The Worst of the European Airports

The worst of the European airports
By Elisabeth Rosenthal

Friday, December 28, 2007
ROME: As we sat for an hour waiting to deplane at Leonardo da Vinci
Airport from a short-haul flight this year, the pilot got on the
public address system. "Sorry," he intoned. "Everybody knows this is
one of Europe's worst airports."

At the time it seemed hard to argue: After the 50-minute flight and
the wait to get off the plane, we would wait another hour around a
carousel before receiving our luggage.

But these days, there is intense competition for the title of "worst
airport."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/...ort.php?page=1

"zorba" wrote in message
...
The worst of the European airports
By Elisabeth Rosenthal

Friday, December 28, 2007
ROME: As we sat for an hour waiting to deplane at Leonardo da Vinci
Airport from a short-haul flight this year, the pilot got on the
public address system. "Sorry," he intoned. "Everybody knows this is
one of Europe's worst airports."

At the time it seemed hard to argue: After the 50-minute flight and
the wait to get off the plane, we would wait another hour around a
carousel before receiving our luggage.

But these days, there is intense competition for the title of "worst
airport."

As I've posted before on the subject, "the worst airport", baring some fluke
result, is going the be the busiest. Your personal worst is likely to be the
one that you use the most.

This isn't because they are the busiest. It's because most of the cock ups
that people blame on the airport are likely to happen equally at each
airport. So, if 1% of pax have a bad experience at ABC and 1% at XYZ, then
whichever is the busiest will appear to score worse.

tim

On Dec 29, 6:17*am, zorba wrote:
The worst of the European airports
By Elisabeth Rosenthal

Friday, December 28, 2007
ROME: As we sat for an hour waiting to deplane at Leonardo da Vinci
Airport from a short-haul flight this year, the pilot got on the
public address system. "Sorry," he intoned. "Everybody knows this is
one of Europe's worst airports."

At the time it seemed hard to argue: After the 50-minute flight and
the wait to get off the plane, we would wait another hour around a
carousel before receiving our luggage.

But these days, there is intense competition for the title of "worst
airport."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/...ort.php?page=1

It's because of all the strikes. If the baggage people are not on
strike, then the pilots are. If not the pilots, then it's the
mechanics... etc etc...

On Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:07:02 -0000, "tim....."
wrote:


As I've posted before on the subject, "the worst airport", baring some fluke
result, is going the be the busiest. Your personal worst is likely to be the
one that you use the most.

This isn't because they are the busiest. It's because most of the cock ups
that people blame on the airport are likely to happen equally at each
airport. So, if 1% of pax have a bad experience at ABC and 1% at XYZ, then
whichever is the busiest will appear to score worse.

tim

Oh no, we flew into and out of Rome once (this past summer) and it's
at the top of my list of bad airports. And we flew first class in
(upgrade) and business out. I had one bag smashed but at least I got
it. There were multitudes who never got their luggage.
And fortunately a friend mentioned that the monitors were often wrong
and I lucked into finding someone who was going to the same flight and
had found out where to go.
But I've never had any dealings with Heathrow. I was with a group and
those who had connected there had incredible horror stories. One bag
showed up a month after they left and after they got home.
In Rome they had to take cabs every night to the airport to see if the
luggage had shown up. apparently the concept of delivering it didn't
apply.