Paphos Airport

The only real downside to visiting Paphos is the airport experience. The interminably long queues to process passport information is appalling and simply a disgrace. Add to that, chaos at baggage collection added up to 1.5 hour delay from landing to leaving airport. The experience leaving is hardly better - again long, long queues to clear passport control. The Cypriot authorities need to take a long hard look at this situation if they wish to hold onto the tourists who already visit, never mind trying to increase tourist numbers. Employing more staff to cover peak periods would be a start.

Arrival - shocking we have never experienced queues like it. On arrival we couldn't even get into the terminal from the plane as the queues were so long. It took us 20 minutes to get into the building and a further hour to get to the actual immigration desk. The immigration officers were so slow it was almost as if they were causing the delays on purpose. Eventually we got to the bag collection assuming that the bags would be there ready for collection but no, we had to wait a further hour for them to come onto the belt. Departure - Queues for check in were as expected however it went downhill from there. The queue for security was really long and again the staff seemed really obstructive, no sooner did we get through that queue, we arrived at the immigration desk and queued for a further hour and a half. We arrived at the airport 3 and a half hours early for our flight and had barely 20 minutes before the flight boarding sign went up. They couldn't even get the boarding correct, we went through boarding check in ready to board the plane got put outside where it had got cold and windy and there were no buses to take us to the plane, we waited there for over 30 minutes which then caused our plane to be delayed. Don't use this airport unless you really have to.

In all my years of travelling I have never experienced chaos at an airport like I did in Paphos - from the minute you walk in you join a very long queue to check in. Then another queue to have your boarding pass checked, then another queue to go through security. A very long queue to have your passport checked and the officials take a very long time to process this queue. After all this queuing and checking your left with minutes to get to your gate which is shared with another flight. The staff are rude and seem badly trained - blaming passengers for holding up flights but those passengers are so busy going from one queue to the next that they don't know what's going on. I love Cyprus but will use Larnaca in future - Paphos is a disaster.

Shambolic would be kind. On arrival there were six gates open but four flights arrived at the same time - we had to stand in a stationary queue for over 35 minutes on arrival. Really badly organised. Departure was much the same fiasco, two flights asked to board at the same gate. Luton and Edinburgh passengers were unsure what/who had to go through first and the staff only hindered matters.

Two words – Disaster Area. Arrived at peak time in the early evening to find the arrivals hall already packed. Just three immigration officers on duty, totally inadequate for the several hundred passengers arriving per hour at that time of day. I joined a queue, but as more flights arrived and more passengers were herded into the arrivals hall the queueing quickly broke down as all the available space was filled and people simply started pushing in with predictable frayed tempers. After about 30 minutes, the hall was rammed and passengers simply thronged around the immigration kiosks. I can't blame the passport control officers, but no attempt was made by the airport authorities to impose any sort of organisation; I think they just gave up and disappeared when things got difficult. Total time between entering the building and passing through immigration (a distance of about 20 metres) was 1 hour 15 minutes. Returning home was marginally better, but only by comparison. Once again, it was late afternoon peak time, but with just one official carrying out ID checks on passengers heading airside, and just two out of four baggage scanners in use (a third was eventually turned on) long queues quickly built up. There were six passport control officers on duty, but some people were running so late for their flights by this time that three of the kiosks were being used for fast tracking passengers who had been held up so long in the queues that their flights were boarding. There were at least belt barriers in place to encourage proper queueing and staff on hand attempting to keep things organised, but again from entering the terminal to clearing passport control was 1 hour 15 minutes, and the queues were only getting worse behind me. As I boarded my flight, I noticed arriving passengers queueing outside the arrivals hall back towards the apron, so this is clearly an ongoing problem. I love Paphos, but I don't think I'll be going back until I hear that things have improved at the airport, which (at least at peak times) seems to suffer a toxic combination of capacity constraints and understaffing. And this is the gateway to one of 2017s European Capitals of Culture.

How can Paphos propose to be City of Culture in 2017, and how can the airport truly meet international expectations? Having had to leave my accommodation early (as do most tourists) and with only a night flight to catch I am facing a 12 hour wait at Paphos Airport. There are no left luggage facilities which I was hoping to use and spend the day at the Harbour. Whilst I appreciate in this day and age unattended luggage causes most airport operators to shy away from left luggage storage, I understand such an amenity is still available at other bigger airports such as Heathrow. Why can't they offer screened secure chargeable luggage storage? Facing half a day at the airport what can I do? No one at the airport information desk. All morning. I have been here since 9am. The man on the assisted services desk tried to send me to store my luggage at the special baggage desk. I don't think so. I would have liked to have gone to a nearby hotel to have a day pass use. No information to help me. Perhaps there would be a paid lounge I could use? Not landside. Check in is not opening for me for 10 hours to enable me to get airside. There is a Costa Coffee and that is it. What a truly great international airport Paphos is not. I could have easily spent another €200 today bolstering the local economy. Instead I am shuffling between the few benches inside and outside the airport looking at a car park whilst being called to by taxi drivers. I could use them but I just don't know where to go.

I recently flew back from this airport after getting married in Cyprus. We were flying Ryanair and had already been told before flying out 3 weeks before that are flight had been changed to the 10pm flight. We arrived at the airport around 7.30pm as we had to bring the hire car back. On entering the airport, the screen stated that the flight was delayed. I went to the information desk and was told that we were not able to check in yet. I asked how long the delay was and they said the flight was expected at 11pm. This was fine and we went to get coffee whilst waiting for the check in desk to open. Ten minutes later, check in opened and we were checked in. Security was its normal routine of unloading stuff into trays and then reloading it back into bags. Then came the waiting. As we expected the delay, we were quite happy to sit in the coffee shop. However, the confusing thing was when the screens stated at 10pm that are flight gate was open. There are only 2 gates for Ryanair and neither was open. We waited another 30 minutes in utter confusion. We were then told over (a very quiet) speaker that our flight would not be in until 11.20pm. This was fine however the screens then stated were boarding. Total confusion throughout the airport. At 10.40 another message came over speaker to state that the food court would be closing at 11pm and that if we wanted food that we were to purchase it before the flight as there would not be any on the flight. This did not shock me that the food court was closing as airports are not 24 hr places anymore, however we were to be on a plane for 4 and a half hours over an unusual time period and no food would be served. This was explained to me by one of the passengers who frequently fly Ryanair that it is so they can get the flight back out quicker. Anyway, about 11ish we were all lined up at the gate, which was much relief to everyone standing in the line. We were priority so we went through out the back door towards the runway, only to be directed to a what I can only describe as a holding pen. Metal bars, a dozen metal chairs cemented to the floor and what felt like a hundred people all put in this pen. We could all see out onto the runway, where there was no plane, well until it started landing. We watched the plane land in 25 degree heat and watched the passengers get off. We then watched for 20 minutes as their luggage was taken off the plane and ours started being put on. We then got escorted out onto the runway and allowed to board the plane. I have flown many flights in my life and have flown in and out of paphos airport several times. However, I have never been subjected to this kind of service before. All I can say is get rid of the holding pen.

I had assistance at the airport, well it was fantastic, from check in through to security. The assistance staff are very helpful and friendly, I waited in the the departure area for boarding, in which disabled were boarded before other people, so no overcrowded buses. Staff were fantastic.

This was an awful experience. It took us nearly an hour and a half to check in, and clear passport and security. It was 8pm and the temperature was unbelievable. There is no air conditioning or even fans. Airside there was limited seating and we were called to gate before the previous plane had finished boarding. Again no fans/air-conditioning. Metal seats are very uncomfortable and the cost of drinks varies widely! Buses to take us out to the plane were over crowded and ours took us to the wrong plane which was rather worrying. We had had a beautiful holiday in Paphos but next year we will return to France as this airport experience was so dreadful.

The worst aiport I've ever been to, check in the slowest in the world. Queues are enormous, ground staff are so slow. You get to security and they check your passport and boarding card then you get screened and then bags scanned, after that you would normally be in the airport but no another security check for passports and boardig passed. I'm sorry but over 2 hours of queing is an utter joke, the staff are so rude and the cages are a joke, it is like being in a prison cell. It was just as well it was dark but over 190 passangers in one cage is a joke. I don't think that I will go back to Paphos due to the aiport.