Pisa Airport

Pisa Airport on arrival the luggage collection area was a total sham. Crowded with no information it became an adventure game to try and find which carousel the luggage arrives. The toilets are to small and the queue was long so if you need to use the toilet you are in for a treat. The car rental area has now moved and is about 250 yards from the main terminal building and is accessed via a free shuttle bus service expect long queues here also. Forget the shuttle bus if you drop the car off early it's an obstacle course of a walk in the dark. Will they ever finish the road works? On departure also expect a long queue as the customs and baggage search fiasco starts where rules are made up depending on their mood. A total farce in my opinion. If you are buying cigarettes and drink get them in the supermarkets prior to departure.

I flew from Pisa Airport in July the flight was two hours late departing. It was a Saturday morning and busy with scheduled and budget carriers the place was chaos - the reason for our delay? 'they didn't have enough buses to transport passengers from the terminal to the aircraft'. I flew from Pisa again on 8th Sep - late again - the place was chaos again. Reason for delay? 'they didn't have enough buses to transport passengers from the terminal to the aircraft'.When are the carriers going to get a grip on the airport management? They accept the fees from the passengers/carriers but do little to improve the service why? because the alternatives are so limited and they don't care? - Florence is too small Bologna too far away as is Rome - the place is a nightmare at busy times.

Small but convenient. Almost in the town near the rail station. Word of caution when you pass immigration etc. to go upstairs the only facilities are vending machines and toilets don't expect bars and duty free shops.

Just a note on arriving. If you are going to Florence or anywhere by train and your not on your own. The queue for train tickets soon builds up so while one of you wait for the bags the other one should shoot out and get the tickets to save queuing for 20-30 mins. Train service is excellent.

Pisa airport has good connections but is too small for its traffic and totally disorganised. If you are leaving from there do all your shopping/eating land-side as once through the security there is very little and even less in the way of seating accomodation. One lady last weekend was loudly bragging about the bottle of spirits she has got through security and just as loudly sharing with her friends. Another was soulfully relating how security had relieved her of several bottles of olive oil she had been bringing as presents. Patchy security service then. We were due to leave from Gate 22 but access was restricted until 30 mins before departure when we were allowed through to an upstairs lounge with no shops but loads of space and seats! Why didn't they just do this earlier and relieve the crush downstairs? As a final fling our departure was delayed 15 mins because it was raining - apparently the ground handling staff were taking longer to move things about!

Pisa airport is far too small for the number of passengers using it. Upon arrival we found the queues at the car rental desks horrendous (at least 2 hours waiting time). The departure area was totally overcrowded the number of the check-in counter(s) for each flight were only announced two hours before departure which resulted in passengers running and pushing towards the counters the minute the number appeared on the screen. Seating was insufficient especially before security check. We were travelling with two elderly ladies with walking difficulties but nobody could tell us where we could get our reserved wheelchair until we queue-jumped at the check-in counter. At security check we were asked our destination (Amsterdam) then all our carry-on bags were searched and I was lectured about having a bottle of sunblock in my bag ("didn't you read the notice: no liquids if you travel to USA or UK!"). Patiently tried to explain that Amsterdam is not in the USA or UK. On the plus side I found the staff very helpful wheelchair handling was excellent and access to the airport is good. However overall the airport is too overcrowded and I certainly doubt if I would want to use it again.

Pisa was a fine airport in the 1990s when only a few airlines served it and the Italian Air Force was the largest occupant. The facilities have quickly become obsolete as civilian air and passenger traffic increased rapidly in the past 5 years. Easyjet Ryanair Windjet Hapag Lloyd Express and a number of other lowcost carriers have added numerous flights and destinations. Security lines can be frustrating - though many airports share the same problem. The gate area has recently been expanded but seating is still insufficient when too many flights leave at once. Sometimes overcrowded the sense of confusion and chaos is often conveyed by the boarding process of airlines with no seat assignment with passengers standing in (questionable) lines well before boarding starts. Luggage delivery times are ok if there no more than two flights arrive simultaneously. Otherwise the small carousel in a small area makes the long wait very unpleasant. Overall an obsolete airport but it could be a lot worse: ground transportation is very good. Pisa city center is nearby a train and a bus service link the airport to Florence.

Pisa has an excellent location - just 2km from the town. Connections exist to Florence by bus and train (just over an hour) while locally the bus number one goes through the centre of the town for just 85 cents. There is also plenty of clear information with regard to this at the airport. Check in was rapid and the organisation of flight boarding good.

Pisa is a lively and nice airport; even though it isn't very big it is very busy. Especially during the summer period. There are a lot of low cost airlines serving there connecting Tuscany with all Europe. The airport is just a few minutes by bus from the town centre and has its own train station from which it is possible to get to Florence in just one hour. Despite the fact the the airport is quite busy the flights are usually on time; check in may last a bit so I suggest to go to the airport at least one hour and half before the flight is due to take off. Definitely one the best way to travel from U.K. and the centre of Italy.

Pisa remains a very user friendly airport in many ways. However beware of one thing. There are now a large number of flights departing to the U.K mid morning and as at early May 2005 neither security nor passport control was ready for this. The upshot was that there was such queue at passport control that passengers on the Ryanair flight to Liverpool could not respond quickly to the last call or boarding the flight missed a slot it had for an early departure and in fact left 20 minutes late. A very small glitch as the flight actually arrived only a couple of minutes late. However as the number of flights and passengers increase through the summer this looks like a problem that is going to increase rather than decrease.