Last year we wrote about the Longest & Shortest Airport Walks in the U.S.. The list was brought to you by Kuru Footwear, a U.S.-based shoe store that’s been around for more than a decade.
At the time, I thought that either Salt Lake City Int’l Airport, which was in the midst of massive renovations that caused them to joke about its long walks (they’ve since been completed) or Orlando Int’l Airport would be on the list for the longest, but they sure showed me!
But it’s a new year, and the criteria are slightly different, which means one of my “chosen” airports DID make the list this year, LOL!
Last year’s criteria vs. this year’s
This is how Kuru determined the longest and shortest airport walks in 2024:
To find this data, the team at KURU Footwear first measured the top 10 largest and smallest airports by land area in the US. We then analyzed airport maps and Google Maps to determine the length of the journey from each terminal to the nearest and farthest gates.
We also surveyed 800 Americans in February 2024 to learn more about their air travel habits and experiences. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3% and a confidence level of 95%.
They changed the rules a little bit for what “counted” to make the 2025 list:
To gather this data, the team at KURU Footwear first identified the 10 largest and 10 smallest airports in the U.S. by land area. We then analyzed Google Maps to measure the walking distance from the main airport entrance to the farthest airport gate. Where available, we also used interactive maps from official airport websites.
To ensure the findings focused on widely used airports, we refined the list to the top 5 longest and top 5 shortest airport walks, only including airports located within 60 miles of a major metropolitan area—excluding smaller regional and rural airports.
Longest walks
Anyway, here are the 2025 airports with the longest walks, as per Kuru:
- Dallas/Fort Worth Int’l Airport (DFW) – 1.50 miles walking distance
- Denver Int’l Airport (DEN) – 1.14 miles
- Washington Dulles Int’l Airport (IAD) – 0.97 miles
- Pittsburgh Int’l Airport (PIT) – 0.86 miles
- Orlando Int’l Airport – 0.70 miles
The funny thing is, not only were George Bush Int’l and John F. Kennedy Int’l Airports removed from the list (PIT and MCO were added), the walking distance of DFW, DEN and IAD changed significantly, as well. These were the 2024 findings:
- Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas – 2.16 miles (1.50 miles in 2025)
- Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia – 1.62 miles (0.97 miles in 2025)
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas – 1.52 miles
- Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado – 1.45 miles (1.14 miles in 2025)
- John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York – 1.38 miles
Shortest walks
- Trenton-Mercer Airport (TTN) in New Jersey – 0.03 miles walking distance
- Paine Field (PAE) in Washington – 0.04 miles
- Tweed New Haven Airport (HNV) in Connecticut – 0.05 miles
- Lihue Airport (LIH) in Hawaii – 0.06 miles
- Harrisburg Int’l Airport (MDT) in Pennsylvania – 0.06 miles
Again, several of the airports in the “Top 5” changed, and those that didn’t change had different numbers for distance. These were their 2024 findings:
- Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky – 0.11 miles
- Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York – 0.12 miles
- Harrisburg International Airport in Middleton, Pennsylvania – 0.13 miles (0.06 in 2025)
- Lihue Airport in Kauai, Hawaii – 0.18 miles (0.06 miles in 2025)
- Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California – 0.20 miles
Why the differences?
If they’re excluding regional and rural airports, that would explain why some of those smaller airports such as Blue Grass, Westchester and Hollywood Burbank Airports weren’t included in the 2025 report.
But Kuru doesn’t explain the difference in measurements between 2024 and 2025.
In 2024 they said they measured “length of the journey from each terminal to the nearest and farthest gates,” whereas in 2025, they looked at “the walking distance from the main airport entrance to the farthest airport gate.” Now, you’d think that the “main airport entrance” (2025) would be further than the “each terminal” (2024). Yet while the distances for MDT and LIH did indeed become longer this year, those for DFW, IAD and DEN all became SHORTER in 2025???
On top of that, JFK was #5 last year, with a 1.38 mile walk. Yet MCO was #5 this year, with a measly 0.70 walk? Granted, JFK may not have had as much construction going on this year (Kuru didn’t mention if they included walking detours due to construction or not), but I sincerely doubt it would account for over a HALF MILE of walking.
I wonder how exactly they determined these distances. Weird.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
3 comments
I’m surprised ATL did not make the top 5.
It’s rare to walk DFW, DEN, or others on the list because they are train-based. There are also airports with shorter walks than the ones they show, CGI and BLV come to mind.
The DFW data is misleading. The 1.5 miles is from Terminal B parking to gate E28. No one flying out of E28 is going to use Terminal B parking. And if by some reason you parked in B but landed at E28, you would take the Skylink between the terminals to get to Terminal B.