Nice Airport

T2 is inadequate for the volume of people passing through. There are insufficient seats only one cafe (again with insufficient seats) which with typical French bureaucracy has a queue all the way to the poorly stocked Duty Free shop. Car Rental desks would be a joke if you didn't have to queue in them - taking 10-15 minutes per customer to process.

Flew into Nice T2 from Liverpool to have a 45min wait for passport control the problem was only one person checking the EU only queue and two people checking the non EU queue but there was no one waiting for non EU?. The baggage to a further 20mins to arrive so over an hour for luggage. The return wasn't much better - firstly security was poor with a lady in front allowed to take liquid through which is banned. After passing security T2 is very poor with no seating available and a very poor selection of shops / dutyfree. The only positive was the swift easyjet check-in.

The new Terminal 2 really makes Terminal 1 look "tatty". Much less crowded and smooth handling. My main criticism is that the "kiss and fly" drop-off lane has a concrete kerb on both sides so you are stuck in it until the cars in front leave.

Things have improved. Terminal 1 in particular is a better and less claustrophobic experience now that many carriers have moved to T2. However T1 is showing its age many of the seats in the airside holding area are still so filthy that I would not wish to sit on them. If there is a problem in keeping them clean then the covering material should be either something cheap and replaceable or plasticised for easy cleaning. Luggage delivery and check in are both faster. Boarding announcements are often inaudible or unintelligible or both. The prices of the catering facilities in both terminals is a scandal about €3 for a small bottle of water. This is daylight robbery particularly now that one is not allowed to take one's own water through security. Why can't they have drinking water fountains? The answer is obvious - rampant greed. This should not be allowed.

It is always a pleasure to transit through this airport. I've seen it improve over the years. The management of the Paris airports should come here and take some lessons on how to run an airport. They certainly need to. Or even better they should be sacked and replaced by the Nice management but then perhaps Nice wouldn't be so good.

Nice Airport 2030 last Friday night. Three Easyjet flights to UK leaving within 20 minutes of each other between 2130 and 2150 from T2 plus at least one other international Non Schengen departure so perhaps close to 500 people. Queue stretching halfway across the terminal and back again. 25 minutes standing in queue. ONE passport official on duty. This is a fairly normal situation and one I am told the airport authorities have taken up with the Police (who provide the passport officials) and who refuse to do anything. could probably live with that if it were real security if they were checking passports if the process made us safer. Our passports are all in leather covers as I handed them towards him he waved me through without even looking inside - the covers could in fact have been empty. Is this security? The seats in the departure are filthy and tatty. Not surprising when you see how people use them. I saw one man sitting there picking his feet in full view of everyone. Non smoking zones are treated as a joke and this airport supposedly the gateway to one of the world's prime tourist areas is pathetic. Luggage delivery times are unacceptable too.

The airport is fine fairly clean and easy to use. I fly out of here once about once a year. My only current complaint relates to a pre-check-in security inspection on a recent international departure. We had purchased a small (12 cm across) very fragile ceramic plate on our trip. We carefully packed this plate in our carry-on luggage. During a hand inspection at security the inspector demanded that this plate be placed in our checked luggage since it could be used as a weapon (she motioned how you could hit someone over the head with it). Believe me it seemed an incredible concept that you could injure someone with this small thin incredibly fragile plate. Yet the inspector persisted and we anxiously placed the plate in our checked luggage. The amazing thing was that in the duty free store in international departures (long last the final inspection) the place is selling huge strong appearing ceramics which one really could use to cause damage.

Nice has always been my favourite airport because of the beautiful views (both when you land/take off and from the terminal) and its friendliness and lounges but now they show they are innovative too. Their 'Airport Premier' system puts to absolute shame larger European airports such as LHR and CDG which I use most often. Now if you fly at least 10 times a year out of Nice you'll get a speedy (separate Airport Premier line) and extra-secure (biometric tests etc) security control as well as number of discounts in the shops and restaurants and reserved parking areas close to the terminal entrances. This is what I call intelligent and efficient customer service. By contrast I fly out of Heathrow at least 20 or 30 times a year and never feel privileged in any way: queues tend to be long at security food is expensive etc. CDG where I transit most often is hardly better.

In the terminal which deals with flights to and from Edinburgh the number of shops and their contents are very few. It is also disappointing that in a French airport the selection of French beauty products and French perfumes is so poor. On the positive side the airport is both extremely clean and comfortable which is one of the reasons that I will be passing through it in three week's time.

I agree with the (mostly) positive comments about this airport which despite its size feels friendly and is clean well-maintained and beautifully situated. My only small gripe is that a long wait at car hire offices is often necessary - the numbers of staff do not seem to relate at all logically to periods of high activity. but once you have the car - and have negotiated some eccentric signing around the roadworks close to the airport - you're quickly on your way on the excellent autoroutes du sud.