Thessaloniki Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Thessaloniki Makedonia airport is probably Greece's second largest airport and the main entry point to Thessaloniki, Halkidiki peninsula and the rest of Macedonia. The airport can be reach by public bus from the city center and the coach terminal and hopefully it will be accessible by metro in a couple of years. This airport is improving gradually. A new terminal is starting to get built next to the actual one. This airport is not very big but it can be crowed during summer peak times. The was no major line ups at check in and security at the time that I went. There is a good selection of shops and the duty free shop is big. Boarding is done only by bus but they are very fast and efficient for that process. I believe that Makedonia will get better over the next years.

Not Verified | One of the worst airports I've been to, if not the worst, and I travel a lot. The biggest issue is with unqualified staff, especially working in the gates. I understand that opening the luggage is a normal procedure, but the woman checking mine was rude, barely speaking English, she took out almost all my belongings, throwing my lingerie outside, so basically everybody could see my pants and bras. She was completely confused, didn't know what and where she was looking because she was searching on both sides of the luggage trying to find something - anything in fact. In the end she has thrown out my cream (which was way less than 100ml and you could see that, but had more written on it) and took out the sweet (mastiha sweet vanilla) and wanted to throw it for unknow to me reason. It all took so long that other staff got involved and stoped her. Completely disorganised airport with unqualified staff.

✅ Trip Verified | Probably one of the worst airports ever created! I come from Greece but live abroad and every single time I come back I come across the chaotic terminals of Thessaloniki. Toilets have no paper, are dirty and overcrowded. There are immensely fewer seats than the people here (just now writing this review, a family in front of me also said where are all these people going to sit?). People who work here are super unfriendly and believe that there is common sense knowing where everyone suppose to go or do. If you can come to Thessaloniki by car, boat or parachute, choose this rather than coming through the airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Absolutely chaotic airport. Renovations and expansion are in the plans but can’t come soon enough. Terminal is much smaller than photos suggest and is quite crowded and hot. Seating is limited, ATMs and restrooms are tucked away in odd corners of the airport. The bus to the city that runs every 30 minutes and is the only affordable transit option was absolutely packed with people each way and often gets stuck in traffic (doesn’t take an express route to the city center). Security was some of the rudest I had encountered, but to their credit was incredibly fast moving and efficient. Another upside - despite limited food options the pastry and espresso shops in the terminal are quite good, as one would want in a city with such exceptionally good food. Lastly, the approach over the Aegean can be beautiful.

✅ Trip Verified | To my mind Thessaloniki Airport is a rather unfriendly place for international travelers. On 12/2/2018 I traveled with Aegean Airlines to Frankfurt. Before the boarding practically no announcement was made in clear English or German. The plane had a delay, but because I do not speak Greek, it was not clear to me why the boarding did not start. When I asked a staff member at the counter she was really rude. It is very advisable that the staff gets appropriate training for customer service, especially for international flights. I am a frequent traveler and this is my worst experience at the airport. It is a shame when the rudeness of the staff ruins your vacation's memories. From now on I will avoid flying through Thessaloniki Airport as well as I can.

Arrived at Thessaloniki Airport and after I got my boarding pass I had to take my luggage to another counter to check my bag manually. I went through security which was confusing but the worst aspect was the gates. The gate numbers were all muddled up and had not been updated for 3-hours - lots of confused passengers.

I used this airport outside the peak summer season but it seemed rather nice. It's a small airport, it's funny how they have a bus take you from the gate to the airplane and the ride takes about 10 seconds. The airport seemed to make sense without any unnecessary corridors, it was all right there. I can only imagine that the size of the building may be a problem during summer. Shopping is limited but quite good, it's a duty free shop that sells most things an average person would buy at the airport - small luxury goods, nicely packed sweets, perfumes, drinks and not super expensive coats and bags like at some western airports. There are also a few bakeries. The intra-Schengen flights may have more limited shopping options. Passport control is quick. Queues at the check-in are a bit of a problem on full flights. Getting to the airport is easy, bus 78 costs only 2 euros in one direction and takes about 30-40 minutes to the city centre. Toilets should be refurbished and overall the airport feels a bit dated so it could use a new coat of paint. There is also a limitless free Wi-Fi available which is amazing.

Thessaloniki Airport is not in good shape. The building is much too small for the number of passengers. The lines were quite long (which would be OK). We had to check in and weigh our luggage at a counter, but needed to drop off the luggage at another counter (why bother wheighing the stuff if you can change the content of the suitcases in between check in and drop off?). There was only one counter to drop off your luggage (for the whole airport) with a very long line. The seating area before customs is dark, unfriendly, a little filthy and has poor acoustics and poor speakers for announcements. Toilets were disgusting (sorry to say). Security check was rather badly organized. The waiting area behind the security check is a disgrace. It is dark, filthy, much too small / crowded, many computer screens do not work or have been removed. The announcements were a joke because the speakers were soo bad that you could hardly recognize the language they were speaking. In case of an emergency / a mass panic, many people could die in this airport, as it does not have enough open spaces and the passenger guidance system is rather non-existent

Thessaloniki airport has the dirtiest airport toilets I've ever seen. The aesthetics of the terminal: a dark old fashioned cube outside, a dark disorganized mess inside. Being quite far from downtown, expect to pay between 25 and 30 euros by taxi (I paid 33 from the bus station) unless you take the convenient city bus 78 wich only costs 2 euros. To sum up, this airport is gloomy, disorganized and dirty. Let's hope future fresh developments for this infrastructure.

I have travelled all over the world, from Siberia to the Pacific and I have never witnessed a worse airport than Thessaloniki. Firstly, its a long way out of the city. We used a fixed price taxi, which cost 15 Euro, but it will easily be 25 to 30 Euros from the city centre. On arrival we were met with a Departure Board, that only showed a handful of flights. We had to dodge lines to eventually find where we needed to check in. I am just thankful we arrived early. We stood for 30 minutes on what was a short line of people (clerk was simply slow), to find that we could only weigh the luggage and get the tags and that we had to drop off the suitcases at another part of the airport. No signs anywhere to show you where drop off was. The Terminal is small, and lines so long, we had to fight to through lines of people to find the bag drop. Once there, we had another 40 minute wait and a line that snaked around half the airport, just to drop off the bag. Crazy! Next another 30 minute queue to go through security. Rude staff and poor organisation sum up this experience. As we were flying to a non Schengen country, we had to use a small lounge on the other side of passport control, which was so full we had to stand. The toilets were disgusting and the only shop was a coffee bar, whose young employee was on a go slow. To reach the aircraft you have to use stairs and buses. Our bus stopped half way and we were left stranded for 15 minutes on the tarmac in 36c heat. Overall this is a poor airport, that is dysfunctional in every way. I will never use it again.