Cairns Airport

"Domestic Airport: Cairns domestic airport terminal has the ambience of your favourite uncle and auntie’s home. It’s welcoming when you walk into the check-in. Outside there’s two car parks: covered and uncovered. You certainly must book for covered beforehand as spaces are very limited. When you walk in, it’s spacious and ordered with clarity around the check-ins and lane ways to queue. The decor and ambiance are both very good. Security is through three lanes and the staff work hard to accommodate passengers. They’re pleasant, sometimes very funny and aware it’s stressful for many. You then walk into the beautiful colourful shopping and restaurant area with a large diverse selection. From the fabulous best airport coffee at Icons with its most lovely staff and its fabulous array of gifts and drinks - to Lego Kaboom with its brilliant selection of Lego and everything in-between. Toilets are plenty, easily found and clean. Departure gates are functional if a bit tight to get processed through two lines of board ticket checking. Cairns Domestic Airport would get 5 stars but for two things: You cannot look outside - at all - unless you’re a Qantas lounge member. That lounge, on the 1st floor, is utterly gorgeous, serene, plenty of room and a great view outside. But for everyone else, you’re in a shed. There are no windows whatsoever which limits views to the internal shops and people. There’s no watching air traffic, disembarking passengers or freight, or tugs pushing the planes back. Secondly, the airport can be noisy inside primarily driven by the loud announcements and the sheer amount of unnecessary announcements. At times they’re almost deafening. Definitely need to be reduced in volume. Overall, for a regional airport, Cairns Domestic Airport is very very good. For ambience it beats Brisbane Domestic Airport. International Airport: The international airport is vastly different from the domestic airport. Located literally 5 minutes walk from the domestic terminal, it resembles Stalinist Russia with its entrance and check-in resembling a discombobulated morgue. It’s absolutely hideous. The check-in is a 1970’s relic with awful carpet, no shops whatsoever, and the atmosphere of a depressed morgue with no atmosphere or excitement of international travel. Oh no not here. You then head to the 1st floor and after security and border control enter a slightly, only just, happier morgue with a few shops. Be prepared for sheer boredom by bringing something to do especially with children. But this isn’t the worse part. If you land in Cairns and disembark to the international terminal welcome to Stalinist Russia both in architecture and staff. Even Pyongyang International Airport architecture and staff fare better than Cairns. You enter a hideous breeze block building and corralled like sheep all the time often shouted at by border staff. It’s so unprofessional. They are absolutely dreadful - shouting, threatening to fine you or remove your phone, or treating you absolutely unprofessionally. Once you’ve used the one passport machine available and picked up your bags, you then queue in one line for the one person to decide if you’re dodgy or not. If you’re deemed dodgy you’re sent left for baggage check and if you’re deemed safe you’re sent right and freedom. Considering Cairns relies on tourism and business owners and tourism spends millions marketing the wonderful and much better outside, Cairns International Airport is an utterly dreadful ambassador to anyone visiting for the first time especially to Australia and for those of us living here who enjoy international travel. This gets -10 stars."

"This is the coolest little airport. It has a neat and tidy little qantas lounge and heaps of speciality stores for either food or gifts. Prices are normal airport prices (expensive) but everything is there. Customs lines are usually pretty quick which is also a bonus."

"It’s a beautiful small cute airport with lots of restaurants at the departure a few being: -World of chocolate -Espresso bar -Mr. Greeners (juices and salads) -Bistrot - Italian restaurant There’s a big souvenir shop and tech shop. They have a lot of outlets including usb to charge phones and laptops This airport has international flights and it connects to every city in the domestic sector."

"Plenty of shops inside and nice car rental options inside the terminal. But no shops open outside the checkin area , so if you go early, there is no shops to buy food except the vending machine."