4 years ago
Having traveled through Vnukovo more often than I ...
Having traveled through Vnukovo more often than I care to count, I feel compelled to finally offer a review and a tip or two on how to travel here: I actually do like the airport building and layout; from an architectural standpoint is quite well planned. Domestic and international terminals feel spacious and relatively friendly and one does not have to walk as far as on other Moscow Airports (Sheremetevo, Domodedovo).
This is however, where the good part ends. Unfortunately the infrastructure
outside of the airport cannot keep up with the building itself. I rarely have
a trip when I'm not running into some kind of delay. If it is not a walkway
arriving 15 Minutes late at the aircraft, it is the bus who's doors suddenly
won't open or something similar. When you park at an outside position and have
to take the bus to/from the building you will experience too narrow walkways
for passengers, driveways in horrible state of repair (bus drivers have to go
extremely slow in order not to damage their vehicles on the numerous potholes)
and things generally give an impression of not being well run.
The same is true for the building itself. If you change over the transfer desk
between domestic and international terminals, it is sometimes very quick...and
sometimes there are 200 people waiting in front of the passport control with 2
counters open and a single passport check taking up to 10 minutes (yes, I
took the time). Once or twice I've had situations escalate close to a fight
since there are no waiting lines and often no personnel to keep order. It is often faster to change terminal by going over the main entrance hall (insider tip: despite the signs, _all_ passport control counters accept international passports, if in a hurry, take the left most for diplomats).
Avoid the toilets, if you can - since smoking was forbidden in official Russian buildings, they are more of a unofficial, dirty smoking place than anything else. If you must use toilets, walk to the end of the repective terminals, the facilities are much less frequented there.
Passenger announcements (written and oral) are often made only in Russian and
more often than not an inquiry in English will only earn a blank stare. Even
in the international part English is not commonly spoken by personnel. It is
also not possible to completely depend on screen announcements, I've boarded
delayed flights through gates, showing neither the delay nor the actual
boarding flight.
On the upside, there is free wifi now (though the login is strange, it's slow and does not work always) and that there are some ok shops (most even take credit cards). Also both, domestic and international terminals now have areas for kids to play (though they are not free).
I've been to worse airports (in India, South America), but not many and none were people were less friendly and forthcoming than here.
So unfortunately while being a nice airport _building_ Vnukovo is so badly
run, that I'd personally go to some length in order to avoid it.