Airports without direct frequent public transport to town. Bordeaux built a tram line to Merignac but forgot to connect it to the airport, and last time I was there the bus between downtown and the airport only ran once every 45 minutes... LIS still doesn't have a subway connection to town, and the bus stops running well before the last flight of the evening arrives. Did the airport management take bribes from the taxi drivers?

JFK: why doesn't the airtrain run to Manhattan?
LGA: why no rail connection to Manhattan?

Airports with trains that run in parallel but which require different tickets, so that you can't just buy a ticket and take the first train available (Gatwick to Victoria). Southern and Gatwick express, get your act together!

Ticket machines that only take local cards. Why can't you buy a train ticket at Schiphol with a foreign card? If the ATMs take foreign cards, there's no excuse for the ticket machines not taking them.


Airports with too many terminals. Why does Boston need 4 different terminals? What does JFK need 7 different terminals for when they handle about the same number of pax as everything-under-one-roof airport AMS? A small airport like LIS with a separate terminal for domestic flights that's a bus ride away from the main terminal? Four different terminals at LGA (for half the number of pax that AMS handles in one building), with the Marine terminal (Delta shuttle) out in the middle of nowhere...


Airports that force you to pick up your bags and recheck them because of stupid governments that make you pass customs at the first point of entry (all american airports). Speaking of american airports... some require a bag scan upon arrival which has something to do with agriculture (CVG, for example). If you don't want me to bring my cheese and lettuce sandwich into the country, then at least merge customs and the agricultural gestapo into a one-stop check.


Airports that overdo it with their shops. The arrivals hall at AMS was replaced by the shopping mall called Schiphol Plaza. The only way to get to the trains or your car is through crowds of shoppers. If you want shopping malls in airports, then at least give travellers a way to avoid them. I go to airports to fly, not to shop.