America's Best and Worst Airports

[OhioGuy]

America's Best and Worst Airports

Where are you likely to develop air rage? Find out the results of Travel + Leisure’s survey of America’s best and worst airports.

From April 2012
By Everett Potter
The major American airport that delivers the most seamless experience isn’t on any coast. It wins over fliers with shopping and dining options, the ease of check-in and security, and the friendliness typical of its city hub.

So breathe a sigh of relief if you’ve booked a flight through Minneapolis (MSP); Travel + Leisure readers have crowned it America’s best airport.

In our first-ever airport survey, we asked readers to rate America’s 22 major airports in seven categories: flight delays; design; amenities; food and drink; check-in and security; service; and transportation and location. The best-scoring airports have tackled these issues head-on, refurbishing terminals and adding amenities that make the worst airports look evermore outdated by comparison.

Case in point: T+L readers affirmed that if you’re looking to avoid the worst flying experiences in the United States, bypass airports in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, which are hobbled by outdated infrastructure, overcrowding, chronic delays, and demoralized staff.

Best:
1) MSP
This may be the cheeriest and most welcoming airport in the nation. T+L voters loved the shopping and food and drink options at this mini-mall of an airport, and when it came to ease of check-in and security, Minneapolis also took the No. 1 spot. It came in second for design and cleanliness, baggage handling, staff communication, and airport location. Only its Wi-Fi offerings were lackluster (11th place), but that still left this midwestern oasis as the clear winner.

2) CLT
Need to get online fast? Travel through Charlotte, which got top marks for Wi-Fi. It also ranked first for baggage handling, curbside check-in, and staff communication. The North Carolina hub is so well rounded that it scored highly for its convenient location (ranking third) as well as for airport lounges and the overall check-in and security process (second). If anything, it could use some improvement in the terminal cleanliness (fifth) department.

3) DTW
Detroit’s airport is at the top of its game, ranked No. 1 in terminal cleanliness, design, location, lounges, and business centers. It came in third for service and staff communication and fourth in baggage handling. As Delta’s second largest hub and the carrier’s primary gateway for Asia, that’s no mean feat. The airport fell short only when it came to public transportation options—not surprising considering you’ve landed in the Motor City.

4) MCO
The gateway to Disney World sees some serious traffic, and you may wait in check-in and security lines when you depart; the airport ranked only ninth in that category. But a No. 3 Wi-Fi score, a No. 2 shopping score, and a No. 1 score for kids’ zones means there are plenty of ways to pass the time. The airport also ranked No. 1 for its luggage trolleys, which families will surely appreciate. And while it only came in 10th place for location, T+L readers felt it was the easiest major airport for accessing a rental car.

5) SFO
The Bay Area’s main air transportation hub won praise for the ease of its public transportation, even though it ranks only eighth in location. And you shouldn’t have to wait too long for your luggage to turn up (the airport ranked fifth for baggage handling). It’s relatively clean with a design that was rated highly; modern, light-filled Terminal 2 serving Virgin America and American Airlines is particularly appealing and amenity packed. The airport generally does have reliable Wi-Fi, which you’d expect when you’re this close to Silicon Valley.

6) BWI
7) LAS
8) SEA
9) DEN
10) MIA
11) PHX

Worst:
11) DFW
10) ATL
9) IAH
8) BOS
7) IAD
6) ORD

5) EWR
Ah, Newark. It leads the other two New York–area airports, but that’s not saying much. While readers ranked it 11th for location and convenience, its other scores—16th for staff communication and a string of 18th places for design, cleanliness, baggage handling, and miserable check-in and security lines—are near the bottom of the barrel.

4) JFK
Ease of getting a taxi may be the best thing to be said about JFK. You will wait—and wait—in check-in and security lines, likely wait again for your luggage, encounter a less than helpful, and wander in vain looking for a Wi-Fi signal. All of these were ranked 19th by our readers. Even worse is the airport’s location (21st) in relation to the nation’s largest city. Taxi!

3) PHL
Philadelphia’s airport is singled out for a lousy design and lack of cleanliness (20th), surly staff (20th), and long check-in and security lines (20th). The only thing worse is waiting for your bags, ranked 21st in efficiency (make that inefficiency). That its location came in at 13th is not much consolation.

2) LAX
LAX ranked at the bottom of most categories—that includes location (20th), check-in and security process (21st), impression of safety standards (22nd), baggage handling (20th), staff communication (21st), and terminal cleanliness (21st). Clearly, this worn-out airport is ready for a major Hollywood makeover.

1) LGA
Dilapidated La Guardia hasn’t aged well. The airport has the dubious honor of ranking the worst for the check-in and security process, the worst for baggage handling, the worst when it comes to providing Wi-Fi, the worst at staff communication, and the worst design and cleanliness. If there was a ray of hope, its location, which ranked 16th, was considered superior to six other airports.

[iheartthed]

I went through LGA last week and noticed that they refreshed/upgraded(?) the Delta terminal... And even that looked very worn.

[OhioGuy]

So which U.S. airports does everyone like/dislike here on SSP?

If I have to make a connection, I like to connect through Denver. I typically try to fly United Airlines and concourse B seems relatively light & airy. I especially like the extra-wide moving walkways and larger entries/exits from the restrooms.

I've never flown through Minneapolis, but I have flown through the other top 5 and I've found them all to be reasonably pleasant. Additionally I like Seattle and Portland (the later of which unfortunately missed the list).

As for airports I dislike, my immediate response is Philadelphia. It seems to be the exact opposite of my experiences in Denver. Instead of light & airy, it seems dated. Instead of easy movement within the terminals, it seems choppy.

I'm a bit surprised SFO held up reasonably well, not because I think poorly of the airport itself, but because it's prone to weather delays due to low ceilings. But magazine readers liked the amenities available, in addition to public transit (BART) access.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

So which U.S. airports does everyone like/dislike here on SSP?

I seem to always get stuck flying in and out of the crappy airports so the only one I can definitely confirm as being good is DTW. My only complaint about DTW (besides lack of transit access) is that it's a little light on diversity of food options for those of us who travel through there frequently.

[mhays]

A magazine survey like this will typically be backward looking. A lot of respondents are presumably using memories from years or even a decade+ ago. That's particularly relevant as many airports have undergone major changes in recent years, mine included.

[brickell]

My own personal experience -

Chicago Midway was one of the dumpiest, ATL the most maddening
CLT the easiest and Long Beach the coolest.

[jg6544]

That ranking is far too kind to LAX.

[afiggatt]

Why the top 22 airports? Is there a reason for cutting off the list at 22 airports? Why not the 25 or 30 busiest airports?

I found this list of the busiest 50 (total passengers) and 30 (total boardings)US airports on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._United_States. I don't see a clear cutoff or gap between #22 and #23. If the cutoff is 20 million passengers, then the list would include 24 airports with SLC at #24. This is just another mostly silly list based on shaky methodology, but I'm scratching my head a bit to figure out why they settled on the 22 busiest airports.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

Additionally I like Seattle and Portland (the later of which unfortunately missed the list).

+1 to PDX. easily my favorite airport in america. local micro-brew outposts in the airport and the concession vendor contracts don't allow them to charge one single penny more for a beer than they charge at their brew-pub facilities outside of the airport.

a 5 dollar draught pint of local micro-brew at PDX or $7.50 for a bottle of miller lite at most other craptacular american airports? hmmmmmmmmm..... that's a tough one.

[Nowhereman1280]

I've never understood all the hate for O'Hare. I've been flying out of there for a decade and have never once faced a delay of more than 15-30 minutes. The lines are also hardly bad and I've rarely waited more than 30 minutes to get through security. Plus I love being injected right into the airport via CTA and avoiding parking and all that BS. I have a feeling ORD is still notorious from the 1990's when it was a complete clusterfuck during the golden age of commercial airlines when they were pushing capacity so hard that airplanes were constantly nearly clipping each other on the runways.

Now MDW, that's a shithole, but worth it for the pleasure of flying SW.

[10023]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

So which U.S. airports does everyone like/dislike here on SSP?

Well, considering I'm usually flying out of one of the New York airports and most frequently bound for ORD, my experiences tend to suck.

Although Nowhereman makes a good point above - it's not really fair to knock an airport for being busy. Of course security is going to take longer at LGA than in Minneapolis, it's a small airport that handles a shitload of passengers. But the fact that it's dilapidated is fair game.

As for places not on the list, I would personally rank Miami near the bottom in terms of staff and the baggage process, based on a couple of visits in recent years.

[seaskyfan]

With a lot of these airports it depends which terminal you're in. I was happy when Alaska Airlines changed from Terminal B to Terminal A in Boston - completely different experience.

SEA is my home airport and I like a lot of the changes they've made (including the big central atrium). "Shabby" was the first word that came to mind as well for PHL. I've had good experiences at MSP, ORD, DEN, and SFO, and lousy experiences at LAX. I hate DFW but that has less to do with the actual airport than American Airlines scheduling connections that are less than an hour (even worse - they're over an hour when you schedule but then they keep rescheduling so you wind up with 20 minutes to navigate the place).

PDX is nice but I'm within Amtrak range so I usually just take the train. SEA has the street pricing as well (stuff being the same at the terminal as it is outside).

[Jonboy1983]

My take on the best and worst airports listed -- the ones I've had the pleasure (or displeasure) of flying through/out of:

MSP and DTW, both were awesome in my opinion. I wish we had a longer layover in MSP because I wanted to check out that shopping mall. I loved that underground tunnel linking the commuter terminal with the brand new mainline terminal. That state-of-the-art mainline terminal itself was pretty sweet with the tram running from one end to the other.

MCO -- I actually thought getting to the car rental area was rather confusing when I was there last year. Apparently, there are multiple locations to go for one particular rental company, which in our case was Hertz. We wanted the A side but wound up on B or vise versa (I can't remember right off now). I still liked the terminal layout, especially with that Hyatt hotel right in the middle of the landside concourse.

SEA... Well, the TSA sucked. They kept doing a bag check on my wife's carry-on, delayed us for over 20 minutes, and we ended up missing our flight to MSP by only a couple of minutes! So, yeah, I'd give the TSA there a negative score if it were possible.

My experience in MIA was rather pleasant, tho. Connected through there on AA on our way to Aruba. I liked taking the train at their concourse to get from the domestic connecting flights at one end to the international departures at the other.

Now for the lousy airports. I live near Philly now, so yeah... With the exception for the new Southwest gates and the A-concourses, that airport is beyond out-dated. I do not like the low ceilings in the B and C gates. The only nice part about that is the shopping area in between there.

Surly doesn't begin to describe the workers there. We waited over an hour for our bags once we got back from Aruba a year and a half ago. While waiting for a US flight to Pittsburgh, I happened to watch a US Airways ramper drive the ramp cart right over someone's bag that had fallen off the conveyer belt cart. He must've run it over a good 20 times as he tried to reposition the conveyer belt.

[Patrick]

Nice to see Phoenix's Sky Harbor at #11, great airport, I always have enjoyed my time there, very clean, efficient layout. Interesting place to people watch, great views of the valley from most terminals. Never experienced any problems flying in/out of Phoenix.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wingsnstuff/3610102524/

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

+1 to PDX. easily my favorite airport in america. local micro-brew outposts in the airport and the concession vendor contracts don't allow them to charge one single penny more for a beer than they charge at their brew-pub facilities outside of the airport.

a 5 dollar draught pint of local micro-brew at PDX or $7.50 for a bottle of miller lite at most other craptacular american airports? hmmmmmmmmm..... that's a tough one.

I'm surprised they want to locate there. If a restaurant is anything like being a general contractor at the airport, the constant burden of security checks, badging, etc., adds significantly to cost, including staffing.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I guess I'd also list Phoenix Sky Harbor as my favorite.

I also like the LA feeder airports, Ontario and John Wayne, even if I hate the noise abatement takeoff at SNA. I try to avoid LAX whenever I can.

I've also had shitty experience with connections at DFW, but have nothing against the airport itself. Landing in one terminal and having maybe 30 minutes to connect on a flight in another terminal is not my cup of tea, but I don't really like flying anyway.

[MolsonExport]

I hate them all. I much prefer the large Asian airports (esp. Seoul Incheon)

[Lipani]

Out of the 14 airports I've been to in the last two months, LaGuardia was by far the worst. Not only was the place just filthy, but the archaic check-ins and the long security lines didn't help much.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by seaskyfan

I hate DFW but that has less to do with the actual airport than American Airlines scheduling connections that are less than an hour (even worse - they're over an hour when you schedule but then they keep rescheduling so you wind up with 20 minutes to navigate the place).

This is one of the reasons I have vowed to never transfer at ATL again. I don't care how much it costs. Every time I've been the plane sits for 30-45 minutes waiting for a gate, then you have to rush to the next gate which is invariably on the opposite side of the airport or terminal. Then the plane taxis out and is #34 in line for take off an hour later. Then there was the time that they changed my gate 4 times in the matter of an hour.

ugh.

[Parkway]

I agree that this is probably using people's out of date impressions since PHL just underwent a major renovation to its security check points. Last time I flew out of PHL was 8:30 on a monday morning and there was no more than a 5 minute wait.

It doesn't help for customer service that US Air is by far our largest carrier.