Rome Fiumicino Airport

April 11th. Awful queues at security - 50 mins to get through which was very stressful. No allowance made for families with young children the elderly or those about to miss their flight. Staff were indifferent to the situation and only one station open when there could have been 4! Gross mismanagement.

Big problems at the check-in desk as they would not accept the online boarding passes and everyone had to go through the laborious process again by two very slow operatives. A very long queue and no concessions made for passengers needing assistance. This of course delayed the flight. Only a number of hasty phone calls prevented further ructions at the departure gate when all hand luggage passengers with online boarding passes were initially refused entry onto the plane. Don't know whose fault this was Monarch or the airport and I have to say Monarch were excellent in every other respect. Maybe teething problems for a new service but it's certainly with checking out if you are thinking about trying the Birmingham Rome return run.

Some serious organisation is required. One check-in desk. Queuing from the T3 main hall to the departure gate and then another major queue to the hand baggage scanners. All in all it took over 2 hours from check- in to boarding which we managed by the skin of our teeth. Can't comment on the airport facilities as was preoccupied by being in the aforementioned queue. Truly awful.

It seems to be getting worse every day. On Monday at 20.15 in Terminal 1 there was a massive queue at security with only one post opened. I ended up queuing almost one hour and only just managed to board my flight. Staff can be rude and arrogant and the facilities mediocre at best. The direct train to the airport from Termini is overpriced and the regional service uses old graffiti strewn carriages which stop at every single station. Most lifts do not work and the overall cleanliness standards are low.

Be prepared to wait for a while on your bags and if you are taking the monorail to the main terminal be careful getting onboard as the doors are vicious! Departing if flying BA be prepared for a long walk! Security was very busy and cramped. They insist that phones cameras and MP3 players are removed from hand luggage. In fairness when it got busy they ushered people through the fast track lane and for those who were asked to remove their shoes were given something to put over their feet which I think should be adopted elsewhere. Plenty of retail and food drink outlets.

Rome is my favourite place in the world but if I had to judge the city by the airport I don't think I'd ever go again. Security is very slow and most of the staff range from indifferent to extremely rude and unhelpful. I hate to think about how many people are given such a bad first impression of the city (although it's worse leaving!).

Somewhat disorganized. It took almost an hour to get the bags (non-peak hour) but the signage was quite good and it was easy to find the train station to Roma Termini. On the return (non-peak hour again) lines were long but staff at security did their best to help passengers. In general most of the staff we met at Fiumicino were helpful and the facilities reasonable.

Unbelievably disorganized and chaotic. Staff did not seem to notice passengers and stood around talking. Security lines were impossibly long and people were pushing and shoving. Security lines were not roped off and no one was directing passengers. At least 15 people had to push through line as they were going to miss flights.

The train station is old and dirty but the rest of the airport is somewhat clean. Washrooms clean enough but could be better. Security lines short and people were processed efficiently. Food choices were extremely poor. Annoyingly gates for our flight were changed 10 minutes prior to boarding.

I use this airport 4 times a year and staff is friendly and toilets are pretty clean compared to some airports. The problem is that FCO is not big enough for the actual passenger traffic and it's becoming old. I don't think this is the worst airport but it needs new terminals and train station.