Vancouver Airport

Vancouver airport offers a delightful and calm welcome after a long flight. Routes are well signposted and the distance to border control is not excessive. The problem with Vancouver International - and I've experienced this often - is that baggage delivery is dreadfully slow. Waitiing times at baggage carousels are very long and staff in the baggage claim areas are at best indifferent.

We are proud Canadians, but were embarrassed and disappointed by our latest experience at YVR. We arrived on a flight from Houston, and were met with a backlog of about 1,000 people attempting to pass through Customs. An airport employee explained that this was the result of a number of flights arriving at nearly the same time, but an airline employee later told us this is a common occurrence at YVR. We attempted to use the automated Customs entry equipment but even with the assistance of an airport employee the equipment would not properly read our passports, and would not read our immigration card at all. When we attempted to locate our connecting flight, in the absence of adequate signage, we followed the directions of an airport and an airline employee, and spent over an hour in a line-up with other incoming passengers, only to be told by another airline employee that we should have gone elsewhere. As a result of these delays, we missed our connecting flight, and were booked onto a later flight. We then proceeded to airport security, where we encountered a very slow-moving line of several hundred other passengers. As a result of this delay, we missed our new connecting flight. We then spent about 7 hours attempting to get on several flights to our destination. When we finally did reach our destination, Air Canada had directed our luggage to the wrong city. In future we will try, if at all possible, to avoid YVR. If only we could avoid the Canadian air carriers. I pity the visitors to YVR for whom English is not their first language.

We travel every year to Hawaii via Vancouver International. This is one of the best airports that I have ever been to. As in other comments I cannot believe the negative comments that some people have expressed. This airport is very clean with some of the most beautiful artwork seen in any airport. Negative comments concerning Customs security etc. are not about the airport itself and should be addressed accordingly. Both airside and check in side have a lot of amenities to offer. Seating is plentiful and the views are excellent. Having travelled throughout the world I must say that VIA is one of the friendliest airports that I have had the pleasure of visiting.

Connections between US flights much too inconvenient a lot of walking to screening. Not much time for a quick connection. Not possible under 2 hours. Glad I had lots of time and lots of energy to make this inconvenient connection.

I travel through YVR about 20 times a year and like some others posting here find some of the negative reviews somewhat odd. This is one of the best airports that I travel through very clean generally helpful staff and queues are most often short except sometimes at peak hours they can be a little long. However compared to some other airports this one is quite excellent!

Will avoid it in the future and fly out of Seattle. Came off a 6 hour night-time flight from Maui to make connection to Kelowna with two children in tow - 9 and 7 yrs. They were very tired. We had 3 hrs between arriving from Maui and taking off again. We cleared customs easily but then stood 2 hours in the line to clear security for the connecting flight - unacceptable! No other children in the line but none of the workers took pity on us to expedite the procedure for the children's sake. For shame!! As a comparison we flew from Kelowna to Maui via Seattle airport and they took only 15 minutes to clear us through the security for the connecting flights. Seattle will be my airport of choice in future.

International arrivals are led through a maze of hallways and corridors that appear to lead nowhere. It seems the airport wants to show off its artwork and interior design but at a cost to tired travellers. It is not disability friendly and despite the fact we asked for assistance none was available. In fact I only saw empty carts traversing through the airport - it seems the airport staff dislike walking the corridors too. We were required to receive our incoming luggage in order to transfer it to a domestic flight. Why? Other airports are able to transfer luggage to destination flights?

Vancouver International Airport obviously takes great pride in proving it is one of the most inefficient airports in the world. They seem to wear these ongoing terrible reviews as a badge of honour. When we arrived into Canada the immigration team were so slow. We were amongst the first off the plane but it still took a long time to get through Immigration. When departing yes Security was a disaster. One Great long line one screening point open but lots of security staff standing around chatting to each other. Then just as we were getting close to the screening point a Priority line seemed to open but still only one screening point so we had people merging in making the original line even slower (and grumpier). And of course no staff to direct or control the flow. But what can you do? if you need to go into British Columbia its YVR or nothing.

I'm a bit surprised by some of the negative reviews. I travel extensively on business and my experiences passing through YVR have been generally positive and certainly no worse than many international hubs. The international terminal with its west coast themed design is a nice change from the steel and of many modern airport terminals nowadays. Good connections to the city center via the Canada Line as well. My biggest gripe is the security check upon departure. The set-up now seems to include one security person at a station scanning boarding passes for two adjacent lines. Seems a bit daft and it made a slow process even slower. Why not have something similar to T5 at LHR where each passenger scans their own boarding pass before they put their bags on the scanner? Or do the scan at the entrance to the security area? Otherwise a pleasant airport to travel through.

Not a bad airport for domestic flights or international departures but pathetically bad for international arrivals. Queued for over an hour after landing as the airport is simply inadequate for handling the volume of arrivals with non-Canadian passports.