not acceptable if this is the system they wish to use. When we finally reached the luggage carousel we found in their infinite wisdom they had put the luggage from both flights on one carousel thankfully we didn’t have to wait long for ours we finally left the airport at 2.05am. Considering this is supposed to be an international airport they really need to get their act together and sort it out, if it’s like this with 2 flights god only knows how they will cope when they probably have more than 2 arrive during the day.

✅ Trip Verified | This is our local airport and in general it is an excellent airport from which to depart and arrive. However, I write this to inform passengers of an unreliable 'meet and greet' Car parking system. I have only used it three times and had problems on two separate occasions. On the first occasion we arrived back very early morning and Our car was not there. We had to wait for it to be collected and brought to the meet and greet between 20 and 25 minutes. The second occasion was fine. On the last occasion I booked online and paid for a gold standard valet £39.99 On arrival I was told they do not valet cars during May and June. After a conversation they said they would honour this. Arriving back at 1.00am I found the valet had not been done. Whilst I am sure I will get a refund and probably a verbal apology, I am not confident this will change the service for others. These issues may be minor but they do leave a frustrating feeling when you have had a wonderful holiday. My advice to travellers would be not to use meet and greet. The airport is small and both short and medium term parking is close. I will not be using again.

❌ Not Verified | Normally we are happy with our experience in this airport. However on arrival at Newcastle on Sunday 13th May it took 25 minutes to clear passport control - not a good experience at all. New e-passport booths have been introduced but the system could not deal with the volume of passengers and officers were herding people like cattle.