My vote is SIN. I can be checked into hotel room downtown within 20 minutes of arriving at gate.

ITO

Soooo much better than KOA.

Rental cars across the street, baggage always beats me off of the plane, main area of terminal recently refurbished very nicely, five minutes to Banyan Drive hotels, parking cheap and a 90 second walk away.

Well, since so many of you think HKG as efficient, let me be play the devil's advocate and say why it's not.

- One reason its size is so huge is that gates are all very far apart. It seems like they built it so each gate can take a A380. Now, a funny thing had happened in the last 15 years. Why most flights using Kai Tak were widebodies, nowadays there are many more narrow-body flights to secondary airports in China or SE Asia. Those planes don't need that much room. They should place some gates closer together for narrowbodies only. THAT would be efficient.

- The departure level is just above the arrival. But the train is in the bottom. Meaning for departure passengers using the far gates, it's a superlong escalator ride down to the train, and another one up. Waste of time.

- One thing I really hate each time arriving at HKG, unless I already have a Octopus Card, is that I need to walk close to the trains to find an ATM, and then backtrack to the manned counters to get my Octopus. Walking past the same stores twice is not efficient.

- And departing HKG, one needs to go downstairs to "sell" your Octopus. Not efficient.

- Maybe most of you don't use buses to/from HKG, but it's a long non-A/C ramp to the depot, and it's cramped. Most Hong Kongers take buses to/from HKG, not the AE. Not efficient for cheapos like me.

Now, if you ask me what's efficient? The old HKG was. ;) [Well, unless my flight was parked in the middle of the apron.] Moving tonnes of passengers with minimal space. Little walking, cheap ground transport and close to the city.

In terms of transferring I was very happy with ATL. I was borderline late for a connection to CLE (very slow immigration queues) but my luggage still got their with me.

Not just that, but if the airport is crowded, people coming off the escalator at the bottom will tend to "bunch up" around the escalator area (where the doors to the train are), but the escalator continues disgorging people into the crowd. I've seen it get dangerous, where too many people coming off the escalator into an already crowded area.

Also, the natives' bad manners always come into play here. They'll tend to block both lanes of the escalator early on, preventing passage for people wanting to walk up (or down) the escalator, adding to the congestion. I usually get off the train and run to the escalator to be one of the first ones on before the escalator gets blocked. I always look down and see the mass of people agglomerating at the escalator base because some dork decided that standing on the right lane was appropriate.

I'm a local and take bus S1 to Tung Chung MTR frequently to connect to the Tung Chung line which is more or less the same path as the AE but around $60 HKD cheaper than the AE to reach Kln Station. To reach certain areas such as those in the New Territories, taking a direct bus is definately much more efficient than taking the AE and having to undergo multiple transfer with the MTR and KCR.

Having said that, most tourist prefer the AE because many are not familiar with the surrounding bus stop areas in town and where exactly to get off. And the NT is also very rarely an immediate destination for many tourist after arriving at the airport.

Transiting between EU flights and intercontinental flights can be a very long walk at AMS. No convenient shuttle either. :td:

When I had a summer job at Bahrain, we had a family of 3 turn up at check-in at 0055 for a 0105 BA departure to Heathrow (they had been held up by an accident on the Saudi causeway).

At 0105 I was standing on the tarmac when we pushed the aircraft back.

Also love the inter-terminal monorail connection at EWR. Very convenient! ^

My vote goes to SIN. The airport personnel both from the airlines and the authority are helpful - no TSA security nonsenses, no yelling by security, and no abuses. The customs and immigration folks are friendly and welcome you to their country whether you are transisting or visiting.

MCI...MCI...MCI...cutting edge design when it was built nearly 20 something years ago and still very functional today...

Yes it has kept us from being a hub but that is not at all a bad thing (think cheaper fares...athough WN, US, and good ol' Braniff tried and WN succeeded) and they have come to their wits and started retro-fitting some of the gate areas with lavs but other than that...

30 seconds from AA FC seat 3E to Mrs. Paris and the Paris-mobile is one winning efficient-design feature for me. 4-5 minutes if I'm back of the bus on a lesser carrier. If you live here or fly into here...you have to appreciate the no-nonsense and no mile long concourses layout.

Yeah it's a fast walk out of SLC to the rental cars and freeway, but getting on the plane can be tough as the security line can snake way up the terminal making it difficult to chk in if you are a UA flyer, esp. in the winter(all them ski and board bags!). Beyond that, SAN seemed like it was easy to get outside when I did a quick turn around on a MR on UA;gates close too, so only a short walk to catch fresh air before I flew back to ORD.

Let me be another to put my vote in for SIN. Along with all the other advantages mentioned, it's certainly a bonus to have arrivals and departures all on the one level. Whilst the security being on each gate can be a touch inconvinient if you don't know about it ahead of time (and get stuck waiting in the gate area) apart from that it's a brilliant place to transit.

For passing through Immigration on arrival it's very swift as well (something I've had issues with at HKG at times - certainly not *huge* lines, but 10-15 minute waits, compared to at most 5 minutes at SIN, and usually stroll straight up to the counter and through). Plus the speed of baggage delivery, difficult to find quicker at any major airport anywhere!

In terms of going from the front door to the gate, CDG T2 is the best in the world among major airports. The walking distance is the shortest. However due to that design consideration, connections at CDG make it among the worst. If you come and go only from Paris and fly Skyteam, you will love CDG. Most others hate it.

Pdx
 

My vote is for my home airport, PDX. They have express lines for security; a couple of good restaurants, a UA RCC club that's above average and a nice little bookstore and a Nike store. Mass transit drops me right off at the ticketing lobby and I can go from front door to gate in about 5-10 minutes.

Internationally, I love OSL. That's what all airports should be like.