Pe@rson From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 18883 posts, RR: 54 Posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 1488 times:
Which airports have inadequately small departure lounges and terminals?
When I flew Santorini (Greece) to Bristol (England) two weeks ago, there were three flights (two Excel B738s and one Azzurra A320) for which people were concurrently being checked-in. Of these, at least 100 passengers queued to enter the building from outside because of the overwhelming number of people inside.
Upon proceeding to the departure lounge, a number of people had to stand or sit on the floor because of a lack of seats.
Admittedly, the airport only has about 8 flights per day (mainly Olympic and Ageaen AT7s), but when a couple or a few larger aircraft come in, it's chaos.
[Edited 2003-07-31 17:52:28]
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Luv2fly From United States of America, joined May 2003, 11957 posts, RR: 51 Reply 2, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 1447 times:
Caetravlr From United States of America, joined Oct 2000, 898 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1390 times:
Any of you guys ever been to the United Express gates in ORD? That gets pretty ugly.
A woman drove me to drink and I didn't have the decency to thank her. - W.C. Fields
Rolo987 From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 293 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1370 times:
Caetravlr, I agree, the UA Express gates at ORD are pretty ridiculous. There's like 8 flights leaving from the same gate area at the same time. Pretty insane.
Airdolomiti From Italy, joined May 2003, 680 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1341 times:
Beauvais airport is pretty tight when there are two or three flights departing at once...they even expanded the departures area with a tent-like structure, or should I say greenhouse since it gets very hot!
I also found the check-in area and the baggage claim hall at Keflavik airport to be ridiculously small, especially the latter is a complete chaos when all of Icelandair's European flights arrive within 5 minutes of each other.
Jaspike From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2008, 1 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1326 times:
MME (Teesside) is a bit cramped when there are a few flights - I was there a few years ago, don't know if they've got more than about 30 seats in the 'departure lounge' now. It was tiny and there weren't enough seats at all.
Jrlander From United States of America, joined Aug 1999, 1097 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1315 times:
The Delta, Delta Connection and Song gates on Concourse D at ATL. D was built much more narrow than A and B, and a bit more narrow (I think) than Concourse C.
Jaspike From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2008, 1 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1308 times:
Outside the gates at PMI is pretty bad, there are a few seats by the gate, then there's a the corridor and then there's a few more seats against the wall.
When I was there last August there weren't enough seats around the gate for all of us. I didn't really see any other seating areas because I was in the cramped shops wasting my money
Srbmod From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 16896 posts, RR: 51 Reply 10, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1301 times:
Concourse A and B are too narrow as well; when many flights are boarding, the lines end up causing a logjam in the middle of the concourse. C is not as bad, because of the smaller number of pax (smaller a/c mean less people). D is not really all that bad, even when NWA and CO have all of their gates with flights, it's still nowhere near as crowded as A and B are during pushes.
TLHFLA From United States of America, joined May 2003, 584 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1203 times:
Srbmod, I agree with you about he problem with concourse overcrowding in Concourses A and B at ATL. I flew ATL-TPA back in 1999 on a Delta L1011 and it was parked at Concourse A right across the hall from a 767-300 bound for Fort Myers. Both flights were full and both borded at the same time. The result was total gridlock! The gate areas were filled well beyond capacity.
StevenUhl777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1200 times:
The UA concourse C and D at IAD is REALLY narrow...arrive there at prime time and it's wall-to-wall people...what were they thinking? They've got to do something there. Plus, the B & C concourses at O'Hare are also narrow. Again, what were they thinking????!!!!
Doesn't stop me from flying United, though. Denver and SF are nice...but weather problems tend to plague them.
Elwood64151 From United States of America, joined Feb 2002, 2477 posts, RR: 7 Reply 14, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1164 times:
HP's gate at MCI. Try fitting 150 people (130 pax, 10 HP agents, pilots, and FAs, and 10 security personnel) in a 30x40 feet (10x13 meter) space.
Plus, a good hunk of that space is taken up by the security checkpoint.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it in summer school.
AIR757200 From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 1579 posts, RR: 8 Reply 17, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1108 times:
I've only been through HPN once while our F100 pulled in, a NW DC9 boarding, and the other airlines. It was very tight!
United_Fan From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 7176 posts, RR: 8 Reply 18, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1107 times:
Yes,the F-gates in ORD do suck.Face it,these gates were made for 1 J41 with 30 people,not 5 CRJ's with 50 people each. Boarding is a total mess with Atlantic Coast's non-English speaking gate agents murdering our great city names (i.e. "Syracuuue"). The only good part is you get to walk out to your plane on the ramp.
Also at ORD,the ends of the B & C terminals have too many gates when all gates have people waiting for the plane to arrive it's not fun,especially in the summer when the a/c can't cope.
Dulles is not much better,dark and dingy boarding ares with minimal windows.
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DesertJets From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 7677 posts, RR: 18 Reply 19, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1085 times:
I wouldn't call ORD's terminal one concourses small... they are pretty big.
The worst I can remember is Southwest's gate area at Austin's old Mueller Municipal Airport. It had 5 boarding gates, and the place resembled a bus terminal (albeit a nice bus terminal) without the pay TVs.
STL's C concourse is pretty bad, D was a little better being there were only gates on one side.
Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia
Srbmod From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 16896 posts, RR: 51 Reply 20, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1062 times:
PER744 From Australia, joined Mar 2003, 405 posts, RR: 2 Reply 21, posted (9 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 988 times:
TBIT at LAX. Especially around 8-11PM. Nothing like preparing for a 14.5 hour flight by sitting on the floor for a couple hours. (Although it's generally less crowded and more comfortable than the Qantas Club lounges there)