The world’s biggest airports – ranked from best to worst

Fancy going to the airport? Thought not. Many travellers regard airports as the seventh circle of hell, a place where all our anxieties and fears, our patience and plans, collide like battered luggage. But not all are equal. Some are better than others. Which? 

To find out, we compared 70 airports – the world’s 50 busiest hubs in 2023, plus the next 20 busiest in Europe – across more than 30 criteria. Connectivity – i.e. the number of cities and countries to which passengers can fly non-stop – was key, as was reliability (i.e. on-time performance and cancellation rates). We assessed the passenger experience, including the speediness of each airport’s Wi-Fi, the quality of its restaurants and lounges, and the availability of outdoor terraces, rest zones, drinking water fountains and mobile phone charging.

Practicalities were also considered. How easy is the airport to reach by public transport? Does it use the latest CT security scanners and facial recognition technology? Is luggage storage available? How long does it take to walk to the farthest gate? What are the hotel options nearby? How expensive is the parking? 

We also looked at each airport’s performance in other rankings, such as the World Airport Awards, its average Google Review score, and the quality of its biggest airline, as disclosed recently in our own study. 

So what did we learn? Airports in Asia and the Middle East dominated, taking each of the top five slots. But the top 10 also included three airports in North America and two in Europe. As for Britain? It was a pretty dismal performance, with Heathrow the top rated – but way down in 39th overall. 

The full rankings can be found below, but first of all, our top 10:

It scored big points for reliability (with an on-time performance of 80.12% in 2023, according to OAG, and only 0.23% of flights cancelled), connectivity (210 destinations served) and practicalities (the airport is only 18 minutes from the city centre by public transport), but travellers fall in love with Madrid–Barajas Airport for another reason: it rivals Heathrow for the most elegant design of any large hub. The late Richard Rogers, the architect behind both Barajas and Heathrow Terminal 5 (see below), created large windows on all sides of the terminal buildings to give travellers of all classes a clear view of the gates, the apron and the runways. On the inside the swooping ceilings are clad with soft wood, offset with Rogers’s trademark yellow accents and warm lighting. Sunlight streams through skylights, polka-dotting the floor with pools of brightness. Standing in a queue waiting for a delayed British Airways flight to London never felt better. Like Doha, however, signage needs improving to make it easier to get to the gates. Also, oddly for a major hub, the shopping is very limited – unless, that is, you want to buy jamón. 

The worst thing about American airports is travelling to and from them. You almost always need to take a taxi and that means you get stuck in traffic. It is maddening that neither New York’s JFK nor Newark has direct rail links to and from Manhattan. The best thing about San Francisco Airport is that you can get to and from it on the Bart, the city’s metro. It takes only half an hour to travel from arrivals to Union Square, to check into your hotel, and a few minutes longer to reach the ferry terminal, where you can enjoy oysters and a glass of Californian chardonnay after arrival. Half an hour after leaving JFK or Los Angeles International, you’re usually still bumper to bumper on the freeway losing the will to live. San Francisco also earned plenty of points for its fast Wi-Fi, its outdoor observation deck with 180-degree views, the wide array of decent hotels on its doorstep, and its good on-time performance (78.01%). 

Our list’s top European airport is a dark horse loved by many frequent European flyers. While its Terminal 1, to which BA flies, remains outdated, Terminal 3, which opened in 2012, is a superb model of a modern airport and is home to global favourites Emirates and Qatar Airways. Flights to Australia and the Middle East on these airlines can often be cheaper from Vienna and other mainland European airports than Heathrow, with the biggest savings in business class and first class. It takes just 15 minutes to reach the city centre by public transport, there’s an outdoor terrace, rest zones and the highly rated Vienna Lounge, and unlike many modern national hubs, which are blandly international, Vienna retains an Austrian feel. Its restaurants offer pretzels, Wiener schnitzel and lager. For British passengers, however, the lack of e-gates means long queues at immigration for non-EU arrivals. 

The world’s biggest airport by number of passengers for the past 26 years is the main hub for Delta Air Lines, making it the best option for Virgin Atlantic passengers looking to travel to smaller destinations in the United States with no direct services from the United Kingdom as Delta and Virgin have a code-share arrangement. The airport’s major selling point is it has direct, non-stop services to almost anywhere in mainland America – it serves 150 unique domestic routes from its five runways. The airport is big but manageable thanks to a four-carriage train inside the terminal which takes passengers from the shops to the gates. It scored big points for the quality and scope of its dining options, as well as its solid on-time performance (78.68%) and its affordable short-term parking (just $3 for an hour).  However, Hartsfield–Jackson, like many US airports, often has an infuriating lack of security and immigration staff, which can often lead to long queues. It also has some of the longest walks from the main terminal to its most distant gates (up to 30-40 minutes).

The best airport outside Asia, Phoenix Sky Harbor is a hub for American Airlines, a code-share partner of British Airways, which makes it popular with British passengers in transit to destinations across the US. Its reliability (its on-time performance was 79.61% in 2023, and only 0.62% of its flights were cancelled), top-notch Wi-Fi, outdoor terrace, good food and strong Google rating (averaging 4.3 out of 5, from more than 28,000 reviews) helped propel it up the rankings. I flew from Idaho to London via Phoenix last year. The airport feels a lot like an upmarket, air-conditioned strip mall, which is an attractive prospect in the summer months when the mercury tops 44C. I tried to walk out to stretch my legs when I landed in August and had to walk straight back into the terminal again to avoid turning into human jerky. Security and immigration are more efficient than in most American airports, particularly if you can get TSA PreCheck. But the rental car system could be more efficient – passengers have to get a train to the rental centre and then often face a large queue. The terminal is so large that it has a 1.2-mile fitness trail, which allows passengers to view the sights of Downtown Phoenix through the airport windows. Great on a long lay-over but not so good when trying to drag kids to the gate.  

Travellers to Tokyo used to have to go to Narita, which is as far out of the city centre as Stansted is from central London. Now, from Haneda, it takes less than half an hour to get into town by train. Time is also a key draw when you get to the airport. Haneda was among the most on-time global airports in 2023, according to travel data analysts OAG and Cirium. Departing travellers can enjoy sushi in any one of the dozens of restaurants, green tea in the open-air rooftop café, and there’s even a 24-hour spa directly connected to Terminal 3, featuring around a dozen hot springs and baths. Arriving passengers do not have to battle biblical jet lag in the arrivals hall because baggage handlers, wearing bionic suits to improve strength and unload luggage quickly, usually get bags on to the carousel within 10 minutes of a plane landing. 

The home of Korean Air combines high levels of efficiency with attractions, luxury and great architecture, in particular the new Terminal 2 built for the 2018 Winter Olympics. It earned big points for  its low cancellation rate (0.23%) and cheap parking, while research by Radical Storage, which analysed more than 1.2 million online reviews, reckons it has the best food of any global airport. Passengers of all nationalities can sign up to a new Smart Pass system allowing them to use facial recognition to go through departures without showing their passport and boarding pass (worth 20 points in our study). The system will soon be extended to arriving passengers. The airport has four golf courses with a quick shuttle bus to and fro. A nine-hole round costs around £17. At the Korean cultural centre, passengers can take part in taekwondo demonstrations. There are traditional concerts with Korean music in the departures hall (Heathrow, don’t get any ideas about morris dancing). It might have bagged a podium spot had it not been so far from downtown Seoul (60km by road). 

Emirates and Dubai International Airport have created a new crossroads of the world. Red, white, black and green Emirates A380 super-jumbos rain down on the Tarmac, shuttling between Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Hundreds of destinations ping down the departure screens, from Abidjan to Zanzibar (it is one of the world’s most connected airports, with 273 destinations in 105 countries, worth 126 points). It’s a thrilling sight, even at 3am, when many connecting flights land and take off. Dubai’s score was also helped by the vast number of nearby hotels (43 within a two-mile radius), the ease with which one can reach the city centre, the presence of a swimming pool open to airport passengers (worth 20 points), and its highly rated Plaza Premium and Emirates First Class lounges. 

Check-in, security scanning and connections security all boast the latest technology. Paul Griffiths, the chief executive of Dubai Airports, is even working on doing away with security machines into which you have to put your hand luggage in favour of security arches that scan your clothes and your bags as you simply walk through. The feature many travellers love best is how Griffiths, being a Briton, has embraced the class system. Business- and first-class travellers check in via an exclusive wing of the airport and are whisked straight to the upper level of the main – Emirates – terminal, where they can enjoy the lounges and Timeless spa. Fancy flyers board from this upper level, too, straight on to the upper deck of Emirates’ Airbus A380 super-jumbos. 

The world’s best airlines operate from the world’s best airports. Hamad International and Qatar Airways, often voted the world’s finest carrier (though second in our own rankings), are an unbeatable combination. Hamad is the world’s most reliable airport, with an on-time performance of 83.49% and an impressive 0.2% cancellation rate. But it truly excels in the little extras it offers. Take the airside hotel for those who want to relax between lay-overs. It has a swimming pool and a squash court as well as a gym, so you can sleep on arrival and exercise to wake yourself up. To avoid crowding, there are two distinct hubs in the single, huge terminal – one central one and another satellite, linked by a train that runs inside the building. Each hub offers fine dining (Harrods café or Louis Vuitton café, anyone?), its own lounges for business- and first-class passengers, and some of the best airport shopping. There are two Zegna boutiques and a Thom Browne.

Frequent flyers with silver or gold status on British Airways or other Oneworld alliance partner airlines who are not travelling in business or first class on Qatar Airways are not relegated to a second-class lounge, as so often happens in large airports dominated by the local flag carrier. The dedicated platinum and gold lounges for Oneworld road warriors are better than BA’s own lounges at its Heathrow T5 hub. There are only two wrinkles, though. First, the airport can be hard to navigate. The signage needs improving. Second – and this is a very First World problem, I know – Qatar Airways’ business-class lounge can get very crowded at peak times, with queues to eat and for the showers. 

The world’s best airport? We’re certainly not the first to reach the conclusion that it’s Singapore Changi – it has been widely lauded for years, scooped countless awards, and after more than 50,000 Google reviews has a scarcely believable average rating of 4.7 out of 5.  So what makes it so special? Changi ticks just about every box, from on-time performance (81.59%) to the latest tech. It’s bright and airy, with outdoor terraces, greenery (look out for the butterfly garden and the koi pond) and a swimming pool. But the best thing is that it encourages you to leave, if you have time, and makes it very quick and easy to do so and come back. The Crowne Plaza offers some of the best airport hotel rooms anywhere in the world if you want to relax on a lay-over. You can swim up to some of the rooms in the large infinity pool. Jewel, a glass-and-steel shopping and entertainment complex with hundreds of shops and restaurants accessible to travellers and locals alike, has gardens and a giant waterfall that cascades 150ft from the roof down through every floor. The shopping is among the best in the world. Check out the Fila store for retro sportswear and Irvins for a bag of salted egg potato chips. 

Once back in the airport, if you are travelling in business class on Singapore Airlines you can enjoy its refreshed business-class lounges in Terminal 3 and the “Private Room” for passengers in first class or Suites. Splashes of blue, orange and silver relieve the old symphony of beige. Smaller cooking stations replace the vast buffets. For the first time, there are sleep pods, beds in quiet rooms, and meeting rooms. Fancy BA flyers with Gold status can enjoy the David Caon-designed Qantas lounge, which has hi-tech skylights that create the illusion of natural light even though the lounge has no windows. There are also larger lounges for frequent flyers and passengers on Singapore Airlines’ partner airlines who may not be flying in business class. The only duff notes? Hand luggage security is at the gate, which holds up boarding, and the swirly carpets are hideous. 

British airports stand alone with their absurd “kiss and drop” charges. Every airport in our study lets drivers deposit passengers at the main entrance to the terminal free of charge, except Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. 

Chicago O’Hare has more runways than any other airport – an impressive eight, helping it fly almost 74 million passengers a year to 251 cities in 46 countries. 

No airport is farther from the city which it serves than Stansted, with the fastest route by road measuring 63.4km (a journey that takes around 65 minutes). 

At the other end of the scale is Boston’s Logan Airport, which is just 6km from the city centre, a journey which takes just eight minutes by car or 18 minutes by public transport.

Hamad International Airport in Doha scored the most points for reliability. Its on-time percentage in 2023 was around 82% and just 0.2% of its departures were cancelled, according to OAG.

Need a room for the night near Delhi Airport? We found options from just £5, meaning it has the cheapest airport hotels in our study.

The most expensive rate for short-term parking? That would be Stansted again, which charges the equivalent of $23 for one hour. At Xian Airport, conversely, you get a whole hour for free.

We were unable to find a single airport that doesn’t offer free drinking water or mobile-charging facilities. 

Only eight airports don’t offer unlimited free Wi-Fi, with Istanbul being the stingiest – passengers get only one hour of internet use before charges kick in. US airports, meanwhile, are among the best for Wi-Fi speeds. 

An airport with a swimming pool? But of course. We were able to identify 18 airports with them, usually in hotels that offer day passes (for a fee) for flyers in need of a dip.

We chose to compare 2023’s 50 busiest airports (in terms of total passenger numbers), plus the 20 busiest in Europe not already included, across more than 30 criteria. 

For reliability, we awarded points based on each airport’s on-time performance (according to OAG and Cirium) and its cancellation percentage (according to OAG) in 2023. 

For connectivity, scores were based on the number of cities and countries to which passengers can fly from each airport (according to flightconnections.com, as of October 2024). 

For experience, we awarded points for each of the following:

• The length of time Wi-Fi is offered free of charge (with points deducted if barriers are in place such as ID checks).
• Average download speeds (according to Ookla.com).
• Whether hot and cold drinking water is available free of charge.
• Whether the airport possesses a swimming pool (within its grounds and open to passengers or, where relevant, non-hotel guests for a fee), an outdoor terrace (not including smoking areas), showers, dedicated rest zones.
• The quality of its food and drink outlets (according to a Radical Storage analysis of more than 1.2 million customer reviews and the verdicts of both Food & Wine magazine and the World Airport Awards).
• The quality of its lounges (according to both the World Airline Awards and the website Onemileatatime.com).
• Whether the airport received recognition for architectural merit in the Prix Versailles 2024 awards.

For practicalities, scores reflected the following:

• Each airport’s distance from the centre of the city it serves (plus the typical journey time by car and on public transport – according to Google Maps).
• The number and average quality (according to Booking.com) of hotels within a two-mile radius, plus the cheapest available room rate on a specific date (March 7-8 2025).
• Whether it charges drivers to drop passengers at the main entrance to departures.
• The presence of CT scanners, facial recognition technology, luggage storage and free mobile charging. The length of time required to walk from the main terminal building to the farthest departure gate. 

Finally, we awarded points based on each airport’s performance in the World Airport Awards and the Forbes Luxury Travel Awards, its ranking on Airhelp.com and Sleepinginairports.net, its average review score on Google, how well its biggest airline performed in Telegraph Travel’s recent rankings, and how long it took to respond to a selection of queries emailed to it by Telegraph Travel. 

Where data were not available for an airport – for example, neither OAG nor Cirium, nor the airport itself, could provide an on-time performance for Dubai International – it was awarded a median score in that category.