Queenstown Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Worst security queues and management. The security team were either poorly trained or had poor equipment as my bag went thru 3 times and found nothing. It seems that the domestic market is not important and this maybe an airport management decision as international passengers had no queue while domestic passengers queued for 30+ minutes. Not good enough.

Not Verified | It is unbelievably customer unfriendly. Baggage took over 30 minutes to be off loaded. There were no taxis waiting for passengers that arrived. There was no one calling for taxi service. There is very very limited shade. Lucky it was a hot sunny day but imagine arriving on a wet winter night. It's not rocket science. This has to change. Absolutely disappointing experience.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst airport experience ever. Travelling domestically and seriously couldn’t wait to leave. 6-8 staff all in the security area and most of them were standing around - the amount of staff did not equal efficiency or cut down waiting times. So slow moving people through the queue. Not only that, I was asked to remove my shoes because they covered my ankles (despite every passenger around me wearing pants that covered their ankles) and there was no signage or notes anywhere that this was a requirement - again for domestic travel. After passing through the X-ray machine, majority of our travelling party’s bags were opened and searched, despite all our packing and contents being exactly the way they were when we departed from Auckland airport a few days prior. The reasonings for checking our bags were useless, if we even got a solid answer. Staff were dismissive of our queries and just said oh because we have to. Queenstown airport is honestly the worst part of Queenstown. A wonderful trip otherwise soured by your horrendous staff. If you’re counting on tourism to pick up, your staff either need more training or replacing because I can guarantee I am questioning whether to ever come back after that treatment so I’m sure there are others doing the same. Your staff were useless in the security area, had no customer service and portrayed themselves as better than us. We were not the only ones verbally annoyed either. We had several other passengers complaining of the incompetency, lack of speed and general interactions of staff with us. Not only that, this experience left me shaking and with extreme anxiety. Worst staff, worst airport, worst everything. I will be telling everyone I know about how bad this airport is. If I could rate it and the staff a zero, I would.

Not Verified | Departing from here is like a form of torture. The departure gates all face the sun and it streams into them without any blinds or sun shades. The gates are therefore like little greenhouses filled with a hundred or so people all getting hotter and sweatier. Only two rows of priority seating are in the shaded area, the rest of lounge is entirely bathed in sunlight. It could be helped with some air-conditioning but sadly, no. There seems to be no cooling at all as I sit here quietly roasting. To top it all off, the sound system is tinny and like something from the late 90s which makes even The Who sound like a poor high school band. Horrible - can't wait to Board and get away!!

Not Verified | There is a need for some chairs and a table to sit and reorganise after the security check. This is especially important for people with knee / other implants requiring putting on the shoes. Cannot do this in standing position. I kept the bag on the only one table and was putting on the shoes in standing position. One security lady officer showed her displeasure and asked me to remove the bag from the table. Not very helpful.

✅ Trip Verified | Oh Queenstown Airport. You folks really let the side down coming and going. This ex-kiwi visiting family with her partner had a 40 minute queue for biosecurity coming in (I fully support protecting NZ flora and fauna but how about some more staff?), then a 50-minute wait simply for bag drop on departure (again, where are all the staff?). No apology at any stage either. You need to do so much better.

✅ Trip Verified | At the international check in the senior staff member assisting in loading items onto trays was incredibly rude, assuming I was of a foreign background that could not understand english, she was pointing at the empty tray, in which I was going to put my jacket into - I did not understand what she was trying to communicate to me. She then yelled at me saying “put it in here, put it in here” - I felt extremely offended and I was appalled by how I was being spoken to. I was completely lost for words, in this day and age to be spoken to like I’m an idiot when she was unclear as to what she wanted, expected me to understand her as she was pointing at the tray. In the end what she wanted was for me to separate my laptop from my iPad. She was a senior lady with short grey hair and classes, I was served at 2.55pm. I just cannot believe how rude she was to me, obviously thinking I could not speak or understand english. It was just disgusting and disgraceful.

Not Verified | Why is this internatinal airport? It have no capacity of being one especially nowdays. Extremely poor security lanes. No PA is given to customers with impending flight even though you are standing in security. Staff will give you generic excuse and blame everyone else. Basically not a very good airport to use. I would give minus rating if I could but it only let me give 1. Avoid if you can.

✅ Trip Verified | Overcrowded. Its a very small airport, seats mounted all over the place, passengers constantly crossing through the seating areas. Security could take hours between 1200-1400. Security offers little communication when searching the bags.

Not Verified | Security line is a disgrace. How on earth can anybody think this is acceptable? I’m never coming back to Queenstown until they’ve sorted this. What an embarrassment to our country.