Vancouver airport is a really nice airport. Big, clean, organized. you get the first glimpse of BC while flying over the snow-covered mountain range right outside vancouver. Airport is in richmond BC.I really like the native work that has been done in the interior, especially in the international arrivals hall. Big spacious place, although immigration on arrival takes forever. They have separate windows for canadian citizens and non-citizens and there are usually more windows open for citizens while 70% of the arrives are travellers (not canadian citizens). So if your not a citizen, be prepared to wait in a long line for immigration. Baggage carousal is immediately after immigration, past customs and not the arrivals hall. People waiting for arrives in that hall. Lots of places to eat and drink. This hall also leads to escalators that lead to the domestic departures area which is upstairs. Very convenient as it takes 5 minutes to go from International to Domestic. The whole place has a very pleasant ambience.
The only thing that was strange (i guess its not that strange, but caught my attention anyways) was the number of indians working at the airport. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it just brings back memories of delhi airport because they seem to be doing the same thing here in vancouver; stand aaround and do nothing. every time I go through Vancouver airport, I see indian baggage handlers just leaning on the baggage carts and chilling.
Another thing that really ticks me off is the suspicion of indian people towards other indians. I dont want to say it, but it has happened to me twice. there are indian people (or canadians of indian origin) working in canadian customs/ immigration at the airport and I have been detained by 2 of them , twice , while they verified my passport and documents. Why I say that is because out of all the people coming out of the plane, I got "randomly" picked twice. Funny thing is, I never got checked when a white officer was on duty.
Other than few glitches, I really like vancouver airport. It’s big, comfy, convenient and easy to travel to - from.