May 09

In search of the perfect airport

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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2 comments

Comment from: DA [Visitor]
Naming Munich as "Europe's Best Airport" is beyond the pale. It is ill-designed, inefficient, and can be extremely crowded leaving weary travelers with no place to sit. The "immigration facilities" are found on the second floor where thousands of arrivals stand single file in order to be processed. The food and beverage venodrs are lackluster, and the frequent flyer lounges are very small. The only enjoyable aspect about Munich is watching it dissapear beneath you on the outbound flight.
2005-06-21 @ 10:58
Comment from: Rob [Visitor]
I work for British Airways and see a few airports and feel you are being too harsh on your own .
Orlando takes a lot of beating for me but Dubai is worthy of its place in the top ten as is Singapore .

Next your be saying your a secret spotter . I work with a few who think nothing of flying to JFK for two nights just to take pictures of the aircraft ! How sad is that but then they think the same about golf .
2005-07-23 @ 00:33

Comments are closed for this post.

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