Because I’m a bit of an airport geek, I just spent the past 30 minutes reviewing the new report from Skytrax that lists the world’s Top 10 Airports for 2005.

(Okay, so maybe I’m a huge airport geek. Sue me. Surely I’m not the only one who actually looks forward to an extended layover so I can see if the airport might have a casino, porn shop, or an outdoor beer garden. As it turns out, Germany’s Frankfurt Airport has all three.)

According to Skytrax - and its 5,584,365 survey respondents - five of the top 10 airports are in Asia, with HongKong International Airport grabbing the top spot.

Scroll down quite a bit and you’ll find the first U.S. airport - Minneapolis-St. Paul International, which ranked 20th overall. Ouch. Somewhere along the way, the U.S. forgot how to build superior airports. Now they don’t even try. (And please don’t write about Denver International, which 10 years later still seems to need some serious tinkering.)

The worst part about the survey is that I wasn’t all that surprised to see the U.S. shutout of the top 10. I can’t remember the last time I was blown away by an airport’s layout/amenities/services. But maybe I just don’t fly enough. Is there a U.S. airport you think deserved a high ranking? Let me know.

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