What The Three Worst Airports In the United States Have In Common
Jennifer Billock March 23, 2018
Sorry, New York City. Your three airports ranked 78, 79, and 80 in a recent survey of the best airports in the United States—and there were only 80 airports in the entire study. Here’s what the three worst in the U.S. have in common, aside from all being in the same metro area.
The results are in from a recent MONEY Magazine survey of the best airports in the United States. While John Wayne Airport (SNA) and its 10 million annual passengers in Santa Ana, California, took the top spot of the survey that studied 80 airports nationwide, poor New York City has some explaining to do. The three airports in the New York metro area – JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia – ranked as the bottom three: JFK at 78, Newark and 79, and LaGuardia at 80.
The study looked at both small and large airports, taking into consideration customer reviews and rankings, on-time rates, amenities, and security delays.
That being said, the low rankings weren’t entirely unexpected. The three airports have a number of things in common, none of which are positive. Customers continually rank them the worst in Travel + Leisure. All of them are considered dirty, overcrowded, and difficult to get to. And they have the lowest on-time rate combined for flights.
“The most important factor in airport satisfaction is the terminal facilities themselves – that’s the building, how clean it is, what condition it’s in, the bathrooms,” Mike Taylor, the leader of J.D. Power’s airport research, told TIME Magazine. “If anything is worn, it’s always considered unclean – whether it’s antiseptic or not.”
That’s part of the reason LaGuardia tanked so bad; the airport has been holding off maintenance projects in favor of an overall renovation. The airports are also all too crowded, contributing to the scores. Together, the three saw 132 million passengers in 2017. And whether those passengers’ flights were on time is up for debate – the national average of on-time flights is 80 percent, but LaGuardia sits at 72 percent.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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Doesn't say much for the Port Authority of NY/NJ - They run the whole show. Corruption at it's best.
It's been many years ago, but the Customs officer at JFK was straight out of central casting. Rude & abrasive! As he handed back my passport I thanked him for the "warm welcome home". Perhaps he's now with TSA?
Totally agree on the TSA, recent flight out of JFK, i was yelled at for following directions.
The elimination of moving sidewalks at EWR, and then sticking OTG restaurants where the sidewalks used to be, has impeded foot traffic. Makes it more difficult to navigate the airport. There are some people that can't walk long distances, but at the same time, not enough to warrant having a wheelchair(or have too much "pride" to order one). And whenever there happens to be the "golf carts" in the terminal, there is no room to move. TSA at EWR is, by far, the worst, too. SEA and ATL have problems with TSA, and it's not so much a case of non-friendliness, but rather, just grossly inefficient....too many people miss flights, and in most cases, not the passenger's fault. (Not enough signs at SEA, but that's another issue). For EWR, it's the "worst of all worlds"-----unfriendly AND inefficient. But to give credit, where credit is due, the people at Customs at EWR run a good operation.
Sometimes I feel bad about automation and job displacement, but I hope gets completely wiped out. They are the rudest most entitled people ever, and they fail almost every test. Pointless.