Aspire by Swissport

Not Verified | Actually a very pleasant and spacious, bright lounge. Good selection of hot and cold food, even at breakfast. Varied selection of drinks, including Prosecco. Loads of charging points with International plugs. A pleasant place to work or chill waiting for your flight.

Not Verified | Over booked allocation, poorly managed, tables cleared but not wiped. Lacked atmosphere and looking very tired. Not value for money. Disappointed.

Not Verified | The Aspire lounge is no longer a ‘Business Lounge’ and has become a place for holiday families where many are ensuring that they get their money’s worth. Impossible to work - (quiet area might help) and certainly not now an attractive option for frequent flyers. From KLM my expectations are higher. The staff work hard to keep things in order but on this (and previous) occasion it was not a pleasant experience.

✅ Trip Verified | I used this lounge as a third party lounge by invitation from Qatar Airways. Oddly enough there still needs to be a handwritten lounge invitation. This lounge is quite something. It has the most diverse choice of seating and atmosphere. It is as if it is two lounges in one! One part of the lounge is made out of wood, and is very interesting to look at. There are also various decorative items throughout the lounge. There are booths for families, tables, couches, anything you could ask for. I really did enjoy my time in the lounge. The food here was a pleasant surprise. A large selection of international dishes, local dishes etc. I was surprised to find an Indian curry, an Asian noodle stir fry among other things! There was also a manned bar and lots of choices for drinks. One thing I appreciate is when a lounge has fresh squeezed orange juice rather than boxed orange juice. The barman was very openly showing the fresh oranges that have been squeezed behind him! The only thing this lounge is lacking is windows. Although I think they are unnecessary as the lounge itself is designed to be a warm place even with the lack of natural daylight. The wifi was easy to connect but the cleaners seem to be out of sight and just there when you needed them. I was unlucky that we were called to the gate a long time before it was necessary to begin boarding. The receptionist said that "You could've arrived earlier to enjoy the lounge! It's a big shame that you arrived a bit late." I have to agree with her. It is an amazing place to wait for your flight. Although arriving early would've been quite impossible considering we were connecting from Cape Town. I would recommend this lounge even as a priority pass option, and there are many third party lounges in Johannesburg airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Booked the airport lounge for Newcastle airport because we have used Manchester’s lounge on many occasions with absolutely no complaints, however I have never been so dissatisfied as I was with Newcastle, Very little food left, no Pepsi, crisps or bread. Luke warm soup, limp salad and dried our rice and pasta was all that was available. Staff upset because they were in the firing line for the complaints from customers. Emailed customer service twice and still no reply from them. Learn by my mistake and save your money, it just wasn’t worth it unless you wanted to get absolute mortal drunk because there was nothing else to do except drink, Would have happily gone to Greggs in the foyer if I’d known how bad the food was going to be.

Not Verified | Flew out from Bristol on the 6th May. First time use of Aspire Lounge. Very unhappy with the whole thing - the choice of food and the take it or leave from the staff left a lot to be desired. I can only say how unhappy I was and will never use this lounge again.

✅ Trip Verified | Very underwhelmed at this Aspire lounge at Manchester. Firstly no one to greet me - so I just walked in. Very poor selection of food in terms of light snacks. A bit of cake?!? Will not be using again.

✅ Trip Verified | This Aspire Lounge at Terminal 5 is a very busy lounge as its not just a member's only lounge but also pay to use. This lounge is very clean and spacious and somewhat crowded. It has huge open windows with ample of light for one to see planes take off and land. The Wi-Fi is Excellent. Very fast. There is a salad bar, hot soup and hot entree dishes (pasta, quiche, rice and curry) in addition to the usual beverages (tea, coffee, juices and alcohol available). The food quality was good and tasty. Loved the scones with the tea. Would definitely return to this lounge again. The only drawback to this lounge is that the restrooms are outside in the terminal building.

✅ Trip Verified | This Aspire Lounge is a third party lounge and also open to paying customers, some credit card holders and lounge access card holders. As such it is always very busy when I go there. I'm absolutely bewildered as to why anyone would pay to enter. Its not a bad lounge, there is an adequate selection of beverages and the food is decent but I find the number of people in the space a little uncomfortable, my prime reason to go into airport lounges is to relax, its not a very relaxing space. I must stress, the facilites provided are up to standard, it is simply the volume of people in it that is a definite downside. Obviously Air France/KLM cannot really justify the expense of their own lounge at Newcastle although I guess BA does have their own which is lovely and has less flights that Air France and KLM combined.

✅ Trip Verified | The Aspire by Swissport Lounge is past security and we were positively surprised. It is spacious and has an open air terrace to enjoy a glass of wine in the sun, a cigar or a cigarette. The selection of food is good and included salads, hot dishes, cold snacks and desert. We had a glass of the French Blancs de Blancs wine which was quite good. To eat we had spring rolls, pizza slices and chicken nuggets). We recommend this lounge. It is one of the best contract Lounges I have been to. Why not a ten point rating? Simply because it does not have shower possibilities (restrooms were good and clean) or an area to relax and sleep. And it should have fresh local food.