High Eurostar fares cause me to fly to and from Paris much more than I should; Air France’s vast network means I connect at Paris Charles de Gaulle too. It is surely the most joyless airport journey in Europe?
Globally, only New York JFK delivers a worse experience as an airport to start or end a journey. When I asked for views on dismal airports across Europe, Jaine concurred: “I don’t like Heathrow Terminal 5 but, yes, CDG is weird.”
Yet the French hub – the busiest airport in Continental Europe – is not without supporters.
“Polycarpe” writes: “For point-to-point traffic it is far from the worst. Already has the sub-optimal RER B to downtown Paris and will have the CDG express from 2027 onwards. And one of the few major European hubs with a high-speed train station.” That last point is important: assuming you get through the EU entry-exit system after a journey from a British airport in less than an hour, being able to step aboard a TGV express to the east or south is a real bonus.
“Munich airport is pretty crap,” notes Nicole Graham. I have to agree. While it has an airport station, there is no high-speed link. Signposting is as far from intuitive as it is possible to be. And, as at Lufthansa’s other hub, Frankfurt, even connections between non-Schengen flights are fraught. Inbound to Munich from Seoul last year, connecting to Heathrow, the queue for security was so bad that I almost checked into Germany and out again to make the flight – until a kindly frontier official explained a shortcut.
While I had specified “major hubs” when canvassing views, some readers took the opportunity to nominate smaller airports. Maureen Myles cites Dalaman in Turkey “for the rip-off value duty-free”.
Tomas Ince emphasises his choice with an exclamation mark: “Geneva!” Anyone who has been there on a February half-term Saturday, when skiing Brits who have paid a vast amount for family trips are given a distinctly third-class experience, may agree.
Bordeaux, surprisingly, picked up three votes, with Rebecca judging it to be “the worst I’ve been to in recent years”. Like the airports of Marseille and Lisbon, it has a low-cost terminal only one up from an internment camp. The name,Terminal billi, signifies cheap – but not cheerful.
Someone writing as “An Ordinary Man” does not appreciate Manchester airport: “Needs bulldozing and starting again from scratch!” Some would argue that is exactly what is happening to the UK’s third-busiest airport (after Heathrow and Gatwick). A couple of votes came in specifically for Manchester’s Terminal 3. Recently it was the epitome of a no-frills facility. But now the 20th-century relic is getting a comprehensive facelift.
“Lanlan & Henry” sum up the basic problem: “Most major European airports are terrible, because they have not been built to a kind of 50-year masterplan, but each new phase tacked on to what was there before.” That is certainly the case with Gatwick and Heathrow, respectively 90 and 80 years old this year.
Airports also have an unfortunate characteristic shared with hospitals and prisons: nobody wants to be there, and everyone wants to get out as soon as possible.
The difference is that people voluntarily go through airports. But unlike railway stations and ports, every traveller must undergo a thoroughly stressful security check (preceded, in the UK, by a drop-off fee of up to £10 if you arrive by road).
Airports are merely means to ends. While some of them feel as though they have been designed by sociopaths, they are staffed by helpful souls – and, in our tens of millions, we gladly judge that the rewards at the end of the journey justify the airport experience.
Paris Charles de Gaulle: I’ll be back. But don’t expect me to be in a good mood.
Read more: Edinburgh airport raises drop-off charge to become one of most expensive in country
