“Utterly dreadful and dehumanising experience. The large queues going through Customs are like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie. As others say, it’s also grubby. Whoever is in charge here needs sacking. Pronto…”
“I would agree with other reviews that the extension and refurbishment over the past 2 years has resulted in a chaotic airport. In departures there are insufficient seats and too many bars and eating places. For arrivals it is dire. You have to walk from the plane and into long breeze-block corridors with whitewashed walls, often queuing for a long time for passport control. Yesterday (4/9/2026) we were queuing for over 1 hour with no staff to give information or help for families with young children or elderly. Even when arriving at the desks there were no airport staff at all to guide passengers to available desks. I can't say that the management was bad as there was absolutely no management at all. The final insult is that on leaving you pass through more corridors and then outside. Anyone waiting to meet passengers has to wait in the open air with no information as to how long the wait will be. It was exactly yhe same one year ago and we had expected something better by now. Airport management is totally non-existant. Yorkshire deserves better.”
“The airport is so disorganised like a labyrinth getting to departure lounge. And then when you get there a lack of seating had to sit on the floor. Seemed to be scruffy with bins overflowing with spilt liquid round it, probably through the lack of bins. No WiFi and lack of charging points. In comparison to other airports, it's a right shambles”
“New upgrades have not worked the airport is worse and with jet greedy 2 adding more flights I can only see it getting worse up your game the ques are massive everywhere and the baggage area had 3 belts and now only has 3 belts so they have not learnt ????? bad managment me thinks”
“The new terminal upon arrival faces hours long queues to return to the UK as a UK national and UK passport holder.
All passengers stand in the same queue regardless of nationality, there are no Egates or individual lanes for UK passport holders. Absolutely shocking.”
“It was terrible, then it got better for a while, and it’s shockingly back to being terrible again. It’s not an international airport but you need at least 3 hours to get through. We’ve just arrived back from Malaga airport, the queues are far worse here and it’s 11pm on a Wednesday evening. Funny how it won’t let me upload photos of the horrendous queues”
“Paid £130 for parking months in advance. Got there, no spaces. Parked where could, ok'd with staff, come back to £100 ticket. Queues everywhere, check in hall, security queues ridiculous, took over 90 mins. Rock hard wooden seating, awful eating choices, woks everywhere, dirty, grubby, an embarrassment to the area. Used to be great, just gone into decline. Never again! Waiting for Doncaster to reopen, or going to Manchester, East Midlands or Manchester in future.”
“0 stars . Flying in from Belfast a lovely clean Airport to a dirty embarrassing one, can no one see the dirt on the floor near the domestic exit . Flying out we had to take our jackets off in security , the security man told the girl in front 2 times and she said no I won't my religion says I can't , ok he said go on . when does religion come in front of security could not believe it .”
“I would like to say thankyou very much to the cheerful and extremely helpful staff who helped my daughter and me disembark from our flight from Bergen today.They made the whole process extremely easy for us.
Pat McArthur”
“Certainly the worst airport I have ever encountered. While building work goes on people waiting to meet international arrivals must wait outside (and it was zero degrees and snowing at 9.30 amon 11 January 2026). "Welcome to the fourth world" I said to our visitor. How can any "manager" not make temporary internal arrangements?
Oh, and I am still waiting for a response about a £36 car park booking the day before. I paid £2 extra to make it cancellable but the website does not permit this, though it says it does.
Please fire a few people. And don't pretend you are "sorry".”
“Depressing, grubby, cramped airport unable to cope with the number of travellers using it.
Hopefully , if Doncaster Sheffield is reopened, things will improve.”
“My wife and myself require assistance at the airport over the years using this facility at Leeds Bradford Airport, we started in the waiting room in the departure lounge near shopping and duty-free
We are now kept in a dungeon atmosphere just behind baggage control
We have therefore changed airports, hopefully to be more comfortable awaiting departure”
“LBA used to be joyless to use, now it is just bleak and grim. They have spent a lot of money recently and just made it a worse experience than before. Will be looking to fly from anywhere else in future if possible.”
“Paid £160 for meet and greet parking shocking waste of money used to bookin in the actual terminal building and when you returned from holiday your car was waiting for you straight outside terminal entrance not now you've at least a 200 yard walk in the open I've got walking problems arrived back from malaga last week in driving rain by time I got to the new booking kiosk I was literally dripping wet then 45minutes drive home in wet clothes there were other issues with the airport in the main it was a terrible experience so next time hello Manchester or doncaster”
“Who is the person in charge, who's earning the big bucks. You are not doing your job right, shocking waiting times at passport control, poor service from the officers, very slow. Worst airport I've ever used.”
“Airport used to be good but as it’s developed it has got worse and worse to the point after the last time that I would no longer use it. Specific things to be aware of:
- Security queues running out of the building and taking 2-3hours, of course you can PAY EXTRA to fast track, so factor in the time or additional cost.
- Picking up and dropping off is a nightmare, of course there is a free zone miles from the terminal at the mid stay carpark (never seen that at any airport ever!) add another 30 minutes to check in time. Everything else is under camera surveillance, so don’t try it, fines £70-100.
- There is a pick up /drop off zone by the terminal, guess what, that 2minute drop off = £7 for family and friends or added to your taxi fair ! By the time you see the sign you are committed, if you stop you get fined, you can’t turn, it’s all one way - you will get fined !
You get the message, the airport and council onto a massive money fleecing exercise, on top of the lack of any viable public transport option to get there. Better just go to Manchester, Newcastle, East Midlands etc and give Leeds a miss.”
