Perth Airport

I am disappointed to say that our international airport is the worst I have experienced and improvements do not seem to be coming quick enough. There are not enough immigration officers to stamp incoming passengers leaving people waiting in line for unacceptable duration's of time. There does not seem to be any avenues for priority service for people travelling with young children. I understand that the eticket system would make things a lot quicker but majority of travellers still do not have this service on their passports. The quarantine line is unbelievable. I have found that you should add at least an extra 1 hour from the time you enter the immigration hall to getting out of the hotel to get through all the systems.

I can forgive the lack of duty free shopping and food options as I understand its not a very busy airport. I could even forgive the poor facilities and the cheap low grade look if it were not for the horrible staffing - luggage check-in immigration officers quarantine officers parking and traffic controllers. Their unfriendliness is only matched by inefficiency and ineffectiveness of their systems.

Airport is a joke with outdated facilities and terrible layout. The international and domestic are at separate terminals (shared runway) however have no shuttle or train connections. The parking staff (drop-off/pick-up) are awful and cannot cope when multiple cars pull up at once. Completely below international standards not recommended. Lounge facilities also small.

Very poor connection shuttle service between international and domestic. Service is trying to serve both city bound and terminal transfer passengers. As all bags are unloaded at international for customs clearance and have to be resubmitted at domestic. The need a terminal transfer bus only and not mixing with city bound passengers. These buses are not designed for ease of access to baggage. Chaotic really. International passengers should be able to recheck-in luggage for domestic travel at the international area and not have to lug it across town.

Transport to and from the airport is either via private car taxi or an overpriced shuttle bus. Don't bother with public transport as it exists in the form of a slow and winding suburban bus route that just happens to end up at the domestic terminal. The international terminal is over the other side of the runway and isn't even served by public transport. The terminals are small and are in no way capable of handling the number of people that use the airport I have used all 3 and they are pretty much all as bad as each other.

The International terminal cannot handle the arrival of 3 planes at midnight causing long queues and waiting at customs for nearly 2 hrs. Even the immigration has only 2 counters operating for non-Australian people and 400 people waiting. Awful facilities.

I'm a retired person and when I had the unfortunate task of departing Perth I was forced to walk down 23 very steep stairs with my carry on luggage in order to get to the aircraft. Nowhere was there any signage to say that this is what was in store for the unsuspecting traveller and if there was an elevator for passengers to use they kept very quiet about it. No help available! Also there seems to be no public transport between Perth City and the international airport. This is definitely an airport.

Shops are sometimes not even open before you go though immigration. If your try to go through the immigration area too early (by their standards) the security entry door will either not be open at all or you will be stopped and made to turn around. Once through immigration the security and hand luggage check line can be so long - where are the staff when they know the flights that will be leaving? Then you finally wait to get on board your plane and low and behold as you go through the gate you find your self having to descend two large flights of steps with your hand luggage in tow. The elderly are in for a rough time with this. Who ever designed this user- unfriendly feature of steps to go to the gate is just plain crazy! (Ever heard of ramps?).

Perth Airport is a small international airport by any terms but the increasing air traffic in the last few years had caused the airport to struggle when it comes to peak periods. To get the best of going through the procedures when departing make sure you arrive on time then there will be the least hassle. Check-in during weekday afternoons when Malaysia Singapore and Qantas all depart within 20-30 minutes within each other can be a hassle but it always done without fuss. The same goes with immigration and security procedures have improved efficient-wise in the last few years. The downsides are that food and parking are way overpriced. Arrivals is a different story immigration queues are acceptable (even better if you're an Australian passport holder) and so is baggage reclaim but if you have something to declare with customs especially during peak hour you're looking at a wait of up to an hour! Overall it is an okay airport but could be improved immensely and with the master plan that Perth Airport is currently implementing these issues will hopefully be sorted out.

Arrived at 5:45am and walked into total chaos. A number of flights leave at this time so departure area in Virgin domestic full to capacity. No shops open and one coffee stall with a line which had no end. I use this airport often for business travel and it has changed very little. The recent upgrade is a joke for an airport in a resource rich state like Western Australia.