Newsstand - WSJ rates the Best (and Worst) Airports in America

In today's WSJ (1/12/01), there is a ranking of the best/worst airports in the US.

Best:

Denver International
Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Philadelphia International
Orlando International
Chicago O'Hare International

Worst:

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
Hartsfield Atlanta International
Lambert-St. Louis International
Dallas-Ft. Worth International
New York - JFK International

Everyone agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Any missing?

Personally, I would have like EWR to have made the Top Five because delays not withstanding, it truly is a gem for NJ/NY fliers. The close-in nature of Newark means you don't have to walk for miles, as is the case at Hartsfield when it's very busy and the airport train is hopelessly packed.

I guess this is a great example of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I for one can't stand ORD; I rarely connect there without something amiss.

On the other hand, DFW and JFK are airports I rarely, if ever, have problems with. New Yorkers gripe about the distance from Manahattan to JFK and the construction there (it used to be the lack of facilities, now it's the building of new ones!), but I'd much rather take the extra 15-20 minutes to get there than suffer through the interminable delays at LGA or EWR.

Haven't read the WSJ article, but I wonder what the basis for their choices were?

I'm a little surprised that Tampa didn't make the best list. In past years it has been rated very highly.

EWR?! One of the worst in all respects IMHO. Not a big fan of MSP also. I do like BWI for easy of access in and out and lack of crowds. Las Vegas is nice for parking/passenger pick-up/dropoff , food service and entertainment, but baggage service is notoriuosly slow (30 minutes after door opens min).

Philadelphia!? They must be joking! That is a mediocre airport at best. Crowded, and with vendors hawking fried food and tchotchkes in the corridors - it's not a pleasant place.

my experienced may be biased by the way i travelled.

JFK is definitely the worse if you need trasnsfer (e.g. from AA to BA). it is so chaotic in the pickup/dropoff

PHL is good, things have been very smooth for me

BOS is also problematic though (surprised it did not make the bottom list)

if include canada...YVR would be the best of all evrywhere

[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 01-12-2001).]

From today's WSJ, the reporters went on an 11,000 mile journey over 5 weeks to visit "the 20 busiest US airports". They spent a day at each airport, "looking for hidden perks and the details that matter to fliers, like how long it takes to reach the farthest gate ..., the most airport loungers ..., even the greatest number of bathrooms." Here are the categories:
1) daily passengers (range 66032-223015)
2) best feature (outdoor pool)
3) worst feature (zealous solicitors)
4) time to farthest gate (range 6 - 21 min)
5) restaurants/bars (O'Hare has 87/23)
6) bathrooms (range 30-384)
7) ATMs (5-38)
8) clocks
9) Stolen cars (4-266)
10) gym (5 out of 20 have gyms)
11) backrubs
12) cots
13) laptop stations

Airports include: Atlanta-Hartsfield, Boston-Logan,Chicago-O'Hare,Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit-Metro, Denver Int, Houston-George Bush, Las Vegas-McCarran, Los Angeles Intl, Miami Int, Minn-St Paul, New York-JFK, New York-Laguardia, Newark, Orlando Int, Philadelphia Int, Phoenix-Sky Harbor, St Louis-Lambert, SFO, Seattle-Tacoma. It is a pretty entertaining article if you get a chance to read it especially if you are going to be stuck somewhere for awhile.

For those who didn't notice, yours truly was mentioned in the JFK section, although my travails were extremely edited. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I think we could have written a 100 page essay on the best and worst. It was a good article, but it could have been much longer and more detailed.

I'd like to see an International version soon.

"4) time to farthest gate (range 6 - 21 min)"

I'd respond to this obvious lie except i'm too busy walking mor than 20 minutes to my gate...

21 minutes... MY foot! Try ATL from the D concourse to the end of the A concorse. Anywhere in DTW. DFW!!! Enough said, Try changing terminals! You can wait 20 minutes for the shuttle. Oh heck, I think i'll go lie down now... WSJ phooney!

Maybe I'm lasy, but where's the link?

This kind of ranking is sooooooo hard to do, and any attempt at passing it off as objective is a joke. These things are always totally subjective.

I agree with avek00 about EWR. It does get a bad rap. Notice how NYC Mayor Rudy doesn't mind the Port Authority running Newark. Only LGA & JFK. Fact is, almost everything about EWR could be improved by a private operator. (I'm not a great fan of privatization; it's just that the Port Authority is a quasi-public agency that operates with almost no accountability.) Also notice how a few days after Rudy praised BAA at the Port Authority's expense, that BAA's contract with the PA to run the concessions at Newark mysteriously bit the dust. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I love ORD, glad to see it rated high up. Everything you need to do can be done there, usually two or three different ways.

Odd to see MCO listed, and not TPA. They're almost identical twins.

Pittsburgh absolutely deserves its high rating... and it's run by... BAA!

My views about JFK have been stated here enough times... the comment above about pick-up / drop off chaos is an understatement.

I haven't had to endure DFW since I stopped flying American. I'm much happier now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Odd that Denver is so high and Atlanta so low... seems to me their characteristics are somewhat similar. I'd rate both somewhere in the middle.

Nobody, but nobody, likes Detroit Metro. Not even little ol' contrarian me!

I'd definitely put LAS (McCarran-Las Vegas) in the top ten. Maybe even Dulles, which is growing on me. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

RichG, the reason Giuliani doesn't say anything about the PA's running of EWR is that Newark is in New Jersey! As much as Giuliani talks about the world revolving around NYC, even he realizes he might have some jurisdictional difficulties if he started directing their policy. ;-)

I will say, though, that while I'm no fan of Rudy's in general, he happens to be right on this issue. The Port Authority does a dismal job running the airports here and I'll be glad to see them lose their lease and contract.

It's a pretty skimpy article for five weeks' research and 11k miles traveled. The reporters got some stolen-car figures from the airport cops, counted clocks and ATMs, issued a few cutesy, shoot-from-the-hip comments about each airport and caught the next plane. It looks like an expense-account mileage run in print; recommend WSJ accounting department cast skeptical eye on these guys' receipts.

How do you judge the "best" and "worst" airports anyway? By how many clocks and ATMs they have, or whether they have a Chili's or a Gap store? Or would you look at gate delays, weather/ground/ATC holds, quality of service, etc.?

I think the WSJ's criteria are silly and underinformed.

Example: in the article SFO gets three out of four stars and the comment: "Bookstore had some comfy sofa chairs and a wide foreign newspaper selection. Try Restaurant Qi and Water Bar."

In fact, if you judge SFO by the fog and ATC delays, UA service issues, dominance of the Sh*ttle, etc., it ain't no three-star operation... and I'll tell you what you can do with yer Restaurant Qi, too.

If the list posted by CozumelJen is the exhaustive list of airports, there are a lot of great airports overlooked

Pittsburgh
Charlotte
Cincinatti

Not to mention the even smaller airports which are real nice (like Albany).

Almost forgot one of my favorite medium-size airports: SNA!!

PHL has finally recieved the credit that it deserves for turning around what was once a dumpy little airport into a very user friendly and pleasant place. I wish that I could still fly out of there, but now and out of BOS, which is another story.

Sorry, IMHO PHL has gone from a dumpy little airport to a big (read l o o o o o o n g) dumpy airport. They had a chance to totally redo it, like PIT did, but PHL just added more-n-more terminals to both ends.....and still are adding. Try going from the most NE gate to the most SW gate and let me know how many feet you transversed (ps: no fair taking a taxi). One should get ff miles for that adventure. Biggest goof was not adding a second car/taxi level. They put incoming/outgoing on the same level. All traffic must flow(?) in two parallel roads. Itsa built on a damp swamp so building vertical is expensive, but many other airports are also built on top of damp swamps. The main large (and always full) parking garages were not built to the correct federal guide-lines. In times of severe emergency they must not be (and were not) used (ie too close to a passenger terminal).

MisterNice

Obviously, they didn't have much interaction with the staff at PHL!

Originally posted by BearX220:
How do you judge the "best" and "worst" airports anyway? By how many clocks and ATMs they have, or whether they have a Chili's or a Gap store? Or would you look at gate delays, weather/ground/ATC holds, quality of service, etc.?

The reporters indicate early in the piece that the rating is not about airline quality/delays, etc. You can get that info from the FAA.

Instead, the piece assumes you're stuck at the airport and need to kill time. That's where the shopping/eating come into play.

If you were going to be stuck some place for four hours, would you rather nibble on cold pretzels or go swimming at a hotel airport (Miami)?

I would rate SLC as one of the best, especially in the Winter time. They are great at snow removal. I prefer doing connections through there as it is an easy walk to any gate. If you fly DL, their CRC is one of the nicest in the country.

I would rate LGA one of the worst due to the delays. I avoid it like the plague. It's a shame as living in Manhattan, it is much closer than either JFK or EWR.

To add to the comments of Family flyer above, the article also did not deal with getting to and from the airport on the ground. I took the article to be the reporters' ratings of the airports essentially as places to change planes in -- if you're there for 2 (or 4, or 6) hours, how will you like the experience?

On that score, Las Vegas should have had two separate ratings, one for slot machine fans ( a perfect 10) and one for non-gamblers (much lower). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif