Rome Fiumicino Airport

Used FCO three times in the last 3 months with differing experiences. If you are arriving with checked luggage expect delays for it to arrive on the carousel. However last week with roll-on bags we breezed through with lots of time to make the Leonardo Express to downtown. It appears that FCO management does have any interest in cleaning as the place is filthy and badly maintained - at any time of the day or night. Security seems to be attentive which is reassuring at least.

Flew in and out of this airport on recent vacation. Flew on United. Was very apprehensive especially after reading the comments however wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. Yes it is a bit hectic and "outdated" but on our arrival it took us approx 45 minutes to get through customs. This was after they opened up another gate for non-european flyers. After visiting Italy I can see why things run just a bit "different". They are not in a rush to do much of anything and they do not believe in lines. Merely go ahead and try and go right to the front. Not very nice but it seems the way to go. Upon departure we breezed right through since we were business class with United and had a very pleasant wait in a very nice area including some very nice shops. Maybe I'm seeing the upgrades that so many other flyers have mentioned were ongoing. Overall an acceptable airport.

I travelled from and to FCO many times the latest of which this summer. On the side of departure the airport offers good services and fast check-in desks good transports to and from Rome nice shops bars and restaurant. Anyway it's rather dirty and not very efficient. On peak hours one can definitely find long queues for the security controls and many flights will not be in time. I hope that the future expansions will improve the situation. Arriving at FCO might be the worst airport experience ever for any traveller: I can't but second all the criticism about the baggage delivery which is extremely slow and the departure halls don't look good and welcoming at all being filthy and not clean. I'm sorry to say this because it's my "home" airport but I would like it to be better.

Arriving into FCO? Bring loads of time you are likely to spend an hour waiting for luggage. This is not a one off I do it regularly! The responsibility lies squarely with the ground handlers EAS who would urgently need a crash course on aviation handling. Same issues on outbound travel delays are more often caused by totally inept processing at departure gates than flight density. I have even seen the captain of a serious German airline go mad at this point!

The train connection from Rome Termini is good quick efficient and reasonably cheap (11 Euros) with a short walk from the platform to the departures area. After that easy experience what follows it is hysterically bad. Check-in in Terminal C at least is a horrendous experience due to the abysmal layout of the check in areas - I can only assume they were designed by someone who never uses airports or who has severe masochistic tendencies. For some reason the check in desks are split into "zones" - each zone occupies a square with an area of approximately 50 metres square with approximately 12 check in desks in the square 6 either side of the square - as a result of this the queues for each desk meet in the middle in a horrendous muddle of confusion. To add to this the passport/security line also runs through the middle of all of this! The result therefore is that you have something like 13 different queues in a very small area working in 3 different directions - most passengers with heavy luggage often with children running around and screaming. If like me you are trying to get to a check-in desk near the back of this area you will find that you literally have to elbow your way through a seething mass of grumpy humanity and baggage to get to it - and then trying to find the end of your own queue is another matter -in the end I had to shout out loudly for people going to my destination to identify themselves so that I could join the correct queue. Once through all this the passport/security line is reasonably fast when compared to many airports (10 mins) although I would say that the actual inspections are a little on the cursory side. Airside the airport is at least a little more spacious although the airport authorities have not deemed it necessary to fill this space with useful furniture such as adequate seating. Proceeding to the gate to board in plenty of time I was amazed to see that the gate was being used to board 3 other flights before mine - although my plane was sitting waiting on the tarmac we simply could not get to it as the gate was being used for these other flights - this tells me that this airport simply does not have adequate capacity to deal with the volume of flights going through it - and this was on a Wednesday early afternoon not exactly peak time. Put simply this airport is a disgrace and needs an overhaul if it is to continue being the primary international gateway to Italy.

My experience of this airport is that it is a disaster. The arrivals hall is overcrowded. I needed to use the bathroom and the first three I found were closed. The fourth was open but had some cubicles closed. I had to wait an hour and half to get my luggage. The times given on the TV screens are optimistic. They indicate when a service may start but they must have people carry each bag individually across the tarmac. I took the airport express into Rome. They only run every half hour. The train I took arrived and people in the first two carriages could not get out because the doors were stuck. It also meant I and other could not get in except through the third carriage. I left Rome with SAS. Check-in fine but we left an hour late because the people to re-fuel the plane could not be found. On arrival in Copenhagen I had to wait another hour for my case only to discover that it was still in Rome. Other passengers experienced this to. One man received his luggage while his girlfriend's disappeared. Apparently the Italian Govt won't pay for a laser and bar-code system to track luggage. It can sometime take 2 or 3 days to find bags. I got mine back when I was leaving the following day.

Using FCO for the first time to depart to Istanbul. Reaching the airport is very expensive by Taxi but possible by train from some stations in the city and it takes about 50 minutes. Do not use Termini to reach FCO by train as it is very crowded and Rome metro is not reliable to arraive at termini on time. I found FCO very crowded and not so clean. Check in desk was promised to be in section C but it was in section B. The restaurant was not clean and food quality was poor. Not so many shops available. Immigration was very slow and we had to walk a long distance and use a magnetic train to reach the departure area. In general it should be much better than it is as a big airport for a very attractive city to tourists.

I found Fiumicino to be a disastrously planned airport. I arrived from Milano Linate with Alitalia and departed to Split with Croatia Airlines. This requires moving terminal from the domestic/schengen to the satellite Terminal. The signs were almost non existant frequently covered by other signs. The layout is not clear and a confusing mess. It is a lot better than Malpensa in terms of shopping and general feel but all in all one of the worst major airports I've seen. The satellite terminal is much better than the rest. Its quite dirty the public bathrooms really need an update in parts of the airport.

Flown to Italy twice now both times through Fiumicino. Both times I took Delta/Alitalia which were using the same satellite concourse connected by monorail. That satellite concourse is nice with good shops for last minute spending. If you forgot to get a present for someone lots to buy there. Customs is a pain so expect a long wait there unless EU citizen. Got off of the airplane there and had to use the restroom which was difficult to find and not pretty. One good thing was the ease of getting my bags and then getting on the express train to Termini. The escalator to the train is just steps from the funky baggage claim. I like this airport because of the ease of access to Rome. I went to Rome both times in May/June and it wasn't too busy always room on the train and good space for bags. The walk from the train arrival platform at Termini in downtown Rome is a long walk from the main part of the train station--grab a cart if you've got heavy bags. I had an early departure from Fiumicino to Newark on Alitalia my second trip. i thought I'd arrive early to be safe and also do some shopping at the concourse shops. It was a bad idea to arrive too early for my early flight because the security does not operate at that time. I ended up waiting in line for an hour until they arrived. When they did arrive they were laughing and just waived us through with minimal screening. Very disconcerting considering they went all out with the armed soldiers in the terminal. The Delta/Alitalia check-in is on the far left side of the terminal right next to the security point which is up against the wall. El-Al check-in is snookered between the security on the left and Delta check-in as a previous commentator noted. Pretty functional airport.

We were departing Rome on our way to Tel Aviv with EL AL. It was a bit of a struggle to find the EL AL check in which was tucked away at the end of the terminal with barely any signage. Otherwise the security was very swift and the airport itself was fairly quiet the day before Christmas. A good selection of stores and the airport is filled with natural light which makes travelling through Fiumicino quite pleasant.