Pafos International Airport — Local services in Κοινότητα Αχέλειας

I was on flight TOM7319 that departed at 19.20 on the 8/11/23. Returning from Paphos Airport to East Midlands UK , after spending a week on holiday with my husband and daughter . We were directed to our departure desk to check our luggage in and get our boarding cards . I explained that I was a disabled traveler and had a walking aid on wheels that I needed to get around the terminal and hand it in on boarding to go into the aircraft hold . I said I didn’t need special assistance as my husband and daughter who are my carers would help me around the terminal and onto the aircraft. A member of airport staff said it was ok to come through security as a family and join a line for passengers with walking difficulties. That is where my nightmare started ….. Walking to the security checkpoint a male member of staff told us to put our bags , mobiles , tablets etc into a box to be scanned he also said to remove our watches off our wrists ( unusual as we’ve traveled a few times recently and never had to remove them ) . We did as we were instructed and I started to follow my family to the walk through scanner . Suddenly the man told me to go back to the disabled line where others were waiting in wheelchairs I explained I was with my family and needed to be together and a lady member of staff had said it was ok for me to go through the checking . I went back as the staff member had been very abrupt and rude and wouldn’t listen to what I’d been told that I could go through with my husband and daughter . I returned to the queue where the Disabled and Special Assistance passengers were waiting to be told they hadn’t moved anywhere since joining . I know the terminal was busy but how can they treat the disabled as they were doing that day ? I saw one female staff open one gate to allow one wheelchair through . I then again was told to come forward to walk through the barrier, meanwhile my carers had gone through security and I was left behind by myself, my walking aid on wheels which may I add was like a child’s pushchair was folded up and went eventually through the scanner as it should have done from the start . I was then told to go and be swabbed walking painfully as my walking aid hadn’t been reunited with me and had to stand unaided while a woman tested for my results . I was then told it was OK . I then went to collect my property from the box I’d put through what seemed ages before . That’s when I found my watch was missing someone had what I can only say had STOLEN MY WATCH from the box where I’d been told to put it in after being told to remove it . I said to a lady member of staff who done the swabbing my watch is missing. She just shook a couple of boxes and shook her head at me and walked away . I eventually got my wheeled walker which my family had retrieved it for me I asked them if they’d got my watch but it was nowhere to be seen. So not only had I as a disabled traveler been treated like a yo-yo puppet , removed from my family who were my carers , someone had robbed me of my watch . After visiting Cyprus over 30 years ago and returning many times since , loved the country and made many friends over the years . Now older and having walking difficulties and health issues we as a family came on holiday to make happy family memories. This ruined our family experience and I don’t think we will be returning to Cyprus . I can’t believe how the disabled were treated on the day , yes it was busy but keeping disabled travellers back in a queue and leaving them and their families waiting ages before letting them go through is not giving a good impression in fact it’s degrading. Remember one day it could be you ,…. one of the workers . May I add once we eventually got through to Airside workers were more polite and treated passengers with compassion. Maybe travelling through security to Airside some working in security need to treat passengers with the same sincerity including Able bodied...

I write this review as a frequent international traveller. Staff on the boarding pass gates before security are improperly trained. I was travelling with 2 young children (4 and 6) and 2 adults with four boarding passes all on one phone (as we have done scores of times at other international airports). We approached the wide family gate together. I asked the staff member before scanning any passes (female 17th Feb 2024 at 16:50) whether I should scan all passes first for the whole family. She said I should just scan one and then waved me to hurry through the gate in a pushy manner. The gate then closed, leaving my family behind who were all on the boarding passes on my phone in my hand. The proper approach, used at ALL other international airports would be for us to scan all passes first and then let us pass through together. Instead she insisted on me passing through the gate and then passing the phone back over the gate so the rest of my family could then scan and pass one by one, and requiring my nervous (age 4 and 6) children to release hands from a parent to pass through the gate alone. This is the ONLY airport in the world I have ever seen this terrible and badly coordinated approach. When I complained about the incorrect approach and explained how it is done at other airports she threatened me with the police officer who asked me to move away from the gate even though my family had no means of getting through the gate without the phone in my hand! Train your staff how to handle families travelling with young children on a single phone-based app! Security staff and the bag scan process was also badly coordinated and the staff pushy and rude. They bizarrely insist on even small electronic items such as phone/laptop chargers being removed from bags. Similarly, they rudely insist that bags with straps (that could get trapped in the conveyor belts) are NOT put in trays (again contrary to procedure in other international airports). One of the worst entries to an airport for me in several years of frequent international travel. Train your staff. Go and visit a proper international airport and see how these things should be done properly. When it came to boarding time, the screen said boarding but no boarding gate was shown on any of the screens, it was just blank...alongside the word "boarding". meanwhile the gate numbers for flights that had already departed were still showing on the screen. Our EasyJet flight was "boarded" almost an hour before the real departure time. Most of that additional time was spent stood outside in a holding area....

No human right, no respect of privacy, no education or professionalism of the personnel. This is the worst airport I have ever been.

Imagine you are a female passenger and people want to mess through all your personal belongings in front of all airport and humiliate you without an apology? Imagine your underwear that is well organized inside your bag comes out flying onto the floor. How would you feel? What would you do. Coz that’s what happened here.

I was passing through the security, and the male security personnel took and opened my bag to check liquids, which is totally understandable. But what he did to a woman passenger is completely unacceptable. He rampage through my bag without my consent. He threw everything outside. My personal belongings, even messed up and opened my bag for intimate clothing. Everything was scattered all over the plater and was in contact with the very filthy desk they have. After the checking, he threw everything back at me at the rolling belt. Where everyone has to pass through.

In the process, My partner and I asked three and more time, even politely “ what are you looking for ? I can find it for you. I can locate it for you.” He ignored us completely.

He did not either ask a female personnel to check nor took the bag to some checking room like every else airport would have done in other countries.

What did he found in my bag in the end? Not even a single liquid. It’s a piece of soap. For this kind of disrespectful behavior there is NOT a single apology. Either he doesn’t think he has any problem either he doesn’t speak English at al, in which case he didn’t show anything remotely resembling to sorry.

We have to call the manager of the airport to resolve this problem. But unfortunately, the manager insists only in one word “ procedure”, seeing the messing around him, he doesn’t seem capable to understand the situation. He just kept insisting that’s how they do procedures here. Open with violence and with no consent. In the end, he told me the personnel had been working long hours and didn’t have a good mood. So he is actually implying passengers have to take the fallout of their personnel’s mood. How hilarious.

I’ve been traveling to 20 countries now. More than 40airports probably. This has never happened to me ever before. Full of disrespect. No professionalism. Lack of education. No way to communication. Only bad attitude. Except the security part. The whole airport is not...