Humans are creatures of comfort and habit. Removed from a familiar home setting and pushed through the crowds and security rituals of the airport, the business traveller soon desires something more. Some space for themselves, decent food and drink and a pleasant environment to pass the time as painlessly as possible.

This need for niceties is one reason that business class travel exists. Until the 1970s, most passengers were wealthy or flying on their employer’s buck. But with more planes leaving the runways and consumer air travel becoming the norm, airlines created a new tier of comfort to compete for that lucrative business market. Today, a business class seat is still a nice place to pass the time, especially when the boss is paying.

But the airports themselves are not always amenable. These spaces are managed by a hodge-podge of private companies and underpaid service staff, dealing with a fast through traffic of stressed customers. They make their money from needs, not preferences — desperation, not desire.

That got the team at BusinessFinancing.co.uk wondering which are the best and worst airports in the world according to business travelers?

Key Findings

• With an average rating of 6.80/10, Noi Bai International Airport in Vietnam is the world’s best airport, according to business travellers.
• Business travellers think that Geneva Airport in Switzerland is the world’s worst airport, giving it an average rating of just 1.97.
• The best airport in the UK is Heathrow in London, which business travellers rate 3.73/10 on average — the worst UK airport is Leeds Bradford Airport in West Yorkshire (1.57/10).
• The best airport in the U.S., according to business travellers, is Midway International Airport in Chicago (4.37/10), and the worst is Fort Lauderdale—Hollywood International Airport (1.64).

The Methodology Behind This Study

Data analysts at BusinessFinancing.co.uk started by collating all passenger reviews for major airports across the world from Airline Quality. They removed airports that weren’t international airports according to Wikipedia and recorded their country of origin.

For each airport, the team calculated the average rating from reviewers that were defined as “business travelers” under the “type of traveler” category. The team then ranked airports globally, by continent and by country (USA, UK) based on this metric.

Sources

ACI World.(2023). International travel returns: Top 10 busiest airports in the world revealed. aci.aero Anh, T. (2023). Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport Among The World’s Best Airports For Queueing. Vietcetera. vietcetera.com

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2023). Full year 2022 U.S. airline traffic data. bts.gov DeRenzo, N., & Peterson, B. (2023). The Best Airports in the World: 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards. cntraveler.com

J.D. Power. (2023). Despite Record Passenger Volumes, North American Airports Earn Higher Marks for Traveler Satisfaction. jdpower.com

OAG. (n.d.). Busiest airports in the world. oag.com

O’Neil, S. (n.d.). The 10 best Business-Friendly Airports. frommers.com

Safeer. (2022). Kuwait airport 2nd worst in on-time performance, service quality, shops.

kuwaittimes.com

Skytrac. (n.d.). Fort Lauderdale Airport. airlinequality.com

Topham, G. (2023). UK flight chaos could last for days, airline passengers warned. theguardian.com

Williams, D. (2023). Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL). google.com

About BusinessFinancing.co.uk

BusinessFinancing is a business finance and lending research and information website publisher. They are not a lender, bank, broker and/or other financial institution and as such are not authorised or regulated by the FCA to offer financial advice.

They work with FCA authorised and regulated firms, but this has no impact on their content and helps keep their service free to use.

About NeoMam Studios

Founded in 2011 in the UK, NeoMam Studios is a creative studio on a mission to create digital content that online audiences will want to share for months and years to come. NeoMam was commissioned by BusinessFinancing to produce and promote this project on their behalf.