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| - In some way the Calgary Airport is great. It's not too big. Lots of different amenities and restaurants, both before and after security. It looks nice, and I see they're doing some renovations so things keep improving. There's also free wifi, which is fantastic.
But I have issues with this airport, which came apparent when I flew through here a few days ago. I was arriving at YYC for about 1 hour layover from Frankfurt, before traveling on to Edmonton. Of course landing in Calgary from Germany I had to clear Canada Customs and of course there's a huge line up. They had two queues going, one regular and one for connecting flights. I of course went to the connecting flight queue, which didn't seem to be moving and then I heard a volunteer say, "oh it doesn't matter what line you go in." Well then why even have a connect queue line. What's the point? Also after being in Europe I really wish we had customs set up in a similar way that they do. They have a EU citizen line, and I think it would be great if Canada Customs (at all Canadian airports) had a line for Canadian citizens, then a line for US citizens, and then a line for International citizens. It would just make sense, but I digress.
Customs took a while, but I was still okay for time. I exited out to the arrivals area and then I couldn't find a Departure screen or open information booth to tell me what gate to go to for my next flight. My boarding pass had been printed a day earlier while I was in Helsinki (my flight was Helsinki-Frankfurt-Calgary-Edmonton) so there was no boarding gate information. I don't understand why YYC wouldn't have any departure or arrival flight information on the 1st floor. I know that's where domestic baggage claim is, but someone could come into the airport that way and not know where to go. So I went to the 2nd level, where the checkin and departures are and still no departure/arrival screens. So frustrating.
I still didn't know exactly what gate to go to but I knew where security was, or I thought I did. I went to security, the lady at the very front scanned my boarding and let me through. Then I waited in line for 20 minutes before getting to the front of the x-ray machine where my boarding pass was checked again and I was told I was at the wrong security gate. Apparently I was at the Westjet gates and the Air Canada one (where I was supposed to be) was at the complete opposite end of the airport. It would have been really nice if instead of signs saying meaningless things like "Concourse B and Course F" there was a sign say "Security - All Westjet Gates" and "Security - All Air Canada Gates." I was so upset and about ready to cry. I don't understand how I was let through the first time with my boarding pass when I was at the wrong gate.
There was a volunteer outside security and I asked where the Air Canada boarding gates were. She told me, on the other side of US Customs, basically at the opposite end of the airport. So I had to run through the airport to get to security, where I had to wait in line (again) and where I prayed to God, Thor, Superman, and every magical deity in existence to let me make my flight home. Thankfully, after security there was a departure screen so I could find out what boarding gate to go to, but seriously there should be departure/arrival boarding screens well before security too. And thankfully my flight was delayed about 10 minutes so I had just enough time to make it to my flight.
I do like Calgary's airport, and I've flown to and from here a couple of times before in the past as well. But there definitely needs to be more departure/arrival screens and better signage. Even with the airport being under construction you can still have signs explicitly saying where people are. Maybe there could even be a general information map - like at a mall. I know all this stuff is available online, but sometimes you don't get a chance to go online to check that kind of stuff. YYC needs to be set up so that anyone, regardless of whether they've been there before or not, can figure out where they're going and where they need to get to. Because of it's poor and confusing layout YYC only gets 2 stars from me.
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