My Worst Airport - Tullamarine, Melbourne. What's Yours?

[neon_crossing]

CAI is the worst international airport I have ever experienced.
Even the business class lounges were unbearable.
I'm not sure if it is hearing the prayer room belting out stuff on a megaphone or that some genius decided to have smoking rooms with open doors so the whole bloody airport smells like a cigar.
An 8 hour layover there was worse than a 15 hour flight in economy!

I have a trip going through MNL in January and I am looking forward to comparing it after reading this thread.

For the record my favourite is SIN, it just works.

 

[Melburnian1]

Those complaining about MNL must be complaining largely about T1, which has been very recently renovated. It's true that it's an ugly design, but the renos. have made it a bit better, and in any case several international airlines (including CX, SQ and EK) transferred last year to the vastly preferable T3. T1 and T2 do the job for me OK. What I notice most about MNL is that baggage retrieval, immigration and customs are often significantly faster than MEL, so on that most important score MNL beats MEL (and SYD.)

anat01 gave an excellent summary of MEL's many deficiencies so I won't repeat it, but I too cannot stand the 'dog leg' walk through the duty free retailer.

MEL even removed carpet from many areas - compare it to SIN on whose floors walking is a relative pleasure.

MEL doesn't have an airport train - a major embarrassment for our city now that we have four million plus residents and many visitors. Skybus is greedy and crowded.

It's surprising that DXB hasn't been mentioned. An absolute zoo - unpleasant in every respect, and super busy in the middle of the night. CDG may be critcised but it's preferable to DXB.

DRW and to some extent CMB are smaller than the others but neither is particularly impressive.

 

[Christoo]

Melbourne is my home airport and it isn't pretty... The queues through immigration on departure are awful.
The temporary nature of the International terminal isn't great, but as already stated, it's in the middle of an upgrade.
What I do like about Melbourne is that all the terminals (that matter) are connected and you can walk to and from the carpark and hire cars undercover.

To call MEL the worst though it nuts, I have many airports low on my list:
MXP, CDG, LHR (Except 5), LAX, JFK, MNL, CAN (The departure hall is okay), SHA (Before upgrade)

 

[justcallmeryan]

People can and will dismiss visiting a city solely on how they judge the airport, and it may hinge on what may be perceived as something small / trivial. IMO that is, in and of itself, categorically irrational, but there you go.

Really? Really?

 

[TomVexille]

Really? Really?

I do believe that people are as irrational as anat0l​ describes

 

[burrco]

I'm another one that truly despises the forced walk through the shopping arcade at MEL. There's a passage way labelled staff only right at the start of the "mall" that takes you to the gates - but passengers are forced to do the longwinded glorified u turn. It's cynical and deliberately contemptuous of passengers - other than that MEL is ok.

 

[TomVexille]

I'm another one that truly despises the forced walk through the shopping arcade at MEL. There's a passage way labelled staff only right at the start of the "mall" that takes you to the gates - but passengers are forced to do the longwinded glorified u turn. It's cynical and deliberately contemptuous of passengers - other than that MEL is ok.

I've been through that passage

 

[justcallmeryan]

I do believe that people are as irrational as anat0l​ describes

So people arrive at MEL, decide they hate the airport, go into the amazing city and can't get over the fact that they hate the airport. They go back and tell everyone how awful Melbourne is, despite the city being amazing. Really??

Just clarifying, I don't mind MEL as an airport..

 

[TomVexille]

So people arrive at MEL, decide they hate the airport, go into the amazing city and can't get over the fact that they hate the airport. They go back and tell everyone how awful Melbourne is, despite the city being amazing. Really??

Just clarifying, I don't mind MEL as an airport..

It's just that an airport is often the last experience of ones visit to a city, and that can sour even the greatest of experiences. People are emotional and irrational.

 

[medhead]

Melbourne? Amazing City? Please.

Besides it wasn't the whole airport that puts them off, just the lack of smoking rooms.

 

[trentusjuventus]

MEL is my home airport and I usually only see it once every 1-2 years when I visit home. It's sometimes disappointing to arrive and have some negative experiences (customs/quarantine lines being the one which I encounter most), but on the whole it's pretty good and I'm usually just happy to be home in a familiar environment. I don't mind walking through the DF maze and having a giggle to myself at how much they think they can charge for things. While Australian airports might not be the best, they're far from the worst, and I think people are spoiled with good airports in Asia.
My recent addition to the lower end of the rankings would be IST. Lots of remote gates, badly signed, transfer a mess, way too crowded, no free Wi-Fi, and very expensive food and drink.

 

[neon_crossing]

Lack of smoking rooms would put an airport's ranking up in my books.
<rant>
Screw smokers and they should be inconvenienced as much as as often as possible.
For every time someone comes home from a night out and their clothes and hair stink like ciggy smoke.
For every time someone has tried to dine or do any business alfresco and get bombarded with ciggy smoke.
For every time someone has to gag on ciggy smoke when they walk through a crowded area/street (the absolute worst, whoever decides to smoke in a crowded place is a jerk).
For every time someone is diagnosed with cancer or emphysema from passive smoking.
I truly would rather someone shoot up heroi_ next to me in a public place rather than smoke because at least that doesn't directly effect my well-being.
</rant>

 

[Deleted member 29185]

in Melbourne the contrast is pretty stark - they built it in the sixties, and it shows. Every other airport I've been too looks better than Melbourne does...What do you think?

I think everyone can have an opinion, but I read your post as implying MEL hasn't been updated from when it was first constructed. As I've worked on terminal building at MEL and I'm not old enough to have been constructing airports in the sixties, I can assure you that's not true.

I've been to many airport terminals which rate lower than MEL in my books (inc LAX) and I concede to having grumbled from time to time about them, but a terminal is not really a swaying factor for me as to whether I'd visit a place again. I even frequent an international terminal that consists of shed with a counter that pax file past and have passports stamped, exit the single door and wait in the carpark (full sun) until immigration is complete and then return the same way to check into your onward flight at the same desk by the same people (who are often late in the afternoon because the immigration gentleman has to pick his kids up from school)!

OK this thread has two separate discussions: - Domestic & International.

For me, JHQ (Whitsunday) is the worst I've seen domestically.

That's not a domestic airport! That's a bush strip. Now if you want to discuss some of those...........

I thought Heathrow was pretty poor - not because of the layout, but because of the way it deals with white non-EU citizens. We landed there, and plane full of Africans were ahead of us. All their passports had something wrong with them. So we had to inch forward, and an hour and forty minutes later we finally got to show our passports and get through.

By way of contrast, four years later our plane landed in Venice, and ahead of us was a plane-load full of Africans whose passports all seemed to have something wrong with them. And we inched ahead very slowly just as we had at Heathrow. But then, when all the EU citizens had gone through their passport control queues, the Venetians came along to the white people at the end of the non-EU queue - and told them to go through the EU passport control areas, and got us out of there.

Without trying to be too pretentious, are you implying a good airport is one that shuffles through all the "white" people ahead of the Africans? I didn't think you liked things out of the sixties, yet your attitude seems firmly stuck there.

Could I suggest that story would hold more weight if you failed to mention the nationality of those who had passport issues (it actually happens to others as well, not just Africans) and neglected to slant the story with "picking whites from the crowd for fast tracking". Then there may have been a semblance of credibility in the post. Did you stop to think that the passport people just happened to pick you because you may have been limping a bit with your bung disc and not because you were white and those trouble making Africans weren't?

 

[medhead]

Could I suggest that story would hold more weight if you failed to mention the nationality of those who had passport issues (it actually happens to others as well, not just Africans) and neglected to slant the story with "picking whites from the crowd for fast tracking". Then there may have been a semblance of credibility in the post. Did you stop to think that the passport people just happened to pick you because you may have been limping a bit with your bung disc and not because you were white and those trouble making Africans weren't?

You reminded me of those darn Belgians in the line in front of me at IST without a visa. Holding up the line. Darn trouble making Belgians!!

 

[Renato1]

Melbourne is my home airport and it isn't pretty... The queues through immigration on departure are awful.
The temporary nature of the International terminal isn't great, but as already stated, it's in the middle of an upgrade.
What I do like about Melbourne is that all the terminals (that matter) are connected and you can walk to and from the carpark and hire cars undercover.

To call MEL the worst though it nuts, I have many airports low on my list:
MXP, CDG, LHR (Except 5), LAX, JFK, MNL, CAN (The departure hall is okay), SHA (Before upgrade)

Thanks. Fortunately for me, I haven't been to any of the airports that you've listed. So Melbourne is still my worst airport. Do they have the number of queues outbound and number of queues inbound at the same quantity as Melbourne? Or less like everywhere else I've been?

I can't see how you can say the outward queues at Melbourne are awful. But why no mention of the inward queues?
Regards,
Renato

 

[Sprucegoose]

If you want to see the pits then visit MNL.

Which terminal John? The new one T3 is not too bad.

 

[Renato1]

Without trying to be too pretentious, are you implying a good airport is one that shuffles through all the "white" people ahead of the Africans? I didn't think you liked things out of the sixties, yet your attitude seems firmly stuck there.

Could I suggest that story would hold more weight if you failed to mention the nationality of those who had passport issues (it actually happens to others as well, not just Africans) and neglected to slant the story with "picking whites from the crowd for fast tracking". Then there may have been a semblance of credibility in the post. Did you stop to think that the passport people just happened to pick you because you may have been limping a bit with your bung disc and not because you were white and those trouble making Africans weren't?

Your notion that the venetians came up and tapped me alone is contrary to what I plainly wrote - that they got me and hundreds of others to go through the EU queues.

Your notion that it is my notion that a good airport is one that shuffles through all the white people ahead of black people is plainly stupid, and dredged up from your politically correct notebook.

My notion is that a good airport should shuffle through people with legitimate passports ahead of those with illegitimate ones - when it is bleeding obvious which group is legitimate and which isn't. A poor airport is one that sees the bleeding obvious but which due to dumb notions of equity, penalizes the legitimate group.
Regards,
Renato

 

[tuapekastar]

Took a while for me to think of a really horrible airport but then I remembered LHR T3. Arrivals bad enough, but departures the most God-awful airport area I've been in (I know, I probably should get out more).

 

[TomVexille]

Thanks. Fortunately for me, I haven't been to any of the airports that you've listed. So Melbourne is still my worst airport. Do they have the number of queues outbound and number of queues inbound at the same quantity as Melbourne? Or less like everywhere else I've been?

I can't see how you can say the outward queues at Melbourne are awful. But why no mention of the inward queues?
Regards,
Renato

I really haven't had this problem either outbound or inbound at MEL. Maybe I'm just lucky, but the queues at MEL aren't bad at all. In fact the last 3 times I left internationally there were only a couple people in front of me in both the security and Immigration queues.

 

[slc767338]

I really haven't had this problem either outbound or inbound at MEL. Maybe I'm just lucky, but the queues at MEL aren't bad at all. In fact the last 3 times I left internationally there were only a couple people in front of me in both the security and Immigration queues.

I second this. Last two times I left and arrived internationally at MEL there was not another passenger in sight. Gate to car park in a matter of minutes.