Barcelona airport – what’s good and what stinks

by David | Barcelona flights

Since I’ve just returned from a trip to the UK I thought it would be a good time to look at Barcelona Airport and its facilities as it currently stands, ahead of the new terminal due to open later this year.

I’ve been using Barcelona Airport regularly since the early 1990s, when it was modernised for the Olympics. And throughout all those years there is one thing that has puzzled me – why do the toilets stink so much? And so it is today – not only do they smell, they just aren’t up to the standards of an international airport:

there was no paper in most of the stalls
the cleaner was clearly having a day off
only one soap dispenser out of eight was full
neither of the two hot air blowers worked
there were no towels to dry hands

Clearly the airport doesn’t care too much about passenger comfort – McDonald’s may no do food very well, but they certainly know how to clean toilets, as they understand how much of an impression they leave on the overall cleanliness of their restaurants.

Anyway, flying to London Gatwick, the first surprise was to find that my EasyJet flight checkin was in Terminal B, whereas it has been Terminal A for as long as I can remember, and my boarding pass – I’d selected to check in online as I only had hand luggage, so able to print it for myself – said terminal A.

However, once I’d cleared security – it took about 10 minutes and is much faster than in the UK – I found the flight really did leave from terminal A! Since all the terminals are joined it doesn’t make much difference, and some of the flights that check in to terminal C actually leave from B, but it isn’t completely clear.

Elsewhere, airport is constantly changing, with new parking being built and access roads for the new terminal. Let’s hope that its opening is rather more successful that the examples of Madrid and Heathrow’s T5.