If you had to name the best airport in the world, or just in the United States, which would you say it’d be? How about the worst? How would it compare to this report that just came out? Read on…
AirHelp is the world’s leading air passenger rights specialist. Their mission is to help travelers get the compensation they deserve following a disrupted flight. They operate in over 30 countries and have helped more than 10 million travelers in the past 6 years.
They also recently announced who they rank as the best and worst airports in the world, as based on on-time performance (60% of the score), service quality (20% of the score), and food and shopping options (20% of the score). On top of that, the group surveyed thousands of passengers on their personal experiences last year.
They chose the 132 airports in the ranking based on the best known and most used airports for which they could get data. This is the group’s ninth annual report.
Here are the rankings:
Best Airports In The World
5. Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, Poland (8.35 out of 10)
4. Alfonso Pena International Airport, Brazil (8.37 out of 10)
3. Athens International Airport, Greece (8.38 out of 10)
2. Tokyo International Airport, Japan (8.39 out of 10)
1. Hamad International Airport, Qatar (8.39 out of 10)
Fun fact – all three of the top 3 airports have taken turns obtaining the #1 spot since the ratings were introduced in 2015.
It’s interesting that Singapore Changi Airport didn’t rank in the top 5. When Skytrax announced their World Airport Rewards earlier this year, Singapore Changi won for the 7th year in a row. Yet in AirHelp’s ranking, they were only #7.
Worst Airports In The World
5. Malta International Airport, Malta (6.05 out of 10)
4. Henri Coandă International Airport, Romania (6.03 out of 10)
3. Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands (5.92 out of 10
2. Kuwait International Airport, Kuwait (5.78 out of 10)
1. Lisbon Portela Airport, Portugal (5.77 out of 10)
Congestion appears to be the biggest problem facing airports, as the flight industry continues to experience rapid growth in global tourism. In fact, the Worldwide Tourism Organization estimates that worldwide international tourist arrivals increased 6%, to 1.4 billion in 2018 alone and the increase in passengers is a large issue, especially during peak hours, despite airport expansion. Orlando International Airport, which ranked #57 out of 132 on the list, is a perfect example of that.
Best Airports In The U.S.
5. Denver International Airport (7.67 out of 10, #52 of 132)
4. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (7.75 out of 10, #47 of 132)
3. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport (7.81 out of 10, #41 of 132)
2. Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (7.87 out of 10, #36 of 132)
1. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (7.89 out of 10, #34 of 132)
As Delta’s hub, we’ve flown into and out of ATL several times and we’ve always found it to be a relatively hassle-free experience. We also enjoy the variety of restaurants they have there, especially One Flew South.
Worst Airports In The U.S.
5. Chicago O’Hare International Airport (7.37 out of 10, #75 of 132)
4. Boston Logan International Airport (7.35 out of 10, #80 of 132)
3. Houston William P. Hobby Airport (7.32 out of 10, #83 of 132)
2. New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (7.31 out of 10, #86 of 132)
1. Newark Liberty International Airport (6.83 out of 10, #116 of 132)
AirHelp’s chief executive, Henrik Zillmer, told Bloomberg the major reason why American airports scored so low was due to weather-related delays and poor quality of service. Long security lines were also frequent problems that caused many customer complaints, which, in turn, made for lower rankings.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
5 comments
I call B.S.
The scores between best in USA and worst are too close and myriad factors can skew the results when you are travelling. JFK, for example, can be the best or the worst, factors such as time of day, terminal and class of travel can be major factors. Two DL flights can leave at the same time, i can bet the score would be much lower for a flight departing terminal 4, for example.
I absolutely agree. But it’s been a long, long time since I took Statistics in college, and if I started listing all the kinds of factors like the ones you mentioned, the post would be much longer than intended (and I tend to be long winded enough, as it is LOL) ;-). So I thought it safer to post the facts and if anyone wanted more info, they could go to AirHelp’s website and go from there.
Thanks for chiming in!
This doesn’t quite pass the sniff test. Athens? I love Athens, but finding the airport as one of the best in the world doesn’t sound right. I’d like to know a lot more about the polling process.
Yeah, I know. Bloomberg said something about Athens as well, along with a quote from TPG
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-09/the-best-and-worst-airlines-and-airports-of-2019
How does LAX (Los Angeles) escape either of the Worst lists?!