Vancouver Airport

Departing in the transborder terminal was fast and easy. there were no ques at the customs and immigrations and the pre clearance facility was excellent. Boarding was fast and easy and the signage was easy to follow.

International arrivals top notch. Walked straight through to immigration via dedicated channel for visitors to Canada. Shown the way by smart Red coated "greeters". What a change from my last visit which was horrendous in terms of treatment by immigration and customs and excise. T Domestic departure not so pleasant.

Very open with lots of natural sunlight and everything from forests waterfalls an aquarium and well chosen sculptures to provide a proper welcome to the region. Full range of stores and services available even a dentist's office. The metro can take you right from the airport to your downtown hotel in about 20 minutes.

A lot of the complaints here relate to the customs agents and other matters for which the airport operator is not directly responsible. The airport itself is attractive and reasonably well organized. Having arrived at Kansai many times I am at a loss to explain its ranking. YVR aesthetics are far superior.

Arrival from London. The experience was great : well sign posted clean terminal our baggage virtually waiting for us as we came through immigration polite and no queues - everything about it swift and pleasant. We were in the domestic terminal and walking to the gate of a our connecting flight in just 35 minutes from landing! Compare that to needing the full 2 two hour connecting time from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 at Heathrow to comfortably catch the Vancouver flight.

Our departure was almost as good as our arrival. The quality of the airport supports a wonderful city. The departure processes were done a little better than in some other places. The terminal is attractive and the assistant in the Olympic Boutique was charming.

This was our first visit to Vancouver and we arrived by BA at 1845. The airport appeared very quiet calm and serene. The walk from the plane to immigration area was very long once in the arrivals hall the ambience was very pleasant lots of greenery and water fall features. The immigration process was quick and efficient baggage recovery smooth and we were on our way. After having read some of the horror stories about immigration delays and surprised at the efficiency and promptness of the officials.

I felt puzzled at the recent mixed reviews of YVR based on my own arrival there. Yes it is a walk from the gate to immigration but no more so than many large airports these days and it is through a bright clean and imaginatively decorated terminal. There was no wait at immigration and we were well treated. We were allowed to go through as a couple which would not happen further south. Baggage delivery was swift. We were in our taxi and headed downtown before even our scheduled arrival time. YVR gets absolutely top marks for multi-lingual signs. English French and Japanese with some Punjabi and Chinese. My only complaint – although I was not personally affected – is that just like America they have no concept of transit passengers thus creating a totally unnecessary workload for both passengers and staff in recovering baggage and going through pointless customs and immigration procedures.

Easy to use and friendly helpful staff. Very strange though that on my last two visits as a transit passenger I had to go through the full immigration process even though I was not staying in Canada or leaving the airport!

Vancouver Airport is clean and passing through baggage claim was a breeze for me. The airport is not very big and I find most of the things very convenient. Parking is great and does not cost a lot and there are cabs to take out of the airport for about $20-$35. The signs were very clear for me so I knew which way to go and not get confused. All in all I think the airport is excellent in Vancouver!