[PaulRWoods]

@ Entebbe International Airport
The terminal and the runway were constructed by Israelis (long after independence) and the knowledge about the lay-out greatly helped them during the raid on the airport.
The incompetence of the airport staff is legendary. Once all of the arriving passengers were stopped and asked for proof of Malaria vaccination.
Frequently cars are stopped at a road block on their way to the airport – on a dead street since the airport is on a peninsula – and asked “Where are you going?”

[capetonianm]

“The incompetence of the airport staff is legendary.”

Blantyre, where during a total power outage I was asked to put my bag on the security belt to go through the scanner. I asked ‘why’ and was told with a broad Malawian smile : ‘it is to see if you have a bomb’.

My bag was pushed through the scanner with a broomstick and emerged on the other side after the operator had looked at the blank screen, and handed back to me with another big smile.

Africa!

1 user thanked author for this post.

tomwjsimpson

[Giampaolo]

It has to be CDG. The incompetence of the airport staff is legendary.

[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=987824][/postquote]

Have you been there lately? Probably not. Connecting on AF is a seamless experience, far better than FRA for instance.

2 users thanked author for this post.

esselle, tomwjsimpson

[capetonianm]

I’ve not flown AF for at least 10 years but my memories of CDG concur with this commentary which I found at the end of an article comparing AF and KL, coincidence really.

KLM Vs Air France Economy – Which Is Best For International Long Haul?

Do not disagree with the general assessment details , however flying through CDG makes you wish you instead had a 3 hour dental appointment. CDG has always been bad, and it just gets worse and worse. It starts with the derelict terminal 1 and the 2 A to D, the word horrible is polite, but the two things that kill CDG are the marathon you have to run every time you have to connect flights and of course 99% of the staff that treats everybody like the enemy and makes you wish you were at a border crossing of any former communist country. So KLM will always win! For CDG, I suggest total demolition and ban all currently and former employees from ever having anything to do with a client!

If CDG has improved, it is from a low base and it looks as if it still has a way to go.

[esselle]

I’ve flown through CDG quite a lot over the last 5 years, but would advise all to steer clear of T1 and T3.

T2, however, has been the subject of much investment of late; it is well signed, connecting is pretty straightforward, the lighting is good, the loos have all been done up and even the food and drink on offer is now of a good standard.

[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=988102][/postquote]

Indeed. AF reorganised itself at CDG about 6 years ago (yes, already – they created this little movie then. The airline occupies the end of terminal 2 (E&F, with 4 halls), making connections very easy, either walking or taking the automated train.

[fatbear]

I recently made AF connections in CDG T2 E and it was very straight forwarded and trouble free.

I wouldn’t argue against T1 being demolished though……….

[Huitsix]

Seeing the conversation has focused on CDG I guess I can contribute since I’ve been flying through this airport consistently throughout the past 10 years.
Terminal 1 is old, concept was perhaps nice in the ’70s but now you can feel it is somewhat antiquated. Given that France is supposed to be a developed country (even though you may doubt it upon arrival) I would suppose that, yes, it qualifies for “should be completely demolished and rebuilt”.

However, Terminal 2 is, again in my experience, quite the opposite. Of course I hate to print the luggage labels myself and check myself in but I don’t think this is because of CDG rather AF. The building itself is pretty decent. Yes there are far too many people arriving at immigration early in the morning (or should I say: at any given time, actually) and the ground staff there seem like it’s their very first day on the job (this never ceases to amaze me). Overall, given the amount of people traveling through that terminal I’d say it’s far from horrible. Dare I say: pretty decent?

ORY had the same symptoms as CDG T1 however on my latest experience there I noticed they had actually merged West & South terminals into a continuous building and bridged the gaps with what they now call terminal 3 (West becoming T4 and South becoming T1 & T2, for some reason).

Back to the original topic, in my opinion an airport that really needs to be demolished and totally rebuilt is MNL. Even though there have been tremendous improvements over the past few years and now even T1 is alright-ish, the entire airport is just totally congested. I don’t know if any of you have ever flown through T4 but that place is a total joke! T3 is pretty decent though. What they need is to build an entirely new airport for Manila!

I used to think that DMK was hopeless but they renovated it recently (at least the domestic part) however I’ve come to realize that what is really the issue is not the airport itself but rather the fact that you have way too many flights carrying way too many cheap tours groups from China. I’d say more but I don’t want to be offensive to PRC people as this is not representative of 100% of the population so I’ll just say that they make the experience at DMK catastrophic! BKK is quite better and even though it is really HUGE, it is starting to be a bit congested too!

SGN is also a decent candidate but I do very much appreciate the fact that the airport is so near to the city center, makes commuting very pleasant. Total opposite of say, CGK, KUL or HAN.

[canucklad]

Most of you will think I’m odd,, but I’m going to go against the grain here .
Not knowing the French rules around historic building preservation, I’d have assumed if T1 at CDG was a British airport it would definitely qualify for listed building status ?

[capetonianm]

I can remember in the early 70s when CDG opened, I went on a travel trade educational to have a look at this stunning and futuristic airport, way ahead of its time. The original part is now only fit to be closed to traffic and set up as an aviation museum.

The problem is that nearly 50 years later, with massively increased traffic flows, much of it hasn’t moved forward whereas other airports have.

Last time I flew into CDG, on AF longhaul -> AF shorthaul, I allowed myself 2:30 hours for the connection, even though our useless travel department said 1:15, which was the MCT, was enough. With 2:30 and no delay on the inbound, I still missed my connection due to the queues at the passport control. Then there was the rudeness of the employees, the overcrowding, and general unpleasantness. I accept it may have improved since then, but with so many better airports, why should I try?

[Swissdiver]

CDG T1 is definitively not efficient anymore, but it should be (and may-be is) indeed considered as a listed building.

[Huitsix]

I agree with you all that CDG T1 concept was good and also agree that with today’s increase in traffic it makes for an unpleasant experience.

However I disagree it should be preserved as a historic building. In my opinion, CDG T1 is the perfect definition of FUGLY! Seriously, look at it:

That being said, I looked it up and apparently Terminal 1 has already been classified by French ministry of culture as “remarkable architecture of the 20th century” which doesn’t however guarantee it will not be demolished. And in my opinion: it should.

To comment on capetonian’s experience of connecting at CDG: agree the passport control is a mess at CDG. As I mentioned in my previous post: I never ceases to amaze me the total incompetence of the staff handling the arrivals there every morning. Every single time I fly in from outside Schengen zone, the queues are massive and mismanaged. I’ve actually seen the “Sky Priority” queue going slower than the regular queue! WTF? When I traveled with my 6 month old daughter I was told that there was no priority queue for passengers with infants (again: WTF?). When you talk to the ADP staff they will just say it’s not their problem/responsibility: the long queues are created by the fact that the French government allots too few immigration police agents there. Whether it’s true or not I don’t know, either way: appalling.

[Author]

Posts