Catania Airport

New terminal same old problems: I was looking forward to arrive and depart from the newly opened airport terminal. It looks impressive from the outside but once you are inside it is dirty and badly maintained. Arrived on Swiss from Zurich. Even as we were the only flight at that moment baggage handlers needed over 45 minutes to get all the luggage out of on the carousel. Flight was early which led to the fact that no one was available to operate the passenger bridge. Had to wait on the plane for approximately 10 minutes. Long walk over to the rental-car-offices along the old terminal where beggars and strolling dogs have taken over. Departure - overcrowded departure area. Windows and public toilets dirty. Staff unfriendly and uninterested. The only thing that really worked was the air-conditioning in the building. Overpriced cafés and bars. Catania airport hasn't improved a bit it is still filthy overcrowded and chaotic.

As Sicily's busiest airport CTA was recently given a totally new terminal building: light airy and pleasant. The building itself is where the positives end. The facility is hopelessly inadequate. There are good dining options upstairs and they can be reached by an escalator at the very far south end of the terminal that is is you can make your way past the thronging check-in queues. Looking for the toilet? Back downstairs you go and through a labyrinthine corridor and you will find them but if they are not closed for cleaning they will be reduced to an unusable state. Once you make it past the interminable queue for the security check be sure to keep an eye on the one central FID. Announcements regarding delays or gate changes (for those flights lucky enough to be parked at a gate) simply do not exist. Seating and toilet facilities airside are extremely limited and you will almost certainly have to take a bus to your aircraft on a stand-off bay. If you are arriving be in no hurry to get to the baggage carousel; you will stare at it for what seems like an eternity before it starts to move and even then the delivery of luggage will be erratic. In true Italian fashion this new airport looks nice but simply does not work.

If you want a nice building with service in the dark ages Catania is for you. Went to get a coffee - closed for 10 minutes while they mopped the floor you could have been served over the counter in the area not being mopped but clearly that option didn't occur to the staff. Decided to use the toilet - closed for 10 minutes while they cleaned the floor - so walked to the other end of the airport. Went to go through passport control - closed for 10 minutes (make that 30 but 10 minutes is Sicilian for a delay of indeterminate length) the reason being the departure lounge is only big enough for the passengers of one aircraft so they only let that many through passport control at once. Still not much point in getting to the departure lounge too early as there are minimal facilities that side anyway (toilet small duty free shop only good for non eec flights and a vending machine)