NationStates Jolt Archive

We were talking about some of the places we had been during lunch. I wonder if you can't tell a lot about a city from the kind of airport it has. Maybe so, maybe not, but there are some airports that are just awful and some that aren't so bad.

Which are your favorites and why? Which airports make your skin crawl at the thought of using them and why? This would be a good Friday topic, but I'm going to be on vacation tomorrow.

My favorite? Atlanta. It means I'm home. Favorite away from home? Melbourne, FL. It's small enough to get from the gate to the rental cars in less than 10 minutes. Vis versa when I'm going home.

My most feared? Atlanta. The airport stretches out for miles. Each concourse is a quarter mile from the previous and there is only a single baggage screening and general harassment location that is a bottleneck for all departees. There is actually another harassment station in the International concourse, so that arriving passengers can be screened before they transfer planes, or go home.

Heathrow Terminal Three makes baby Jesus cry. It's truly horrible. The best I've been in is Lahore - modern, clean, spacious and best of all - you don't have to walk a million miles through a mob.

I had to stop over at Miami airport once.
That was the longest I have ever been delayed. Ever.
I don't think I have a favourite. I'm just not an airport person.

Worst

Southend
Heathrow
Gatwick
Leeds/Bradford
Rotterdam

Middling

Gatwick
Frankfurt
Charles de Gaul
City of London
St Louis Int
LAX

Tops

Stansted
Norwich
Prestwick
Schipol
Inchon

off the top of my head

apart from jersey airport which is home i guess the favourite would have to be Auckland, New Zealand simply because it was the arrival point at the beginning of the most consistently enjoyable few months of my life. i don't think an airport can be called 'the best' purely on its own merits, they are all just different shades of aweful; "the only difference between an airport and a refugee camp is that airports provide wheelchairs" - someone i don't know. the worst for me is Gatwick though because i have seen way too much of it. almost every air journey to and from jersey must go through there, i hate it.

Heathrow Terminal Three makes baby Jesus cry. It's truly horrible.

Ever been to Chicago International?
It makes Heathrow look nice. And its at least four times as busy, or so it seems to me whenever I pass through.

Heathrow sucked.

So did Prague, but that was all the way back in '95, so they've probably improved it since then.

I always hear horror stories, but I have never had a bad experience at O'Hare.

If you're flying into NYC, avoid LaGuardia at all costs. I haven't been through JFK, but it can't be any worse.

Brussels has a nice airport, very modern. As does Venice. Rome...not so good. :p

My favorite airport is a toss-up between Sky Harbor in Phoenix and Ontario Airport in LA. (one at home, one at school) My least favorite is probably Chicago Midway, after I spent a night there on an epic 30-hour journey to get from Phoenix to Philadelphia (several delays and a storm turned a 5-hour trip into a two-day affair). Though LAX is pretty bad too...I'm fairly certain people have gotten lost for weeks in that enormous place trying to find their flight.

Schipol...my favourite, all airports should be so easy to navigate...

Heathrow...Fuckin' hell, what a mess

Calgary...how can a such a small airport be so confusing....

Vancouver...pirates!!!

favourite: Ben Gurion

By far

ok, security is a bit tight, but
+
1. after going through,you don't have forever to walk to get to the gate ( doesn't apply when going into ben gurion, you will walk forever)
2. lovely juice/icecream and coffee :)
3. great shopping
4. did i mention the free and fast as hell wifi?
5. decent parking

-
6. takes forever to get to any place from there (unless you go to Ramle)

Followed by:

Schiphol
+
1. Lovely place
2. lovely staff
3. great shopping

-
1. wifi ain't free
2. chewing gum is banned in the airport shops

Followed by:

Birmingham Int'l

+
1. lovely
2. great transportatio options to trainstation
3. free wifi

-
1. not a lot of shopping
2. coffee sucks
3. passport control staff are mostly morons

Followed by:
Goteborg City

+
1. small and convenient
2. nice staff
3. good coffee

-
1. no shopping

Followed by:

London City

+
1. It's not Heathrow
2. not where the devil said goodnight
3. good parking
5. nice shopping
6. great staff

-
1. most flights to London city are most expensive than flights to Heathrow

Not sure, as in many airports it all depends on the terminal. However, I dare say my city's (warsaw) airport is a joke. Here's why:

+
Not much walking
Duty-free in arrivals

-
Overcrowded
A building extension is not a new terminal
Few places to sit
You have to take a bus to your plane
Linked to the city only by one city bus line
That line is filled with pickpockets
Hard plastic seats
No internet what-so-ever
No WC in waiting area
This means going thru security when returing from WC
Low cieling
Every pair of gates has separate wait area
The etiuda terminal (don't ask)

Philly had sculptures made of butter.. or was it cheese..?

I have only been to three airports, Orlando, and I don't know the name of the other one.

My favorite airport is a toss-up between Sky Harbor in Phoenix and Ontario Airport in LA. (one at home, one at school) My least favorite is probably Chicago Midway, after I spent a night there on an epic 30-hour journey to get from Phoenix to Philadelphia (several delays and a storm turned a 5-hour trip into a two-day affair). Though LAX is pretty bad too...I'm fairly certain people have gotten lost for weeks in that enormous place trying to find their flight.
I like Ontario, too. I quit using it for trips to the high desert after I came down one windy day and the 15 was closed. LAX does suck, but it's still better than many.

I have only been to three airports......DFW sucks ass.... I hate it, and not just because it's in Texas either. ;)

My local airport is annoying because they have been remodeling it every freaking time I have been there, so I don't know what it's supposed to be like.....

While I was in Tucson, they were remodeling theirs too.


I don't think I have been to a good airport.
:(

favourite: Ben Gurion


Is Ben Gurion the old Tel-Aviv airport? I would love to go back to Israel for some vacation.

No one has mentioned Bombay. That is the smelliest airport I've ever been too. Probably the only open-air airport terminal, too.

I have only been to three airports......DFW sucks ass.... I hate it, and not just because it's in Texas either. ;)

My local airport is annoying because they have been remodeling it every freaking time I have been there, so I don't know what it's supposed to be like.....

While I was in Tucson, they were remodeling theirs too.


I don't think I have been to a good airport.
:(
You should stay away from Houston Hobby, then. It's miles of corridor, followed by a maze of turns, then some more miles of corridor.

Atlanta is fucking ass. It gives off the air of some backwater airport wanting to be a major thoroughfare. I had to get routed through there on my way to Seattle. After having to sit on our tarmac for an hour because of weather, when we got there, we had to taxi around for 45 minutes to find somewhere to put the plane and by the time I got off the plane, I had about 10 minutes to get to the plane leaving to Seattle (on what should've been an over an hour layover) which was apparently on the other side of Georgia. I was the last person to board the plane pretty much.

Is Ben Gurion the old Tel-Aviv airport? I would love to go back to Israel for some vacation.

No one has mentioned Bombay. That is the smelliest airport I've ever been too. Probably the only open-air airport terminal, too.

brand spanking new terminal... amazing :)

brand spanking new terminal... amazing :)
Okay, my last trip to Israel went through the old airport. I remember my cab driver pointing out the new one. Can't wait to use it!

Best one would be a toss up between San Francisco Intl and CentrAir (Nagoya). SFO is pretty easy to navagate around and has good resturants. And any place where I can get SF sourdough bread bowl clam chowder is heaven. CentrAir is brand new, spacious, and just NICE. The people who designed it did so with the idea that you have to wait for a while for your plane so you should be comfortable. The shopping area looks like a mini town (One half Japanese, the other Western) so you can get a mix of foods, and it has an airport onsen.

Kudos to Kansai for being the most beautiful airport I've ever been in though.

Worst airport, without a doubt, Narita International. That over heated, over crowded, stifling, confusing, mess that is, of course, over an hour away from Tokyo in the first place is just terrible. They should blow the damn thing up and start over, really.

Heathrow is an absolute nightmare. Never, ever fly from there if you have the choice to go from somewhere else.

I like the Denver airport. It's pretty. :)

I miss the old stapleton airport though. RIP. :(

Worst airport for me would probably be both atlanta and LAX. Too many hot babes taunting me at LAX. :(

Worst: Phoenix Sky Harbor and LAX

i havent been to any airports that i would characterize as good but San Francisco, Hong Kong Intl, and Shanghai Pudong are alright

Favorite- Leeds/Bradford because I'm nearly home.

Feared- Manchester because whatever you're about to do you know it's gonna take an inordinately long amount of time and the food will be crap.

Sharm-el-Sheik, I love Sharm but the airport is so hot, im so tired and sick, there aint enough seat, Im having to put ammonia on these unsightly lumps I only seem to get in that airport and there is its immediate connection with long flights at weird times of day/night.

This summer I'll be able to experiance atleast one Peruvian airport, Newark airport- a 12 hour layover for which I need to get a new passport for £70 even though it doesnt expire for 3 years because the Yanks are so frikkin' paranoid and re-experiance Spanish airports-crud.

Love DTW. New and so very easy to navigate. Comfortable too.

I like the Denver airport. It's pretty. :)

I miss the old stapleton airport though. RIP. :(

Worst airport for me would probably be both atlanta and LAX. Too many hot babes taunting me at LAX. :(

I travel through LAX a lot. The babes must not be out trying to catch the 6:30 AM flights back to the East Coast. The mix, at that hour, is almost the same at any airport. It's always a few families, a bunch of business people, and they all start to look the same after a while.

Phoenix Sky Harbor is all right. Nothing to write home about.

My favorites though are Portland (PDX) and Sea-Tac. They're both airports that you don't really mind sitting around in. There are lovely waterfalls and rock gardens in Sea-Tac, and live concerto music in Portland.

Worst: San Francisco, if only I got lost there once and almost missed my connecting flight (to Pearson in Toronto, which was also all right).

There's a best and worst in Washington state, too. I used to fly out of Oak Harbor airport. It was great. They only had one airplane, but if you worked the angles right, you could fly in the co-pilot seat. One night, the island was so socked in, that the airline couldn't even land at the Navy base, so the pilot drove us all home from Sea-Tac.

Then, there's Sea-Tac. If you leave from one of the remote terminals, as I frequently do, be ready for a wait. They must have three screeners at the entrance to the train for the remote terminal. Plus, the parking for rental cars is confusing.

Worst:

1. Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport (ATL)- When you die, you will be delayed by the connection at Hartsfield.

2. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)- Old, with lousy taxiways and a Terminal Control Area that would confuse a physicist. Fly out of Ontario, John Wayne or even piddling little old Burbank, you'll be much saner for the effort.

Worst outside the US:

1. London's Heathrow International Airport (LHR)- Enough said.

Best:

1. Denver International Airport (DIA)- Smooth, modern and except for this year's awful weather delays, connections average between 30 and 40 mins.

2. Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)- Has made terrific improvements and is the best "old" airport in the US.

Best outside the US:

1. Tel Aviv Ben-Gurion- Outstanding airport and unmatchable security.

I would have to say the worst is Dulles (IAD), though Heathrow is pretty damn close. My favorite would probably be O'Hare (ORD), but thats because of sentimental value (lots of my childhood spent going through those terminals).

I do enjoy the small airport that services the one flight a day out of my college town, but the single TSA agent seems to enjoy searching me.

I would have to say the worst is Dulles (IAD), though Heathrow is pretty damn close. My favorite would probably be O'Hare (ORD), but thats because of sentimental value (lots of my childhood spent going through those terminals).

I do enjoy the small airport that services the one flight a day out of my college town, but the single TSA agent seems to enjoy searching me.

I think they need more to do at the smaller airports, or else the agent has a thing for you...

live concerto music in Portland

that confused me when i was there. its like - grand piano...wha?

Worst: Phoenix Sky Harbor

phoenix looks excellent after spending 8 hours in the spokane international (hah!) airport. though that wore off when it sunk in that i flew all the way from spokane, washington to phoenix, arizona in order to then fly to fucking chicago. hooray for equilateral triangles!

phoenix looks excellent after spending 8 hours in the spokane international (hah!) airport.

International for Spokane=flights to Vancouver. :D

Favorite:

Dulles Airport

Least Favorite:

Heathrow

Least favourite: Schiphol

I've always liked O'Hare.

Frankfurt has way too long distances between connecting flights.

Berlin Tegel is silly, tiny, and terribly oldfashioned. But only 10 minutes away from me and feels like home, so it's still my favourite by default.

Stuttgart has far less traffic but looks much bigger and has some pretty cool architecture.

Miami had me fucking freezing because of the Airconditioning.


Can't remember the others. La Paz was funky mainly because - apart from being tiny and ramshackle - you read about how it's a not-so-easy one for pilots because the air is so thin.