Prague Airport Reviews 

I'm sorry to report that we had a terrible time returning home, when my wife and I visited Prague [for the 1st and last time] last weekend, on a day-trip from Dublin.

The early part of the day was fine. First, we took a long ride from Prague Airport, to a stop 'close-to-the city centre' on a number 119 bus [a bus that is not supposed to exist any more, according to Google?] - but beware - that bus takes the long, polluted route !!!. It was then necessary to find and ride a couple more confusing tram journeys [no signage or fare info in English - anywhere !] [p.s. - the tickets have no English info on them, and there is NOTHING written on the back of any bus or tram ticket - that becomes relevant later !]. The time was short and the weather wasn't great, so we had no time for a boat trip to see mostly endless rows of soviet-era buildings covered in pollution and graffiti, so instead, we walked, and using Google Maps, we managed to visit most of the good places the city has to offer, [Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with it's Astronomical Clock, the St. Vitus Cathedral, and Prague Castle], in under 2 hours, without problem.

However, it would take me an hour to list in detail, all of the negative things we experienced that occured from the moment we began the journey home from the Old Town at 6.30pm, to the moment we boarded our flight 3 hours later at 9.30pm, so here's a summary. During that time, we experienced a number of incidents involving corruption, inefficiency, mistakes, negligence, and poor or incorrect signage, at all of the places one might expect to find reliability and stress-free assistance.

Incident #1. A group of five burly men clad in black, who said they were Metro security police, were at the Metro station as we walked to find the boarding area for the number 59 bus. We stopped to ask them a ticket question, but without warning they told us we must pay them 4000 CZK €165], even though we showed them the valid tickets for our journey purchased at the outset from a ticket machine at the Metro Station near Old Town, for one-way travel to catch our flight at the airport??? - the tickets only cost €1.02 each !!. What was our alleged crime? Well we are law-abiding - so WE had approached THEM and we had courteously asked them to help us validate our tickets !!!!! - in response, they said [immediately] "you have committed an offence - you should read the BACK of your ticket" [lolll??], they immediately fined us 4000 CZK, and when we objected, they threatened us with police/confiscation of passports, so we reluctantly paid by CC, because we couldn't afford to risk missing our flight by getting detained for not cooperating with these corrupt people, who get paid a % of the fines they scam from unsuspecting honest passengers.

Incident #2. Number 59 Bus driver - dropped us at the wrong Terminal 2, AFTER we had asked his advice when boarding the bus, re the correct terminal for the Dublin flight. We wasted considerable time because we only discovered the error when we went to Passport Control in the wrong Terminal 2, and then had to walk to Terminal 1.

Incident #3. Passport Control/immigration at Terminal 1 - the immigration guard on duty seemed confused for some reason? - she kept us there 15 minutes without a word of explanation, looking at my wife's passport ?

Incident #4. not one staff member knew whether or not there were any restaurants after passing through Passport Control, or after passing through Security Screening? We asked 3 different staff members, and they all gave us different answers !

Incident #5. After passing through Passport Control, we found NO restaurants - but eventually, we surprisingly found a sign leading to the 'FOOD COURT' - but when we followed the sign, we got into a lift [with no signage, pressed each floor button ?] and eventually arrived at something that resembled the airport staff canteen ????
We left there immediately and with time running out, we went into a bar instead and had just a quick coffee with a chicken roll.

Incident #6. Security Screening (for non-Schengen flights) : we were informed that our flight would depart from the Gate 8/9 area [Gate 8 flight going to Dubai, Gate 9 flight going to Dublin] Flight was delayed, so we asked the Gate 9 security agent if we could use the public toilet in Gate 8 area [NO TOILET in Gate 9 area]. She checked us out of Gate 9, and we approached Gate 8 agent. Incredibly, the smug security agent at Gate 8, told us we could only use it if we were flying to Dubai !! - he told us we would need to go back out to the Duty Free/bars area to find a toilet, and that we would then need to come back through Security Screening (for non-Schengen flights) all over again if we left the Gate 8/9 area ??
I'll stop typing at this point.
My advice - don't waste your money going there - go somewhere else. Prague is not recommended.

Horrendous - three hours to get through

Passport control genuinely the worst ever. 2.5 hours queuing to get within view of the human managed control. 1 hour + to get to the machines which are pointless as you have to go via human regardless.
If you travelling here for Friday - Sunday/Monday city break, don’t waste your time as you lose a day travelling.
Signed a customer delayed for 4 hours then queued like a zoo animal for almost 3 hours to get out the f****n airport!

3 days trip to Prauge December 2025
The hype surrounding this place is completely unjustified given the absolute nightmare of the airport experience. Immigration is particularly appalling, with rude officers who ignore you to chat with colleagues while you wait over an hour. The terminal is a disorganized mess of random queues and useless screens playing ads instead of flight info. Honestly, the hostility and chaos here make the entire trip simply not worth the effort.

On arrival both the EES and passport control were terribly slow. On departure bag drop was quick but everything else was painfully slow, 2 hours of standing in one queue or another. There was only one lane on security open, no one was going down the queue telling passengers what was required at security. Consequently each passenger was being virtually told individually what the requirements were. Awful!!

Unhelpful and rude staff. Ridiculous queues made worse by passport control staff, deliberately slow - chatting and drinking tea. Was charged for excess baggage yet our friends who were in the same queue weren’t?!

But was visiting Prague worth it? ABSOLUTELY - amazing place/people

Simply the worst, most disorganised airport in the world, with the rudest border control and staff generally that I ever met. Management clearly don’t give a damn. We come in and spend our hard earned money and are treated like third class citizens. Truly disgusting! Give yourself a lot of time for long, disorganised waits for everything. Don’t relax as there is always another queue to join with some more rude staff!

Che i cechi non siano dei simpatici educati lo sappiamo da tempo...
Io che a Praga sono di casa da diversi anni vorrei descrivere la mancanza di professionalità e gentilezza da parte del servizio di sicurezza.....mi hanno fatto aprire lo zaino e con maleducazione come se fossero infastiditi mi hanno gettato il contenuto un po in terra e altro nel contenitore....creandomi dei problemi ha dei prodotti alimentari che avevo acquistato e che per legge potevo trasportare....
Sono rimasto impassibile di fronte a questa signora che non mi ha rivolto una parola di scuse ..una vera vergogna ...forse una buona dose di ottimismo e educazione sarebbe opportuna....
Comunque se é così...così la prendiamo
Voto insufficienza totale

We've known for a long time that Czechs aren't the nicest and most polite people...
I, who have been a regular in Prague for several years, would like to describe the lack of professionalism and kindness shown by the security service. They made me open my backpack and, rudely, as if annoyed, threw the contents partly on the floor and partly in the container. This caused me problems with food products I had purchased and which I was legally allowed to carry.
I remained impassive in the face of this lady who didn't offer me a word of apology... a real shame... perhaps a good dose of optimism and politeness would be in order...
Anyway, if that's the case... that's how we'll deal with it.
Grade: Total failure.

It takes less time to fly from Uk to Prague than it does to get out of the airport. Terrible place. Go somewhere else.

You're not welcome here. I've never encountered a more unfriendly and nitpicky attitude at any airport. VAT refunds are impossible from the staff. They treat you like you're trying to rob the presidential palace. Drinking fountains are only available up to security. After that, you can only buy water. Your European passport is checked four times before departure. It's a beautiful country, but the airport staff ruins the whole experience.

Travelled to Prague Airport on 11th December 2025. On arrival we waited for over 25 minutes to scan our passports at the automated machines then another hour to get through passport control. Thankfully they opened the non EU desk to all passports and we were moved there or we’d have been at least another hour. On return 4 days later the experience was ok until we got to the x-Ray security at gate A7. There had just been a staff change over and a younger team of staff took over, mainly female. Unlike the previous shift who appeared to be helpful we found this team (who were very young) rude and abrupt and it was obvious they were out to wind people up. Very unprofessional, immature and unhelpful - barking one word commands etc. Wouldn’t hurt them to say please and thank you now and again. They asked me to open my case by shoving it in front of me and snapping “open”. I have no idea what they were looking for as all they could do was roll their eyes to eachother and smirk while they rifled through my bag. We sat and watched as most female passengers were made to remove their shoes and two security girls could be seen clearly making fun of older people trying to get her shoes back on. Not a pleasant experience but thankfully didn’t put a downer on our trip. Terrible customer service.

Horrific experience with this airport !
No format at all , mile long queues just to get to border control and to collect your baggage! There are people constantly pushing in and the passport control officers haven’t got a care in the world about people waiting and are incredibly slow ! We waited 3hours just to get to passport control and to collect our luggage , it’s an absolute joke!
Every stage in this airport is back to front. You are searched and your bags are checked at your gate so therefore can’t buy food or drink until you get on your plane unless you get it put into a separate plastic bag, but this does mean you have to wait till you board to eat or drink. Otherwise it will be taken off of you . I can safely say I will not be returning to this airport and a lot of changes needs to take place!

The biometric system is a complete shambles. Queues of 2 hours to get through, the staff look defeated and the organisation is the worst I have ever seen.
Allow 2-3 hours to get past passport control.
Would not visit again due to this experience.

This is by far the worst experience we have ever had at any airport.

Flight took just over 90mins which was all well and good, but to get through passport control took 3hrs of queueing!!! Nearly everyone going through the non EU passport control had to have finger print scans, and photo taken. Absolutely no help and direction by the airport staff at all.

Do not use the self service machines to scan passports and finger prints, it's an absolute waste of time as you still have to que up and go through the non Eu passport control. Just head straight for the que.

Please be aware it is the same chaos coming home as well. To check your bags in and get through passport control, will take you 3-4 hrs!!! If you get there 2hrs before you will miss your flight!!!

Absolute chaos!!!!!

Horrendous experience, 15 minutes wait to get on the new EU system. Then we have been queuing an hour and no site of the exit yet. Won't be travelling here again.
No organisation.
No support.

Had to wait over 1 hour to be processed . No communication or organisation . Very slow , very poor. Passport control the slowest in the world for sure . Please give yourself enough time . Just as well Prague is an incredible city otherwise I wouldn’t avoid this airport

We arrived and it took 2.5 hours to get from the plane through passport control to the taxi who had to wait as we had already booked it and was not happy as were we!! It was absolutely ridiculous, the queue to go through passport control went on forever, literally 1 mile or more long queuing past all the shops and duty free, round the bend and kept going, we couldn’t believe it. The worst airport we have ever been to. It seems when lots of flights arrive at the same time they can’t cope even though they have machines now, you still have to queue after the machine to see a person to check your passport, what was the point of a machine??? Unfortunately this completely ruins everything else as the rest of the airport is ok. It almost takes away the want to visit Prague and warn people away but luckily it is a fantastic place to visit. Just be mindful you may have a very long wait for passport control.

There is a new system in place were you check yourself in. It was a free for all. Nobody helped, we all helped each other. After standing in another queue to do it all again with an actual person a lady behind me told us we could go to another window because we had a British passport. After 2 hours we went out for a taxi. He charged us 2400czk instead of 1000. Once in Prague it was fine. This was my 2nd visit but i won't be going again.

Easily the worst airport I have been in EU. Rude staff, long queues and a poor layout. Security checks at gates means you can’t relax before you flight and an awkward system of navigation around the airport.

After an hours wait in the non-EU line I was greeted by the most obnoxious, ignorant and rude Passport control officer. Before I could speak he said “Do not speak, you are a third class citizen in my country, you are a stranger, you are not in the EU” Unfortunately I couldn’t reply how I wanted to because I would of been sent straight back home, but really? Disgusting attitude.!!