I would nominate Long Beach as well. Very old and small with a great bar (has an outdoor deck) overlooking the Tarmac.

No jetways as well. Great airport.

Throwback in a good way is BUR. The layout of the airport and distance between terminal and runway has never changed so if you are into plane spotting-up close and personal, this is the airport for you. :D

Also, I still love boarding and exiting planes via stairs. That's all they have in BUR, no jet bridges. Ironically though, if you look through history, BUR claims to be the first airport in the US to implement jet bridges in their own way, which was essentially a telescopic covered walkway that connected a plane to the terminal.

Maybe it's a SoCal thing? I've heard CLD is a nice airport also, never been though.


You should move to Europe - I would guess half of the airports I fly in and out of I have to exit via stairs, including FRA most of the time.

I liked Tegel. I liked the short walk from the bus stop outside to security, and the fact that there's one checkpoint for every few gates, so you don't have another long walk after clearing security. When landing, customs and border control is practically right there at the gate. And again, another short walk out of the airport. It might feel like an old airport, but it was very traveler friendly. I'll miss it.

Regarding BUR, the airport is hemmed in with urban neighbors all around such that the airport authority will not expand the footprint of the airport. Therefore, the terminal to runway distance is very close. Makes for good plane spotting.

Yes, I've been through many airports (and train stations) in Europe. Somehow, European operations don't really have the same appeal as someplace like BUR. In Europe for example, you are using stairs to get in and out of planes because the plane has parked outside the terminal area and you are then bussed to/from the terminal. The bus part kills the whole experience. At least in BUR, you can walk from the terminal to the plane. I love boarding/exiting from the rear of the plane at BUR because you get to pass under the wing of the plane on your walk. You can't really do that at a European airport because the bus picks you up or drops you off right at the stairway so you miss all the experience of seeing the exterior of the plane via walking since you are justing walking from the stair to the bus.

Remember, there was a reason for having multiple airports in Berlin.

With about 1 million people less in the metropolitan area, MCI is actually very similar in design to TXL, and there are no plans of which I am aware to tear it down and replace it with something else.
^ Agree on all points. Plus the security is pleasant and polite. The public transportation access is a weak spot, but with the new airport in the works it is understandable that more was not added in the short term.

Parts of LGA and EWR are far worse to me than TXL.

Perhaps most of your FRA flights, but certainly not most or even half of all flights at FRA are bus gates. I like the bus gates because quite often if I am doing longhaul it cuts off my transfer time.

And stairs are not unique to Europe. They are used in much of Asia as well. In fact, Canada uses them too. My first trips to YYT were definitely all stair boarding.

Did the tarmac plus bus ride thing in FRA
 

Once was enough. Especially with a 747. LOL

The Marine Air Terminal, also in a good way

DCA Terminal A hasn't changed in much longer.

The one airport I've most noticed is KTM because it's a loooooonnnnngggg way down the airstairs from a 777

I've had a bus gate at LAX arriving in a fully loaded A340 from ZRH.

To be fair it was more than just stairs though. But still a bus gate.

I was reminded of MCI when I was walking through TXL, however, the big difference is that MCI has three large similarly shaped terminals, serving as you said, a much smaller population. Another difference is that MCI just seems quiet, much more pleasant, has some decent places to eat, clean and modern facilities, etc. The D terminal at TXL, albeit small, has one bathroom facility. I went from the A terminal at TXL to the D terminal. Maybe the C terminal is nicer?

MCI benefits of course from the fact that there are only a handful of international flights. I'll be flying there on Wednesday and if UA cooperates I'll have my bags and be on my way within about 15 minutes of landing.

But to me, MCI IS far worse. There was one doughnut counter open past security, and that was IT. There was one small, dirty bathroom. The security is contract, not TSA, and for those wearing a skirt it makes it worse (they have confirmed to me multiple times that they are obliged to hand check ALL travellers with skirts, even though TSA does not even do that)

I have waited much longer for bags at MCI even on a relatively quiet night than at TXL.

Overall, my experiences at TXL were positive, as they have been for at least one other poster. Yes, the airport may be old, and of a cobbled together design, but there is a very valid reason for this.

At MCI there is little to no way to change the gate screening set up and there is probably not going to be a change in the near future. Combine that with the screening experiences I have had there, lack of food post-security, relatively long baggage wait times, and the fact that it won't be changing in the near future, and I still give TXL higher marks.

When we compare transportation and access, TXL still wins in my rating scale.

This is definitely a fair criticism of MCI. I generally won't go to the gate until I have to for those reasons.

In the end, this is really one of those subjective threads where there is no one answer; we all have our triggers and our individual priorities. :)

IF I know that a replacement airport is being built, I may give an airport somewhat of a pass. It didn't make my experiences at old DEL much easier, but I just kept hoping that the future would be better (it is). Same for when I was sitting in 'old' München-Riem with missing ceiling tiles, no air conditioning, and water dripping on my head.

That's why however I don't give EWR and LGA a pass, although I think that there too it depends on the terminal.

STL is another one which I recall was an airport living in the past.

Left from JOG this morning. OMFG!