Geneva is the airport in this series I know the best. I used to work there, and I probably flew out of Geneva a hundred times. This review is thus biased, but probably just as much as others. This whole series is subjective as it’s based on my personal experience.

Getting to the Geneva airport is quite easy. There are train (10 minutes) and bus (20 minutes) connections to the city center. The airport is also connected to the motorway, but getting their by car at peak times can lead to serious parking problems.

The flight connections to Europe are really good, mostly because Geneva is one of EasyJet bases. The orange company operates to 39 destinations. Most european airlines also have flight between their hubs and Geneva. Even if a Swiss flight to New-York and a Continental connection to Newark make Geneva an intercontinental airport, flying outside Europe will most of time require a connection through Frankfurt, Paris or London.

One of the recurent problems as a passenger is the number of desks for passport control. There are two of them for departures, and up to four for arrivals. I arrived a couple of times right after a flight from Kuwait, and spend up to 30 minutes in the queue.

In winter, many charter airlines operate week-end flight for skiers. This create additional traffic and the terminal can get more than crowded on such occasions. Processing all skis as special luggage don’t make the transit faster.

In terms of walking time to the gates, terminal A is fine. Simply cross passport check, security, and you’re there. But if you have to go through gates B, expect up to 10 minutes of walking and stairs. On the plus side, there are separate security screenings for gates A and B.

The shopping area are mid-sized, and prices are as expected… high. One bad point: coffee-shops in the transit area open at 6am, but some flight start boarding before, so a morning coffee is not always granted !

One final particularity: given its geographic situation, there is a french sector in Geneva airport. All flight to France depart from there. You can access it by car from a French road, or clear french customs from the main terminal. This makes things much easier upon arrival in a french airport, because flight from Geneva are considered as domestic flights when arriving in France.

So all in all, Geneva is not a bad airport for European travel, and the works going on will probably improve it. Now that it crossed the mark of 10 million passengers a year, it’s time for improvement.