webfact Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Manila dislodged as world's worst airportPhilippines Daily Inquirer/ANN - After topping the list of the world's worst airports for three consecutive years, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) has the dubious achievement of landing only fourth this year."The Guide to Sleeping in Airports," the interactive travel site which has been sticking Manila's international airport with the world's worst airport tag since 2011, this year praised the Naia, particularly its Terminal 3, for the improvements that have apparently changed passengers' experience of the airport.According to the travel site's 2014 survey results posted on www.sleepinginairports.net on Wednesday, Naia was "overtaken" in the worst airport stakes by Islamabad Benazir Bhutto International Airport (ISB) of Pakistan, Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport of Saudi Arabia and Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport of Nepal.Pakistan's ISB, which topped the list this year, was likened to a "central prison," with pervasive corruption and aggressive yet inconsistent security checks.The website ranks airports based on the votes cast by travelers who rate the facilities according to "comfort, amenities and overall experience."Most of the travelers that use the website's services are those looking to cut costs by sleeping at the airports instead of booking hotel rooms."After 3 years at the top of our worst airports lists, Manila Naia saw a slight 'improvement' in its ranking as a result of increased positive votes for its Terminal 3," the blog said.Last August, Naia 3 started full airline operations with the completion of rehabilitation work that was 17 years in the making.Five international airlines - Delta Airlines, KLM, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates- have now moved to Naia 3 from the congested Naia 1 which has long been the object of ridicule in international travel sites. Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Manila-dislodged-as-worlds-worst-airport-30245656.html -- The Nation 2014-10-17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Songhua Posted October 17, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2014 Obviously never been in the transit lounge in Brunei. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldsailor35 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Obviously never been in the transit lounge in Brunei. Yep! what a little "bug hutch" that place is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farangbanok Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 (edited) Surely Heathrow Terminal 3 should win hands down! A quiet time: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/13/travel/13jour600.1.jpg Edited October 17, 2014 by farangbanok 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emster23 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Just shows can't rest on laurels. Have to keep vigilant eyes to keep that coveted #1 ranking of worst. Others always trying to sneak past.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCauto Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Just shows how competitive it is out there. The race to the bottom is intense! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkkjames Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Try Bahrain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangkapi Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 My vote goes to Libreville, Gabon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post shaurene Posted October 17, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2014 Wonder where Deli airport in India ranks, it is a most uncomfortable dirty stinky airport I know. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baerboxer Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Try Bahrain. Bahrain ? It's not brilliant I agree but much better than 2 of those named that I know. Food and beverages in the business lounge is good, even if the decor is somewhat sparse. I know Manila and Riyadh. The latter is much worse. The business lounge is a tiny hovel, with crap internet, when it's working and the whole place is tatty. When boarding an armed guard comes and stands by the gate - so that's usually pretty smooth with a quiet queue all being well behaved Manila, for me, just heaves tackiness arrivals and departures. The little shack to wait for hotel limos is pathetic, when you manage to locate it. Never been to Pakistan or Nepal airports, so can't comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerryd Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Try Bahrain. I've been going through Bahrain 6-8 times a year for the last 6 years or so. Small airport, slowly improving. Best bet is to be a Gulf Air frequent Flyer and use the upstairs lounge. I used to just hang-out at the Gloria Jeans coffee shop (with their nice, customer only smoking room) but ever since I quit smoking over 2 years ago I just go to the lounge. It's not really sleep friendly and no airport hotel as far as I can tell, but I've rarely had a layover of more than 3 hours and never had a flight cancelled either. I went through Manila a couple times in 2008. I was surprised at how..........cheap......it looked. Like some small regional airport built in the 50s and never upgraded. It didn't even have a 24 hour coffee shop or smoking area (and the staff wouldn't even let me and poor old dad go with them to wherever it was that they went to have a smoke). Kabul just sucked bad in every way possible. Delhi's airport looked like it was on the verge of collapsing the couple times I went through there. The sandbagged guard-posts and check points leading to the departure terminal, the hordes of people sleeping on the sidewalks and around the entrance to the "day lounge" on the other side of the street, the bathrooms that look like they'd been hosed down with a fire hose (dripping water EVERYWHERE from people using the "clean" toilet water to bath with). The good thing was they only let passengers into the departure area, and only if your flight was leaving within 3 hours. But standing in and looking around the check-in area, looking at the sagging roof and the holes in the ceiling where workers had pulled panels to fix lights and never put them back really made me wonder. Then, after checking my bags in and going through a "boarding pass and passport check" gate, I get directed into a room where everyone's luggage had been pulled off the carousel and you had to ID which ones were yours or they wouldn't get sent to the plane ! I'm sure there's plenty of worse airports out there, that just haven't been reported on that "sleeping in airports" website. I usually book my own flights so I try to schedule things to avoid long layovers if possible. Some of the guys just let the company book their tickets, then whine and moan when they get stuck somewhere because the travel coordinators don't often concern themselves with trivial matters like long layovers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franky Bear Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Try Bahrain. I don;t think it's that bad. Decent places to eat and an adequate duty free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangebrew Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Guess they didn't visit Don maung then huh? Bagdad's airport sucks and my worst is Tehrans airport bathrooms is hole in floor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yann55 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 I certainly agree about Kathmandu airport. I'm not talking about the building which is nondescript but not horrible, save for the toilets which are a stinking disgrace especially in the luggage reception area. I go to Nepal once a year and arrivals are more or less OK but departures can be a nightmare and I always anticipate them with a good measure of anxiety due to past experiences. Access to the airport can be a problem because all the roads in the Kathmandu valley are severely congested most of the time. Even minor problems can turn these constant traffic jams into major hold ups, and if the event is important (for example a big religious festival in the sacred Hindu compound of Pashupatinath right next to the airport) then you can be in for a total nightmare. In such a case it once took me 3 hours to get from the hotel to the airport, a trip that normally takes a maximum of 20'. Getting inside the airport is perplexing for the newbies. At first you get the impression that the place is sealed up, and then quite by chance you find a door. That's when the police paranoia starts : first check, but definitely not the last.These numerous searches cause all manners of congestion, long lines and irritation, enhanced of course by the inevitable morons who try to cut the lines. After you've passed what seems to be the final check up (but it's not, there's an ultimate one before you get on the plane!), you reach the last 'waiting area' or whatever it's called and lucky you if you can figure out where you're supposed to wait, where to sit, and which gate you'll be going through. Delays are the rule, and just about anything can cause a delay (big shot boarding or unboarding, rain, delay of another flight, etc.). But anyway, airport nightmare or not, Nepal is still one of my favourite destinations in Asia. I absolutely love that country, warts and all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franky Bear Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Worst I've been through is Basra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Time Traveller Posted October 17, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2014 (edited) Don't see the point in these stupid "world's worst XX" because I doubt that the scorers actually visited every airport in the world. I've been to Manilla, and it's a dream compared to Dhaka. Manilla wins in everything from your safety to cleanliness of toilets to food options to immigration officers trying to extort money from you......beleive me Manilla Airport is excellent. Edited October 17, 2014 by Time Traveller 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khorat 03 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Algiers airport or In Amenas airport, Now they are beauties Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunshine51 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Dakar Senegal, Timbuktu Mali, JFK NYC, LAX, SFO, Khartoum Sudan, Cairo Egypt, Tripoli Libya...I'll stop here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copa8 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Don't see the point in these stupid "world's worst XX" because I doubt that the scorers actually visited every airport in the world. I've been to Manilla, and it's a dream compared to Dhaka. Manilla wins in everything from your safety to cleanliness of toilets to food options to immigration officers trying to extort money from you......beleive me Manilla Airport is excellent. agree. i'll take manila over any of the airports in sub-saharan africa (rwanda, somalia, chad, nigeria, congo, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panadero Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Luang Prabang airport 1995. There were a bunch of police/guards(?) standing in a group trying to figure out how to extend the telescopic stock on some kind of eastern euro submachine gun that one of them had. They couldn't figure it out so I stepped up and asked if I could give it a try. They handed me the loaded weapon for me to fiddle with. I couldn't figure it out either. After a while another guard came over and took the gun out of my hands and scolded the rest. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
off road pat Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 (edited) Best sleeping facility's are in Helsinki.....Finland a whole big room with a bunch of cell sleeping quarters like those Japanese bee cell hotels.... some big enough to sleep with the missus and luggage..... And you can close them for some privacy.....loved it..... Pakistan was definitely the worse.....i have ever been,....Deli was also very bad I remember...... Manila was not to bad, just OK.....definitely not the worse.... Edited October 17, 2014 by off road pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsensam Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Sana airport should score highly being generally chaotic, with cheap plastic chairs and the open the departure 'lounge' door and rush the plane to get your seat policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 JFK. Think it was Terminal 3 last time, an old, near derelict building. Utter sardine can chaos, no space to move. Had to go through customs, pick up all checked bags (from the smallest carousel with no space around it), go through immigration into America, then on a monorail for ages and ages to get to the transit terminal. Missed the onward flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerbalEd Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 My all time favorite was Mitu, Colombia .... a muddy dirt landing strip and a thatched hut "terminal" in the Amazon jungle. The DC-3 I flew in on had to first buzz the airstrip to scare away the chickens and goats and then circle back around to make a landing. It was a grand adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 My all time favorite was Mitu, Colombia .... a muddy dirt landing strip and a thatched hut "terminal" in the Amazon jungle. The DC-3 I flew in on had to first buzz the airstrip to scare away the chickens and goats and then circle back around to make a landing. It was a grand adventure. Many years ago, I landed in Kamishli, Syria. One of the scariest flights I've ever had, then had to buzz the airfield and then landed on the new tarmac, but had to aim for the ruts in the airfield as it wasn't properly built. In general, I just want to get through airports as quick as possible. They always seem to get pretty bad if I have to hang around for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangon04 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Don't see the point in these stupid "world's worst XX" because I doubt that the scorers actually visited every airport in the world. I've been to Manilla, and it's a dream compared to Dhaka. Manilla wins in everything from your safety to cleanliness of toilets to food options to immigration officers trying to extort money from you......beleive me Manilla Airport is excellent. agree. i'll take manila over any of the airports in sub-saharan africa (rwanda, somalia, chad, nigeria, congo, etc). I suspect that the ruling families of Manila would prefer / like to see themselves far above the average in sub-Saharan Africa.....so in that sense Manila is a epic FAIL. and just as many wild announcements about new airports and improvements / hubs as in other corrupt and inefficient countries. Terminal 3 took how long?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee b Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 All airports for me. Just a waste of time to get from A to B, I know it needs to be done but i hate airports fullstop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPI Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Obviously never been in the transit lounge in Brunei. Don't ever be caught by landing late at night with an early morning connecting flight! Aaaaagh! Nothing open, nothing to see or do, no staff.....sleep if you can...on the floor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiri Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 It is not really that the airport is bad, it's the "people" who runs it. Hopeless abusive authorities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceChee Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Manila in all honesty is not that bad ...they have no shopping and let down by a lack of good restaurants ...their tiling and white light reminds you of some of the schools in Asia ...not cosy The people including all the vendors selling nothing but mangoes are polite and try their best I always think of Philippines as a net exporter of labor when you see the POEA line at immigration and wonder with a silent prayer that this assignment will be a good one for their families and them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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