Paphos Airport

Having been a regular visitor to Cyprus over the past 15 or so years PFO has been my most common airport of entry. New(ish) and recently extended it is growing as the inbound traffic grows but don't expect a huge airport with no planes. Its a small airport with many planes. Chicken & egg you see. Anyway its the only airport I've ever been at (no doubt there are others) where the baggage handlers on the airside smoke while they're on the apron. A bit third world and totally unprofessional never mind lethal (not for the smokers - but the potential for explosion!) which was a pity as Pafos is quite a western European type of place. They should clamp down on this dangerous practice and sack anyone they find smoking on the job. Otherwise it was OK and nicely located right on the coastline.

What can I say - myself and my wife had a great Honeymoon whilst in Paphos but it was just a shame it was spoilt by the airport!! We arrived from Manchester on Wednesday afternoon and the airport seemed extremely overcrowded as we entered the luggage collection point. They only have 2 carousels and they had 3 flights worth of luggage coming through on each one!! Although it was busy we did soon manage to collect our luggage and exit the airport. On our return day (a Wednesday again) we arrived at the airport only to be told that we would have to queue outside as there was no check in desk available yet - they hadn't finished checking in the previous tour operators flight! We were left waiting outside the airport for approx 45mins before being allowed in. Once we got inside we were met with the longest queue I have ever seen (we found out later that they were trying to check in 3 different flights at the same time). We then spent another 2 hours in the queue to check in. All the time we were waiting all the airport staff seemed to be in a complete panic and unable to do their jobs. Before we reached the front of the queue they were announcing final calls for passengers on our flight - and we still hadn't checked in our suitcases! Once we did manage to check in we were given seats apart from each other (and my wife doesn't particularly like flying) and had to run from the check in desk through to the departure lounge - then to the gate to catch the bus transporting us to the aircraft. Paphos is by far the worst airport I have ever been to and I don't intend ever flying there again - it spoilt what was otherwise a brilliant holiday.

Very small. Most hotels and charters change over on Wednesday so the facilities become dramatically overcrowded. Electronic messages may change several times before settling on final gate number. Tannoy announcements are almost inaudible.