U.S. News And World Report Gives Its Take On Best, Worst Airports

Just in time for the busy travel season, the May 30 edition of US News and World Report includes an article (see here for free) on what it thinks are the best and worst airports to navigate.  They base their ratings of 47 large airports and 53 regional airports by using statistics from the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics to see which facilities had the best and worst combination of delayed planes and crowded flights, with lower numbers signifying a better airport.

The top five most miserable airports -- no surprise here -- were major airline hubs, including: Detroit Metro, Chicago O'Hare, Charlotte, JFK and Newark.  The magazine noted that hubs carrying large amounts of connecting traffic rate worst for late departures and crowded flights, which it adds lead to delayed flights.

The top five best airports were: Oakland, Houston Hobby, San Jose, Dallas Love Field and St. Louis Lambert.  Although it has less non-stop flights, US News lauded Oakland for having flights that are less full and tend to fly out on time much more.

The article ends by offering what I think is pretty basic travel advice that we all pretty much know, such as: smaller airports are generally better; on connecting flights, it matters which hub you fly through; smaller planes tend to be less crowded; and make contingency plans.

Most Miserable Airports

Rank (out of 47)	Airport	City	Pct. flights delayed	Average load factor
47	DTW	Detroit	39.0	76.9
46	ORD	Chicago (O'Hare)	42.3	75.8
45	CLT	Charlotte, N.C.	38.8	76.0
44	JFK	New York (Kennedy)	42.4	75.4
43	EWR	Newark, N.J.	39.0	75.7

Least Miserable Airports

Rank (out of 47)	Airport	City	Pct. flights delayed	Average load factor
1	OAK	Oakland, Calif.	19.5	67.4
2	HOU	Houston (Hobby)	22.3	57.6
3	SJC	San Jose, Calif.	17.6	69.4
4	DAL	Dallas (Love Field)	22.6	62.7
5	STL	St. Louis, Mo.	23.5	64.6

Courtesy US News & World Report

Comments

[Patrick]

You have to dig to find this: "Our rankings may not fully reflect factors such as seasonal variations due to weather"

Their ranking is horribly flawed. Airports like DFW and ATL are going to have much better rankings since they used statistics for only the first 4 months of the year. ATL especially has some of the worst delays in the summer, while things aren't usually as bad in the northern airports during those dates.

[Scott]

This US News article is a classic example of media misrepresentation. The rankings are based upon the premise -- as stated clearly in the article -- that full flights equal customer dissatisfaction. While I understand their logic, and I've seen first-hand the effect of full flights have when delays become a factor, there are so many OTHER factors involved in determining which airports are likely to be the worst in the summer rush. It's so easy to pick-apart the flaws in US News' methodology... they're just going after whatever story sells issues.

[David]

I also question their methodology. It just so happens that their top ranked airport, Oakland, is the one where on one Friday morning, the security line for Terminal 1 snaked through the baggage claim and out the door. An airport with a large percentage of connecting passengers can actually be easier for O&D's there, since fewer people are actually going through the security line at that airport.

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A little surprising JFK is on the list.