Zakynthos Airport

Been travelling to and from this airport for the past 4 years and it's generally a nice little place. Might help that we travel on a Monday - I am given to understand that other days can be busier. Luggage retrieval on arrival is usually fairly quick - certainly far quicker than at Manchester these days. Check-in on return leg is usually OK once you master the separate weighing of the hold luggage. Slightly concerned on return journey this year when I triggered the metal detector at security and was simply waved through - certainly not an experience I have had in any other airport in these troubled times. The departure lounge is OK - duty free shop and snack bar. Prices are pretty much as you would expect airside. Seating areas/loos etc usually clean. Never had a delay on return so never spent much time there - an extended stay might be tricky. All in all a decent experience.

An airport I have travelled from and to for over 15 years with little to no improvement. On the way out from Manchester the staff were excellent. Coming back via Zakynthos we arrived at the airport to be told to make three separate queues - for two open desks! The British holiday staff directed people to the desks. We couldn't believe it when people were made to weigh not only their hold luggage but hand luggage and then their coats! How can you make people weigh their coats? They were doing their best to catch people out on the weight. My suitcase was very light (I am a small woman and simply cannot manage 20kgs) and yet I was told mine weighed 21kgs despite it being 15 on the way out and my having jettisoned a lot of stuff. My mother's was 20.7kgs but they demanded that we pay £20 for being 2 kilos over - how is 1.7kgs two kilos! - and when our hand luggage was under. I refused and said I wanted to argue the point/transfer the load but the check-in agent insisted we go over to the desk to pay. I was furious but managed to get hold of some British reps who let us transfer the luggage between hand baggage and who argued with the check-in staff for us. Security was quick and the hellish cramped waiting area the same as always. The prices are a joke - EUR3 for a bottle of water and EUR4.50 for a very sad-looking sausage roll. Buy drinks in bulk from the duty-free shop instead of the snack counter. Just an awful place and the only part I dislike about travelling to this beautiful island.

We went to Zakynthos for 11 days for our honeymoon. When we arrived to the airport everything was fine we received our luggage very quickly. On the way back we showed our EU passports and our flight tickets at check-in desk but suddenly we became suspicious just because we were the only Europeans traveling with a British travel agency Thomas Cook and didn't have British passports. We were asked to move away from the check-in desk and wait because they went to check our passports. The British staff then came back with our passports which were fine and wanted to see other forms of ID! Then they wanted to see any proof of residency in the UK like bank card credit card or NI number. They also asked for our hotel details on Zakynthos. We felt like criminals there! Because we are in the EU and there is a free movement here they haven't got any right to ask for this if we haven't done anything wrong. We have never had such bad experience on any other airport before. I understand that they have right to check our passports in their systems but do they have a right to treat us worse than others just because we haven't got British passports? We have lived in England for many years and paid tax here and spend our money here and we thought it would be a good idea to buy our holiday in UK travel agencies.

Airport re-vamp finished no waiting outside and we were through in no time (even a helpful lady there just to help with queries) Toilets were fine and lots of seating area. Must admit we were the only flight leaving at that hour but it was one of the best Airport experiences I have had. (Warning - quite a number of people had to pay for overweight luggage so don't bring too many bottles home!) Duty free was a bit pricey but spacious!

On arrival this airport seems to operate fairly well with quick passport control and a reasonably quick delivery of baggage - although there must be problems if more than two flights arrive together (as often happens on ThuRsdays and Sundays) as there are only two carousels. Departures is a different story - for a new terminal no opportunity has been taken to improve the check in system. You arrive in a large check in hall so no waiting outside but check in desks and baggage screening in crammed at the right hand side. Scanners for checked luggage are so close to the desks that there is only room for about six people in each line. There is easily enough room for these to be placed well back from the desks. Tour Op. reps. are left to control numbers going through. Without them it would be chaos. Security is a joke - the scanner operative spend to much time trying to get people into the right line he never seemed to check any bags going through. The same at passport control where one policeman was checking passports then going round to check the hand baggage and body scanners - by the time he got there most people and bags had gone through. The main lounge is a fair size but there is very little seating. My flight was the only departure when I was here so was not a big problem but again chaos if more than one flight. The snack bar can only be described as a rip-off! Duty Free is adequate with the normal holiday airport items for sale not always as cheap as in resort. Free for all through the gates - they had to do two headcounts on the aircraft because people had walked through without giving up boarding passes.

Poor airport far too small for the volume of tourists that visit the island. We had to queue outside in the baking sun in what can only be described as canopied bus shelters because the terminal is not big enough to fit people in. Security was quite poor and check in was very old fashioned the place needs updated. When i was there they only had 1 small duty free shop and 1 cafe/food outlet which was horrible and expensive. The only had around 3 gates which were just doors out onto the runway. Its not very smart needs to be bigger needs modernising and i would hate to be delayed there. Nice island shame about the airport.

Still issues regarding the amount of time and standing around when departing. The tannoy system is poor cafe is very expensive. Its a shame that when you leave the Island after a great holiday the last impression is of aN airport that is not really equipped to handle the volume of passengers in a user friendly way.

New Terminal feels good until they use the tannoy system. I am hard of hearing and it gives me a blast every time they use it and you cant understand anything thats said on the system even in English. After three messages everyone starts to gringe as soon as you here ding dong. This has been like it now for weeks - even staff cant stand it so why is nothing done about it

As stated previously the new airport used for arrivals is ok hopefully this will soon be used for departures too! The old airport used for departures is a horror story. Why oh why do they have so many flights so close together and always on a Thurs. It's true that you stand outside for hours and once inside there is nowhere to sit only the dirty floor amongst lots of bodies. Take sandwiches/rolls/crisps as the snack shop is extremely expensive. Also take plenty of drinks. There is however air conditioning once inside this has only been installed for the last couple of years! It's such a shame that the airport lets Zakynthos down as it is such a beautiful island.

When arriving luggage on the wrong belt. Departure: Long queues (you have to line up already on the place before the building) manual check-in procedures (they use paper cards and stickers) the guy screening the luggage didn't even look on the screen! Airside no waiting space for many hundred people. One kiosk/buffet horrible prices - 2 coffee 2 sandwiches = 17 Euros. Chaos when boarding as 2 flights per gate (which is a glass door) the screen showed a third flight number and destination). Although Zakynthos is a beautiful island the airport is a big catastrophe.