Airports

One of those dot com airline review web sites just put out a user survey of the worst airports. That would be both in the U.S and internationally. The worst ranked airport in the United States came as no surprise to me. It is New York City's Laguardia Airport, a domestic airport so old and antiquated that it creeks more than my knees. The only reason it is still operating is location. It's close to Manhattan and for a lot of people like me, that beats a fancy airport any day. It not only works well but is cheaper to use and a short ride from it takes you to Manhattan.

Anyway I looked at the lists of worst airports and have been in a few of them. Los Angeles airport, for instance, is on my list too. It's dirty, has too many terminals spread out too far away, has few places of any quality to buy food,  and must be the leader in lines and waits of all U.S. airports. I dread that one and will go out of my way to avoid using it for connections. Not only is it antiquated it leave s the user with a bad experience almost every time. My worst international airports concur with what the readers said, just about any of the older European airports. The Europeans have not built many airports in recent years. Now that doing so is so expensive they are stuck with small, antiquated and primitive airports, even in many the biggest and most traveled European cities.

One thing I notice about big city international airports is that Asian big city airports tend to be the best. That's because they are far newer than those in the west. Really though, I am not so impressed with high tech, clean airports as much as with those both located close to where I need to go and not over-crowded with passengers.  No matter how new and high tech an airport is, no matter how much entertainment is inside the airport and how comfortable it may be, the main priority for me is to get me in and out of the airport quickly. I like functionality over glitzy.

Some airports do combine function with comfort and beauty. The airport in Singapore is an a example. It's beautiful, easy to use and fast functioning, with plenty of things to do inside the terminal while waiting. Problem is, it's located in one of the most dreary places on earth- Singapore. I only want to use the Singaporean airport for a connection when I am passing through that place. God forbid having to stop and stay in Singapore. 

But let's face it. Few want to be in any airport these days. Flying is not fun and we are happiest when seeing an airport from the rear...as we leave it.