With the recent opening of Hong Kong airport’s new state-of-the-art SkyPier (above), arriving passengers can now step off their plane, take a four-minute ride on an “automated people mover” to a the eastern side of the airport where they board hovercraft or high speed ferries for 30-90 minute voyages across the South China Sea to destinations such as Guangzhou, Macau and Shenzhen.
Asia’s got us beat when it comes to the world’s best airports.
Hong Kong is one of three “Five-Star” airports in the world according to SkyTrax, a well-respected international organization that ranks both airlines and airports based on surveys of thousands of frequent international business travelers from around the world.
For 2010, the only three airports to get “five star” status are Singapore-Changi, Seoul Incheon and Hong Kong Kong International. (Full report here)
On this side of the Pacific, San Francisco International placed second in North America after Vancouver. SFO’s also the ONLY U.S. airport to place in the top 25 worldwide.
Have you ever flown through one of these “Five Star” airports? What did you think? How do they compare to other international or U.S. airports? Please leave your comments below.
FLIGHT CHECK: On a recent business trip to Asia, I flew via SFO to Seoul’s Incheon Airport on Korean Air and was VERY impressed with both airports. I made a two-minute video about that journey which included coverage of Incheon Airport. (See video below and note that Korean Air business class seats on 777s out of SFO are identical to the ones offered on its 777 nonstop from ATL to Seoul-ICN. They are nearly flat, but not completely flat. However, KAL says that it plans to have fully flat “Prestige Sleepers” on the ATL-ICN route in August.)
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A good family friend, Hank Townsend headed up much of that project before the challenges that occurred with the computer issues on day of cutover. He is doing very well, and will be visiting him in the carolinas in a few weeks. Excited to fly into Hong Kong soon!
sent via email to me from TICKET reader TK
I agree with many of the posters, the airports I’ve been to in Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo Narita put to shame every single American airport I’ve been to. The shopping mall in Narita is insane – it’s bigger and nicer than many American shopping malls I’ve been to. America needs to stop living in its faded glory of the past and kick it up a few notches, because the rest of the world is looking at us now like we’re yesterday’s news… and they’re right.