If you need to travel for business, try using these airports to make your flights a little easier.
Tired of missing flights or being treated like another piece of luggage whenever you have to fly for travel? AirHelp.com recently released their 2017 rankings of the best airports in the world based on three basic categories: on-time performance, quality of service and passenger sentiment. Of the 13 major U.S. airports, only two finished in the top half of their rankings, while 11 were considered subpar.
Start the slideshow to figure out which one managed to sneak into the top 10 and learn why so many other countries seem to be doing a better job of getting their customers from point A to B.
1. Singapore Changi Airport
Changi oversees 450 flight departures on a daily basis, making it the sixth busiest airport in Asia and the 17th busiest in the world. Despite this, only 12 percent of those flights were delayed more than 15 minutes — the best rate of any airport in the top 10.
On-time performance score: 8.8/10 (Rank: 4)
Quality of service score: 10/10 (Rank: T-1)
Passenger sentiment score: 6.1/10 (Rank: 24)
2. Munich International Airport
Munich international might have a higher rate of total delayed flights (18.4 percent), but the vast majority of those are minor inconveniences — just 0.16 percent of all flights are canceled or delayed more than three hours.
On-time performance score: 8.2/10 (Rank: 27)
Quality of service score: 10/10 (Rank: T-1)
Passenger sentiment score: 4.8/10 (Rank: 40)
3. Hong Kong International Airport
Though Hong Kong International is the busiest airport in the top 10 (and seventh busiest in the world), it still received a perfect Skytrax score for service, which, according to AirHelp, “measures each airport on a number of factors including terminal comfort and cleanliness, passenger facilities, and service ratings at check-in, security and customs among other things.”
On-time performance score: 7.5/10 (Rank: 55)
Quality of service score: 10/10 (Rank: T-1)
Passenger sentiment score: 5.6/10 (Rank: 29)
4. Copenhagen Kastrup Airport
One of the first civil airports in the world, Kastrup has been around since 1925. To put that in perspective, Orville Wright of the Wright brothers died 23 years later, in 1948. It only makes sense that an airport with almost a century of experience would get it right.
On-time performance score: 8.6/10 (Rank: 10)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 5.7/10 (Rank: 27)
5. Helsinki – Vantaa Airport
The Helsinki airport had the best rating for passenger sentiment among all of the airports in the top 10. According to AirHelp, this number was found by analyzing “passengers’ opinions on Twitter about their experience traveling to and from” a given airport, and while it doesn’t seem to be weighted as heavily as the other categories, it’s still worth noting.
On-time performance score: 8.0/10 (Rank: 35)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 8.4/10 (Rank: 6)
6. Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport
There it is! The only American airport in the top 10 checks in as the sixth best in the world. Is it the one you expected?
On-time performance score: 8.6/10 (Rank: 11)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 4.8/10 (Rank: 39)
7. Barcelona – El Prat Airport
21 percent of Barcelona’s flights were delayed more than 15 minutes, which is below average, but only 0.42 percent were delayed more than three hours or canceled. This bend-but-don’t break scheduling, combined with high quality of service and passenger sentiment scores, pushes it into the top 10.
On-time performance score: 7.9/10 (Rank: 39)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 7.6/10 (Rank: 9)
8. Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport
Madrid comes in just one spot behind Barcelona in large part due to its lower quality of service score, but it’s actually significantly better about being on time — despite the fact that Madrid actually sees more daily visitors than Barcelona.
On-time performance score: 8.7/10 (Rank: 8)
Quality of service score: 7/10 (Rank: T-23)
Passenger sentiment score: 7.4/10 (Rank: 12)
9. Auckland International Airport
Auckland International didn’t just have the lowest passenger sentiment score among the top 10 — it’s 3.3/10 rating is one of the worst among the 76 airports scored. The only question is why, given that the airport rated well both for its timeliness and customer service.
On-time performance score: 8.6/10 (Rank: 12)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 3.3/10 (Rank: 54)
10. Frankfurt International Airport
The fourth busiest airport in Europe takes the final spot in the top 10 in large part due to impressive timeliness score (just 0.16 percent of flights were canceled or delayed more than 3 hours) and customer service scores.
On-time performance score: 8.4/10 (Rank: 23)
Quality of service score: 8/10 (Rank: T-4)
Passenger sentiment score: 3.8/10 (Rank: 52)
For full rankings, go to AirHelp.com.
