DXBtoDOH

Baghdad? Whoa!

I have to say despite the limited amenities Tegel in Berlin was brilliant. From the moment I disembarked the plane to when I got into a taxi it was all of....drum roll....10 minutes? Maybe? Possibly even 5 minutes?

Vienna's new airport terminal is also v. v. v. nice. All black and chrome and cold as only the Germanics can be. But having customs right at the gate is better than a massive customs hall.

scrubbedexpat141

Forgot about the bar, that was fantastic.

But when you're leaving, it's terrible.

T5 at Heathrow was good when I landed there once. Very smooth exit and I liked the flow of the airport both leaving and returning, moving between floors etc.

DXBtoDOH

T5 is pretty nice. Except when there's a cockup

Nice selection of shops and restaurants and very nice interiors. Light and airy. It's always crowded but despite the crowds I've never had to queue for a long time at security.

Inselaffen

unless you are flying from the C-gates in which case you check in at Terminal 3 but have to walk miles back to what is really terminal 1

Dubaiexile

[QUOTE=DXBtoDOH;12357731]Baghdad? Whoa!



Yes I flew in and out of there about 3 times a week for a couple of years, early days were a bit hairy but it got better!!

scrubbedexpat141

Yeah, I wouldn't mind flying there more if it wasn't BA.

I said this to someone and they argued with me. But I'm right aren't I?
It's basically the old terminal that you used to use....

DXBtoDOH

Yep. When they gave us the lovely, brand new, light and airy new Terminal 1 complete with its own Pret and short walks to the gate and a quick train ride to immigration, you got dumped with the old dark and gloomy terminal that now takes ages to reach and ages to get to immigration after landing

scrubbedexpat141

Only if you fly to/from somewhere shit. I had it for my Delhi flights.

DXBtoDOH

And Doha when I last flew Emirates before the embargo. I was *****ing pissed upon landing to discover we were in the C gates.

In retrospection that should have been a warning side things were about to sour quickly with Qatar.

scrubbedexpat141

Ha, yes! A warning indeed.

At least it gives plenty of time to beat everyone to passport control etc.

Miss Ann Thrope

Tempelhof was the coolest airport ever, the height of facist glamour. You couldnt help but have some kind of Cary Grant fantasy while waiting to walk across the concrete apron to your tiny plane. But it could never have coped with post-911 security.

I loved the architecture of Saarinen's soaring terminal at Dulles, the proportions of which have now been destroyed by the lateral expansion, and of course the TWA terminal in JFK, also bastardised beyond recognition. Mind you neither was very well equipped with facilities, but of their time I guess. I also had a soft spot for the old 1960s T2 at LHR with its ludicrous upside-down set-up (check-in downstairs below arrivals).

Changi depends on which terminal. The one Emirates uses is showing its age - not least given the free mixing of arriving and departing passengers. I'm not a fan of any of the Asian mega-airports in fairness. Bland enormities all of them, though Subharnabumi and Narita are special hell-holes. Subang airport south of KL, which used to be the domestic airport for KL (and a ludicrous hour long taxi ride from KLIA if you were making an international to domestic connection) has recently re-opened for short haul SE Asia flights and is a joy to use because it's so compact and fast to get through compared to KLIA. Similarly I like the domestic airports in Lagos and the now-closed one in Taipei because they are so small, more like bus stations than airports. They have to get everybody in and out fast because there's nowhere to hold them. Generally I prefer to use city airports when possible like LCY or Linate or Midway though they are disappearing (RIP Tempelhof). They don't have shopping malls but you can also waste much less time getting to them and hanging around. Kai Tak was an awful place but had an unmatched atmosphere (even aside from the landing) and was really fast to get through on arrival - until you hit the taxi queue.

I hate T3 in Dubai: it's one big long straight tube with potentially up to almost 2km walk between gates if you have a shitty connection (one end of B to other end of C). Therefore passengers trying to get to their gates have to fight their way through a horribly crowded narrow corridor cluttered with ugly rubbish retail kiosks and gormless amblers. It's almost always a long walk from the lounge to the gate, even from the FC lounge. The A concourse is a bit better especially with direct gate access from the lounge allowing one to mercifully avoid mingling with the hoi polloi. T1 concourse D is far better with short walks and no crowds (because no hordes hanging around for connections) - one of an increasing number of points on which DXBtoDOH and I are agreeing, distressingly...

And nobody has mentioned the non-Saudia terminal at Jeddah?

jam25mack

Manila - awful.
Koh Samui - wicked
Bangkok (new one) - pretty decent

I haven't been to the new Mumbai one that we have just finished building but its meant to be wicked. My company is one of the bigger airport designers, so we have worked on a lot of the recent big ones.

scrubbedexpat141

T3 - if you don't walk down the outsides of the retail bit then you're doing it wrong. Walking down the middle is one of the worst things on earth when it's busy.

Got pissed a while ago and missed my flight, got to the airport really early and walked from one smoking lounge to the other at each end of the terminal until boarding. Managed it 7 times. That's boredom.

Millhouse

Wowzers, some airport nerds here. I don't like travelling through them, I like investing in them and the business model, more generally. They are fantastic businesses if run correctly.

Personally, I find using airports a very dull experience - just a part of the journey to get to where I need to get to (a bit like the plane itself). I tend to go straight to the lounge/starbucks/mcdonalds and stay there until the very last minute of boarding.

My favourite lounge is in Cambodia, was blown away by how good it was. Got to love AdP sometimes.

Pity no one mentioned Queen Alia Airport, Jordan. This was mine... although I must say I don't actually love the experience there - too much Norman Foster bare concrete.

weasel decentral

T2 (international) Mumbai is excellent, though I'm not sure if you mean that one as it's open 3 years now I think.

I was recently in Chandigarh airport (state neighbouring Kashmir), and from walking down the steps from the airplane and passing through the baggage hall, it took approximately 5 minutes to be out on the street hailing a cab. Nice shiny new airport terminal building also.

I like the new airport in Jordan even though it's a bit convoluted to make a connecting flight but mostly because the old one was such a dump.