What's going wrong at Carcassonne airport?

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Helen
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What's going wrong at Carcassonne airport?

Post by Helen »

I've used Carcassonne Airport a number of times now, am used to its quirks, and seen it change over time. But it worked.

This latest trip - flying from Glasgow for a week, returning yesterday, was definitely not an airport which 'worked.'

On arrival we had to wait some 20 minutes at least to be permitted access to the building to go through passport control. A blip, I thought.. never mind. I was under no time pressure and went with the flow.

But then, on return, oh dear! It took longer to get through security than it did at Glasgow airport at the start of the school holidays. Everything just stopped (I think to allow the passport staff to go elsewhere) - and then, once through, it transpired the 'gates' have been sectioned off now. So all the passengers for a full Glasgow bound plane were crammed into a remarkably small area which appeared to have no ventilation. There were nowhere near enough seats, barely enough room to stand, no dedicated area for wheelchair users - and I suspect no access to the one loo which used to be available air-side (but thankfully I didn't have to research that).

And then the plane was delayed, sent around in a holding pattern for some reason.

As one of the last ones through to the departure gate, I 'only' had to endure about 45 minutes standing in what was beginning to rapidly resemble a hell-hole. But tell that to my hip this morning!

When we finally took off, the queue for incoming passport control was evident. I don't know if they were the passengers from the Glasgow flight, or the later Porto flight, but whoever they were, they were locked out until Passport Control arrived.

Ironically, I recently got my CarcaMiles loyalty card. Based on yesterday's experience, I think might use Girona next time.
dimidu66
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Post by dimidu66 »

Dear Helen,

Thank you for your feedback and sorry for replying late, I wanted to check with my colleagues first the reason why you had such a bad experience.

Our Station Manager in Carcassonne informed me that your flight was arriving 25 min late from Glasgow. Also and unfortunately for you, you have travelled on the busiest day for us in Carcassonne : Wednesday. The departure for Glasgow flight is normally planned from 14:15 but we asked Ryanair a few months ago to see if it was possible to schedule another departure time as the current times are just between 2 Schengen flights (Brussels Charleroi & Porto) which is not very easy for us as we absolutely need to separate the passenger flows between Schengen & non-Schengen flights so you need a minimum of 2 departure areas, 2 arrival areas... They kept the biggest boarding area for the 2 Schengen flights and we had no other choice than using the smaller one for your flight, unless to wait for the biggest area to be free which would have led in an additional delay for your flight from 30min to 1hour max. We know it's not very practical, and most of the time Ryanair is largely helping us for changing the times when they know it's not going to be easy for us in terms of operations, unfortunately they have very busy activity and they couldn't make it this time...

In terms of facilities, we are very sorry not to have offered a better place before your boarding. Fortunately the things will change with a new boarding area which will be in a new building, you have probably seen the renovation works and we will have a new building just in front of the aircrafts' parking, which will help us to extend the current facilities in the existing terminal (more check-in counters, more space for security controls and arrivals terminal...) Your bad experience was unfortunately a chain of exceptional circumstances, and we really hope that the new efforts made to recognize our passengers' loyalty will change your mind and make you forget this bad experience that shouldn't have happened. On behalf of our team and Direction of Carcassonne Airport, please accept our sincere apologizes.

With best regards,
Dimitri
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Helen
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Post by Helen »

Dimitri,

thank you for such a full reply.

To be honest I hadn't realised that there had been changes to controls for passengers flying to/from non-schengen countries until I read your reply - but since then, the British media has been carrying reports of horrific delays at passport control in a number of European airports. It almost made me feel I'd got off lightly at Carcassonne.

I hope the additional building work progresses quickly and smoothly though - standing any length of time in that small departure lounge with no ventilation isn't good for anyone!
Webdoc
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Post by Webdoc »

Helen wrote:I hadn't realised that there had been changes to controls for passengers flying to/from non-schengen countries
There's certainly a change in Spain - three times in the last 18 months I've flown from Girona to Luton with no passport checks at all. Not waved through; no border staff in attendance at all. I mentioned it to the border staff at Luton and they clearly despaired. "This isn't a bloody game, you know" they said.
dimidu66
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Post by dimidu66 »

Helen,

You're welcome! Yes it was quite difficult the past few months, but I was flying back from Dublin last sunday, and I can really tell that the customs have well improved their methods for checking the passport. It was taking a long time because they had to check on 3 different systems, their own system, the one used by border police and a governmental one. Now all the 3 systems have been merged into a single one and it has highly reduced the long time for passport checks!

Hi Webdoc, it's weird that no check was done on international flights from Girona... I would be quite worried if I had to take a plane there... it's very surprising and it might cost them a lot if immigrant passengers are caught by the customs in London airports. The airlines are normally fined and they ask then to the origin airport to pay for these fines.
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