Norwich Airport

Super little airport. Mind you I wouldn't want to be delayed there for to long nothing much to do airside. I was home within 20 minutes after picking up my cases. Thats worth the £5.00 airport fee. Just hope that they can get a LCC in to cover Spain and France.

Took my wife and kids to Norwich airport yesterday for a flight to Bangkok. Parked my car in the car park for about 20 minutes to ensure they were checked in OK - £1.50pa total rip-off! Was going to buy my wife and 2 kids a hot drink before checking in but I refuse to pay over £5 for 3 cups of tea - forget about buying a breakfast unless you want to pay 5 star hotel prices. The worst part of the whole episode is the iniquitous Airport Development Fee (just another method of further fleecing the traveller). I paid over £2500 for my family's tickets but they couldn't proceed through to the Departure Lounge until they stumped up a further £5 each! This charge is so unpopular and unfair I have heard normally calm people start swearing when they have to pay just to get in to the departure area but they have no choice. Originally they charged £3 which drove many people to use Stansted it was so unpopular but management instead of scrapping this charge increased it to £5! The next time we go on holiday we definitely won't be using Norwich Airport I'd rather travel all the way to Heathrow and I only live 25 miles away from Norwich.

Probably the worst experience in modern travel can be had at Norwich Airport. I fly on business regularly through Norwich and have done for almost 20 years. Check in staff are often rude and spend more time chatting and discussing the previous nights clubbing events during checking in passengers. Compared to all other airports I experience regularly worldwide it is the only Airport which applies a supplementary fee (now £5 per person) which is not advertised until you arrive at the airport. If You do not pay the 'Airport development Fee' you WILL not be allowed to go through to departures whether domestic or international. For this fee you obtain the privilege of a single choice of Cafeteria (with extortionate costs for food and drinks) a single Bar a single shop and toilet. Parking fees - you get 5 minutes drop off time (which i'm told will be reduced to 3 mins in Jan 2009) in the short stay airport only and if you exceed this must pay a £1.50 fee and any other time is again extortionate.

As someone who is forced to use this airport twice a month to and from Amsterdam the attractions soon pall. True NIA check staff now bother to open earlier than one hour before departure (huge improvement) but not so long ago we poor suckers on the Amsterdam flight would all be queing one hour before the published departure time - the desk wouldn't open till one hour before ETD after which someone would deign to leave their coffee break to process the huge queue whereupon we would immediately be called to the gate. After packing us on we would frequently take off half an hour before scheduled time. In the ladies toilets in Departures there is no PA. The individuals on the staff at Norwich Airport are amiable enough but Norwich Airport's management have obviously never used an airport as a customer in their life and have no idea how real airports serve real customers

My wife checked in for a Flybe flight to Chambery on 16/02/08. The girl manning the desk appeared to be more interested in continuing her conversation with a nearby colleague and failed to hand back my wife's flight document until requested a few minutes later. She was then dismayed along with other departing passengers to have to pay a £3 development fee. There was no indication that her flight was delayed for over 1 hour. On my wife's return on 23/02/08 there was no indication or announced information that her incoming Flybe flight would be delayed by a couple of hours and I was compelled to spend a rather bleak few hours in Norwich airport that was virtually closed - even the coffee machine did not function properly-- perhaps your development fund could attend to that! Stansted for us next time.

My local airport. Was surprised that security staff and gate staff had never seen a KLM online boarding card before - gate staff weren't certain what to do as there was no tear-off section! Airport Development Fee is a bit of a rip-off as NWI charges are already quite high in comparison to many other U.K. airports. Catering charges expensive as usual in U.K.

We enjoyed its simplicity the parking we pre-booked online with NCP and was £75.00 for the fortnight. Check-in was a breeze. Going through customs we were surprised at having our pictures taken as you don't see that at the other airports. The departure lounge is small but you can see all the action through the big windows. Its a pity that Norwich does not have a longer runway as our plane Boeing 737 had to really put his brakes on hard to be able to stop before running out of runway although it may have been the pilot not getting it down soon enough! Flying from Norwich does seem to be more expensive but I would certainly see if a flight is available the next time we book a holiday.

Having just taken a regular flight from Norwich airport I just want to say a few words about the airport. Firstly living in Norwich it’s just a Taxi ride and with check in on most flights even international are only a 1hour and last check in 25mins what a saving on time. (Compared to a 2-3 hours drive and 3 hour check in) It is a lovely small airport but with all the usual facilities (bars food halls shopping car hire money exchange). The staff always seems to be very friendly helpful and flexible but then you can where passengers numbers are on smaller size. It also has a fairly high security outlook as they having taking photo’s at customs for years. Having KLM flying to Amsterdam 5 times a day we can get flights anywhere to the world anytime. They now have also got two new low cost airlines now starting domestic and international flights. The only slight downside is the cost of airport Taxes they seem to be one of the most expensive in the UK.