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36 most/least frustrating airports

Did you know that there's a five star hotel (with a great bar) inside Vancouver Airport? Photo: Chris McGinnis

Did you know that there’s a five star hotel (with a great bar) inside Vancouver Airport? Photo: Chris McGinnis

Just in time for the holiday crunch, Bloomberg/BusinessWeek has put together a spot-on ranking of the 36 largest airports in the US and Canada.

What’s best about this ranking is that it is based on a survey of 3,000 frequent travelers who know a thing or two about airports, plus a full analysis of drive time to/from airports, and airport on-time data.

Let’s start on a positive note and look at the those that come out at the top of the list for being LEAST frustrating overall:

#1 Vancouver YVR

#2 Portland PDX

#3 Austin AUS

#4 Calgary YYC

#5 Phoenix PHX

Every one of these top five airports puts a smile on my face. I love Vancouver for its indoor creek and 5-star hotel on the premises. I’m in awe of Portland’s glassy rain canopy that connects the airport to parking lots. Austin has live music, rocking chairs and BBQ!

Portland's glass canopy and great public transport give it high marks (Port of Portland)

Portland’s glass canopy and great public transport give it high marks (Port of Portland)

One thing that jumped out at me about this study was that Canadian airports rank so high. In addition to Vancouver and Calgary, Ottawa ranked #8 overall. However, Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Canada’s busiest, ranked near the bottom of the pack at #30– just ahead of the reviled LAX and JFK. I can relate– nearly every time I fly to or from Toronto or pass through Pearson, I get lost. The first step Toronto could take toward a better airport would be better directional signage.

The bottom of the list should be familiar territory to all TravelSkills readers…these airport laggards nearly always fall at the bottom of every list, so there are few surprises here:

#32 New York Kennedy JFK

#33 Chicago O’Hare ORD

#34 Washington Dulles IAD

#35 Newark Liberty EWR

#36 New York LaGuardia LGA

Here's how Bloomberg described LaGuardia airport

Here’s how BusinessWeek described LaGuardia airport

Why the disdain for NYC area airports? Probably because they are dinosaurs– and most are too busy to make way for many improvements. Although I think it’s fair to say that there have been some improvements in New York. And there are more on the way… but it’s going to take a while…

For example, Delta’s new Terminal 4 operation at JFK is a dramatic improvement over its old digs at the long gone PanAm Worldport. The biggest downside are the unusually long walks required to get to gates at the far end of the concourse. I was just in JetBlue’s big, bright and happy JFK Terminal 5 last week and was impressed. And United’s operations at Newark are slated for improvements as we reported on TravelSkills this week.

Washington Dulles Airport's curves are sure lovely. Bu not its commute! (Photo: Joe Wolf / Flickr)

Washington Dulles Airport’s curves are sure lovely. Bu not its commute! (Photo: Joe Wolf / Flickr)

Another thread among the most frustrating airports is drive time. Washington Dulles is the most dramatic example of this… there is little worse than a five-hour transcon flight to Dulles, then another hour or two fighting traffic to get into downtown DC. Thankfully we have Washington National, which came in at #13. The top three airports in terms of drive time to/from during rush hour are: Boston BOS, Atlanta ATL and San Francisco SFO.

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Some other interesting notes from the study: Delta’s big hubs at Detroit and Atlanta came in at #11 and #12 respectively- well into the top half. While both are big and always busy, they work well. When I lived in Atlanta, people would say, “Atlanta Airport is about as pretty as a Xerox machine. But it works like one, too,” referring to the overall efficiency of the world’s busiest airport.

My hometown airport San Francisco International ranked #17– firmly middle of the pack. While SFO has some award winning terminals, organic food and excellent runway views, I’m sure its poor on-time performance in rain and fog likely pushed it down in the rankings.

Bloomberg airports

Click to see the full report!

Take a look at this fascinating report!  and leave your comments about it below. Were there any surprises in it? 
-Chris McGinnis
 
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Comments

  1. haven’t been to ATL for a while but IME it is hell on earth if you are not flying on DL – i suspect all those happy pax are flying on the hometown airline…

  2. Tampa is a wonderful, delightful airport…and wait until you see us when we are doen in 2017. I have flown into every major (and quite a fewer minor) airports in North America, Europe and Asia and Tampa is always a pleasure to come home to.

  3. I don’t think JFK is that bad now that Terminal 2 has gone, with the exception of T7 (BA) which has always been a hole!
    Toronto has a major probem with signage. I drove there last year and was staying in the Sheraton in T3. Forgot which terminal it was in and was driving round about 15 minutes before finding a way in. When we mentioned to the front desk that it needed better signage, we were told that the GTAA doesn’t allow them to put up any more signage, as that would give them an unfair advantage over other airport businesses!

  5. PHX? Any airport with a rental car center off airport should be no higher than 10. LAS has to be one of most inconvenient. Of course my PHX opinion is solely based on using Terminal 3.

  6. SJC has a free bus (with luggage racks) to both Caltrain (which then runs to BART) and to the VTA Metro (light rail). I certainly wouldn’t call it “good” transit access, but it’s certainly not “no transit access”

  7. I agree, changing planes at LAX when I fly Southwest is awful. There are a few food places and shops, but they are jam-packed with people and sometimes you can’t even find a place to sit. I’ve sat on the floor many times.

  8. My two single worst experiences were at Newark (separated by 40 years). But overall I rate LAX as the suckiest. It’s not so much an airport as it is a chronic disease, like herpes.

  9. MEX is got to be in there somewhere. Everything from the lack is restrooms (you know there is an issue when there is aune at the men’s room) to the train between T1 and T2. The designer shoul have his/her architecture license revoked. As a matter of fact any Mexico airport for that mater.

  10. My experience with Vancouver was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced worldwide.
    Here are the steps: 1. Stand in line to check-in with only 2 attendants for 300+ passengers. (No online check-in allowed! 2. Stand in another line to check bag (if you have one) through bag security. 3. Stand in a line to have passport and boarding pass reviewed by Canadian Immigration. 4. Stand in line to go through Security. 5. Another line to have passport reviewed again. (?) 6. Stand in yet another queue to have password electronically verified. 7. Stand in another line to have final immigration check by human. 8. Finally go through gates to departing terminal. So 2.5 hours later many, many people missed their flights with NO concern of the Immigration Officers. They just shrugged it off – so what if you missed your flight? We were the last people to board our flight. It was a Sunday morning in mid-August. Never again…I’m flying into Seattle and driving over the border.

  11. This type of study would be interesting for comparing airports within a region. For example, I could fly from SFO (poor on-time record), OAK (poor food options), or SJC (no transit access).

    I can’t believe Boston Logan ranked higher than SFO, maybe it was because I flew Virgin from a two-gate TSA prison, but Logan pissed me off more than JFK’s hideous Terminal 2.

  13. Good catch, Jim! But I bet it has something to do with the fact that you always feel like the cab driver is going to rip you off. And that Uber was not there until last month! –Chris

  14. I don’t know how LAS is #22 for commute even though the airport is literally a few blocks from the Strip.

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