Skytrax is a United Kingdom-based consulting firm that’s been running an airline and airport review and ranking site for over 20 years. Although U.S.-based airports have historically not done well in their ranking (and if you’ve traveled internationally, you know it’s deservedly so), Singapore Changi Airport has taken the top spot for the past 8 years.
That’s all changed for 2021. In fact, Changi didn’t even make it to 2nd place; it only got 3rd.
Of course, COVID had a huge impact in the 2021 ranking. As Skytrax said, “The past 18 months has been the most challenging and financially difficult period ever experienced by the world air transport industry, and airports have invested to provide the safest possible environment for their customers and staff during the global pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted some regions and airports more than others, with many areas having few, if any, international routes operating for more than a year.”
With that, the Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar snagged 1st place this year.
The airport opened in 2014 and has been rising in global airport rankings ever since. Hamad ranked 3rd in the 2020 awards, but whereas the pandemic decimated some airports, it actually helped Hamad show how good it could be.
“As travel hubs worldwide have been impacted by the pandemic, Hamad International Airport was undeterred by the global travel disruptions and continued with its expansion plans while introducing additional airport health and safety standards,” Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said in a statement.
Here are Skytrax’ Top 10 airports for 2021, along with their ranking in 2020.
- Doha Hamad (#3 in 2020)
- Tokyo Haneda (#2)
- Singapore Changi (#1)
- Seoul Incheon (#4)
- Tokyo Narita (#7)
- Munich (#5)
- Zurich (#11)
- London Heathrow (#12)
- Kansai (#10)
- Hong Kong (#6)
Asia again dominated the Top 10, with 6 of the slots. Europe was next, with 3, and, of course the Middle East had 1 slot, but it was the best one.
The ten highest-ranking U.S. airports were:
25. Houston George Bush (it was #31 in 2020)
42. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (#42)
44. Denver (#37)
46. Atlanta (#41)
49. Houston Hobby (#67)
53. Seattle-Tacoma (#56)
61. San Francisco (#54)
70. Dallas/Fort Worth (#51)
75. Los Angeles (#75)
86. New York JFK (#77)
Click here to see Stytrax’ Top 100 airports for 2021, as well as winners for other categories. Their methodology can be found here.
Feature Photo: Jim Halliday / Wikimedia
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
The only thing I found special about Hamad was the enormous Qatar lounge. The rest is just airport-anyplace-a-all. I really like the CX lounges The Pier & Wing) at HKG and the shops where you can get packaged snacks not available in the U. S. LHR is a big shopping mall with a good business CX lounge and a pretty good BA Concorde lounge. SIN does have a lot of pleasant diversions. MUC & ZHR are fine, but nothing great. Haven’t been to the other international ones. I’ve been to all those in the U.S.-nothing to complain about, nothing to get excited about either.