Santorini Airport

Customer Reviews

No Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 87 reviews
2/10
No Skytrax Rating
Sort Reviews by :
Show
1/10

"one of the worst airports"

(Australia)

Verified Review | This must be one of the worst airports in the world. It is dirty, cramped and the foul smell from the toilet pervades the whole departure area. The seating is inadequate for the volume of travellers and the staff demonstrate zero commitment to good customer service. It is a tragedy that this airport is the final impression you take away from what is otherwise an idyllic island. The airport authority and local management should feel ashamed of themselves.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitJune 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
4/10

"It is vastly too small"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | This airport is totally unsuited for the number of tourists using it. It is vastly too small. The amount of room airside means that they have to keep passengers queuing to book in outside the airport. The facilities are minimal. The whole airport needs another floor added to the terminal (or a new terminal built). The Greek state clearly does not have any money for this at present.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitMay 2017
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"frightening and stressful experience"

(United Kingdom)

Last night was one of the most frightening and stressful experiences I and my husband and friends have ever had. Our departure was with Thomas Cook from Santorini to Newcastle. This airport is so bad I think Thomas Cook and other travel firms should pull out of the island until it is fit for purpose. We arrived at the airport just after 9.00pm. The travel reps had explained we would have to wait "a short while" outside the building. Over 2 hours later the huge queue of people was still there. It was cool and windy. My friend has a debiliting disease and the rep said "it might be possible to find a seat at some point". It wasn't. There were elderly people in the queue, babies and children but worse was to come. Once allowed inside after 11.00 pm we had to queue to get in, then queue to carry your own baggage to security. Then we were sent back to check in because the process hadn't been done properly, then queue for security. All this in an unbelievably small space, squashed shoulder to shoulder, the queues getting muddled up with each other, people pushing and shoving, children crying and it was now way beyond the departure time of our flight. We were so stressed my husband almost fell over a child in a buggy. Eventually a staff member could be heard shouting for the Newcastle passengers to come to the front of the security check in but other passengers objected to this and started shouting at us and trying to stop us. I honestly thought a riot would break out. At security we were shouted at to hurry and literally pushed through passport control. We eventually got on the plane an hour after out departure time. We were shocked and shaking. This happens everyday at Santorini. It is a beautiful island with lovely people and we had a great holiday but I will never go back until this is sorted and I would advise others to avoid using this airport.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitMay 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"the worst airport I have encountered"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | I normally do not care much about airports but I do appreciate the basic necessities. However, in my very honest opinion, this is the worst airport I have encountered in my life. I flew to Santorini from Athens and the arrival procedure was prompt and easy. However, on my flight back to Athens, my flight was around 12.30 am. Upon arriving at the airport, there were lots of people waiting outside and I was informed that I had to wait outside as there was no space in the airport. I was travelling with 2 friends and of my friend asked a staff whether we need to wait outside as we already checked in online and had our boarding pass and had no luggage to check-in and she replied yes. There was only one staff member trying to control the mess outside the airport and we were left to wait for about an hour and the weather was very windy and chilly. Then, we kept seeing people just going to enter the airport and so we clarified with the same staff whether we really needed to wait outside and then she said we could just go straight to the security - which contradicted her first answer. There was only one security station open for all the people there. The security process was quick but I did not think they checked the bags thoroughly. Then, we entered the waiting area and as we had expected there was no space to not just sit but even stand. It was such a mess. Not many options for food and beverages and there is a very small duty shop inside the waiting area. The toilets were filthy and smelly. As we were all waiting for our flight to be called, there was no information announced or even shown on the board up to the point past our scheduled boarding flight. Then at 1am, there was an announcement about our flight in Greek but not followed by an English translation. My friend had to ask someone who can speak Greek about our flight and to our surprise it was cancelled. We were then advised to get more information from the SkyServ counter which did not really offer any help in our situation. All in all, Santorini is such a beautiful island and attracts lots of tourists, but the international airport does not serve its purpose or does any justice to this island. It is too small for a busy airport, very disorganised, very limited options of food and beverages, poor cleanliness and work morale of the staff. Last but not least, there is not even wifi in this airport.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitMay 2017
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"the single worst airport experience"

(United Kingdom)

Arriving at the airport was great. The place was empty, the passport control person had zero interest in examining my passport and we were out of there within 30 minutes of disembarking the plane. The departure, however, was a radically different experience. If the Marx Brothers had made a film called "A Day at the Airport", I might've believed I was in it. Except none of this was funny. This is by far the single worst airport experience I've ever had. Before I continue, let's set some criteria: 1) Yes, the airport is small. As is the nature with small island airports, this is no different. However, given that the island receives 3 million visitors per year, surely they could afford to invest in the main means of getting to and from the island? 2) This was the day after a major strike that had disrupted a lot of travel. However, by all accounts, the experience from others who were travelling later in the week was much the same. Chaos is a word that is overused, but I think that it's highly appropriate in this case - although doesn't adequately cover the sensation I had at the time. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before the flight, and we literally stood in queues for that whole 2 hours, from getting out of the taxi to getting on the plane, there was no point at which we relaxed and looked forward to our flight. The staff couldn't care less. People were literally pushing into lines from all directions, and the staff had no interest in controlling this. This was actually making the queues longer and the chaos more chaotic. Check-in was a memorable experience. The woman behind the desk was incredibly rude, insisting that I would need to check my allowed cabin bag into the hold and was very curt - why she is working in a customer service role I'll never know. From here, we had to take our own case from the check-in desk, which was apparently equipped with conveyer belts, over to the bag drop and stand in another queue. For some inexplicable reason, one of the only two metal detectors at the security gate was operating, despite the thousands of people trying to get through. The security gate was an ordeal because people were just ignoring the barriers and pushing through. I tried to ask another member of staff if we could have some assistance because it was 15 minutes before our gate closing (no fault of ours) and we were still in the security gate queue. She simply snapped at me very loudly "This woman is with me at the moment, ok?" The only silver lining was the jovial man at the security gate who was friendly and smiling. After the exhilaration of getting through all these queues and into the "departures lounge", we got to stand in yet another queue for boarding the plane. We stood out in the baking heat as we waited to board the bus. I have never felt so stressed when flying anywhere before, and as a result of this I will never return to Santorini. There was zero consideration for human comfort, for paying customers and for general human wellbeing. This is shameful to Greece's reputation and a blight on the island in general. I am giving this place 1 star - were it not for the fact that the airport did manage to get me out of there on a plane at the end, there would be a zero star rating. If you must go to Santorini, consider taking a boat.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitMay 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"it was closed!"

(Ireland)

Arrived at Santorini airport and it was closed! Finally opened at 6.30, check-in only opened at 7.00. Once bags were checked we had to take bags to next drop, waiting for another half hour to check in bags. 7.30 finally got bags checked, moved to security and this was closed. Waited again and finally got through at 08.15 only to discover the same person was manning both security and bag drop off. How can one person be able to do this to the standard that is expected in airports. Flight was taking off at 08.20, worst airport check in and security ever. Flight was delayed taking off due to this one person security. This is the first time that I have had to complain about an airport.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitNovember 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"disgusting toilets, demotivated staff"

(United Kingdom)

Santorini Airport has disgusting toilets, demotivated staff. Total confusion at the departure gates. This was a dehumanising experience. Some complained about the Government or the Santorini Tourist Board but this is now the responsibility of the German company Fraport! I only saw one cleaner in the airport and he was sweeping up in the outside smoking area, whilst at the same time the women's toilets were all blocked and marked out of order. Women had to use the disgusting men's toilets. Come on Fraport, you can take care of Frankfurt Airport, why not Santorini Airport? Put on more maintenance staff and cleaners as well as advisors and check in staff. The Greek people on the island of Santorini worked so hard to give us an amazing holiday experience which was all but destroyed by Fraport, a German company.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitSeptember 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"you have to wait outside"

(Canada)

Verified Review | I was told and had read online that Santorini Airport was horrible but I told myself that it must exaggerated. Well this was the worst airport ever. The smallest, dirtiest, most unorganized and with the rudest employees. We flew with Ryanair and we were told to be there 2 and half hours before our flight. The people from the airport were managing the check-in, not the airline. We waited outside for the check in line. The airport is so small that you have to wait outside. We queued and when it was our time to check in, the employee told us to wait again. Our flight was not there. There was no indication as to where to wait and no information about our flight. The employees just told us to wait in a queue. Finally we checked in 1.5 hours before the flight and the employees were still rude. The security was a joke and the boarding was chaotic.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitSeptember 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"poorly serviced airport"

(United Kingdom)

This is the dirtiest, most inefficient, poorly serviced airport that it has ever been my misfortune to use. It is completely out of sync with the needs of the beautiful island that it serves. The Greek Government should be deeply ashamed at this 'gateway' to one of their greatest natural assets.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
5/10

"airport was clean but shabby"

(United Kingdom)

Having read all the horror stories, I was prepared for the worst but actually - it was OK. It's a basic airport, which is clearly overstretched. Be prepared to queue to get your luggage ticketed, and queue again to put it through security. Total time to get luggage checked in and through security was 45 minutes for us in August. Further queue of around 15 minutes to get through the gate. The airport is small, so queues extend outside the terminal at times. We found staff helpful and friendly, although limited in number. The airport was clean but shabby. Food was the usual airport standard - not great choice, and over priced. Staff here were not so good - rude and chaotic. Check your bill - one person in the queue was landed with someone elses bill and it took some arguing to sort out.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitAugust 2016
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no