What makes a good airport and what's your favourite?

[aikman]

1. Affordable & convenient transport to get to it like a train
2. Budget accommodation options (which notably SIN doesn't have)
3. Compact size (I don't want to take a subway and walk 10 kms just to get to my gate)

 

[antycbr]

Add to this good plane spotting including from a lounge.

I quite enjoyed EWR UA lounge with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

Fortress hubs in the US make you realise how vast the US aviation system is with a sea of AA/UA/DL tails but somewhere like LHR for unusual airlines you don’t see often anywhere else.

 

[million_thanas1968]

What makes a good airport in my opinion is efficiency and size. As a creature of habit I really appreciate being able breeze through customs and immigration, go to the lounge and board with minimal human interaction.

For departures I have to say I like an airport that doesn't require long walks to the gate, such as MEL. Most of my AKL flights have departed from the furthest gates and I really do not appreciate that.

For arrivals I think HKG takes the cake. My personal best was a 14 minutes from deplaning to being in the car - this was flying in economy with 2 checked luggages!

Overall holistically HKG has a really smooth departure experience with their new facial recognition scanners at boarding, it makes the travel experience much smoother. I've been to a few airports in Vietnam that have long bus rides for both arrivals and departures, which I will have to say is a bit more effort that I would like. Having to take shoes off at security is also a mild inconvenience I don't appreciate.

As someone that flies half frequently I treat flying like taking the bus, the more efficient and simple the process is, the more convenient it is.

 

[Himeno]

Obviously any place with e-gates goes up the rankings. CHP recently had just 3 manual booths for hundreds departing!

The first time I arrived at MAD, there was a single immigration booth right as you left the jetbridge. Everyone was processed, by one agent, right as you left the aircraft.
Took longer to get off the aircraft than it did to collect bags.

 

[Himeno]

More airports that cared about baggage would be good.

 

[Denali]

Not having to walk a mini marathon to get to or from my gate. Install more people travellers or have a golf cart station to zoom us old farts around. Amsterdam airport was like reliving the Lord of the Rings fellowship where they took on a very long adventure across various realms.

Having an option to avoid the duty free sections. The hot and bright lights annoy the frig out of me every. single. time.

Car pickup just outside the door. Dont make me exit the building, cross the road, hike to a carpark. I pay a lot of $$$ for a driver service (not uber or taxi) and I would like my driver & car right out front the door. My Sydney driver is great, I text him when we get our bags and we arrange to meet so I avoid the carpark hike

 

[andye]

The airport that made me smile this year was LGW

Wouldnt fulfil many of the criteria mentioned (except hotel right on airport) but everyone there seemed excited to be going away on holiday, Bucks, Hens whatever. I was returning home after a funeral so probably appreciated the positive vibe

 

[offshore171]

The airport that made me smile this year was LGW

Wouldnt fulfil many of the criteria mentioned (except hotel right on airport) but everyone there seemed excited to be going away on holiday, Bucks, Hens whatever.

Now do Luton

 

[GDSman]

Obviously any place with e-gates goes up the rankings. CHP recently had just 3 manual booths for hundreds departing!

I forgot that point. Arriving into YVR recently and it felt like there were hundreds of eGates and, oh joy, each one had a pole with a red or green light making it very easy to spot availability from a distance (compared to the Aus eGates they were fantastic).

 

[jase05]

HKG can be pretty awful if you need to transfer thru E1 or E2 during peak times

I love HKG but transit was a debacle today. Nearly an hour
Oh well, still 4hrs in the Pier F lounge to sooth the soul

I don’t think PVG will win and awards or get much love on here but I really like it. Have been through a number of times over the years and always pretty smooth and efficient. Today from drop off at front door to having a coffee in the CX lounge was just over 20 minutes and all smooth. Short walk from lounge to gate and boarding was orderly.

I don’t mind CGK but I guess it’s because it’s familiar to us and one of our most used Asian ports

 

[elanshin]

I love HKG but transit was a debacle today. Nearly an hour
Oh well, still 4hrs in the Pier F lounge to sooth the soul

I don’t think PVG will win and awards or get much love on here but I really like it. Have been through a number of times over the years and always pretty smooth and efficient. Today from drop off at front door to having a coffee in the CX lounge was just over 20 minutes and all smooth. Short walk from lounge to gate and boarding was orderly.

As someone that saw PVG built from the ground up and comparing it to 2025, it is too sterile and honestly needs a massive revamp. The main gate area is basically dead of activity whilst the satelite terminal seems much better, not everything departs from there. CX lounge feels like most other CX lounges which is good, but the MU Lounge which is PVG's biggest homebase carrier feels massively underwhelming. Ok for J, below average for F. As for smooth and efficient, it depends on when you get there - at least they got rid of the x-ray to enter the building now. I was there for an 8am flight at 5am and immigration took a whopping 1.5h because for some reason they had 2 immigration lanes open (Yes I'm still a little bit salty I didnt get time to check out the new MU Lounge at the satelite terminal which was supposed to be significantly better than the main terminal) . Check-in is also more coughbersome (but that's just China in general) as your check-in bag has to be examined and they will have you open the suitcase if they spot things that need checking - they didn't like that I had a box of bundy gingerbeer in my suitcase and wanted to see what it was.

Overall I'd take SYD over PVG any day of the week - just a lot more to do, eat and shop at the main terminal if you're not at the lounge. Also if you don't understand Chinese/Shanghainese, you probably won't understand the immigration officers swearing at each other or even the passengers sometimes. Very typical Chinese things.

 

[jase05]

As someone that saw PVG built from the ground up and comparing it to 2025, it is too sterile and honestly needs a massive revamp. The main gate area is basically dead of activity whilst the satelite terminal seems much better, not everything departs from there. CX lounge feels like most other CX lounges which is good, but the MU Lounge which is PVG's biggest homebase carrier feels massively underwhelming. Ok for J, below average for F. As for smooth and efficient, it depends on when you get there - at least they got rid of the x-ray to enter the building now. I was there for an 8am flight at 5am and immigration took a whopping 1.5h because for some reason they had 2 immigration lanes open (Yes I'm still a little bit salty I didnt get time to check out the new MU Lounge at the satelite terminal which was supposed to be significantly better than the main terminal) . Check-in is also more coughbersome (but that's just China in general) as your check-in bag has to be examined and they will have you open the suitcase if they spot things that need checking - they didn't like that I had a box of bundy gingerbeer in my suitcase and wanted to see what it was.

Overall I'd take SYD over PVG any day of the week - just a lot more to do, eat and shop at the main terminal if you're not at the lounge. Also if you don't understand Chinese/Shanghainese, you probably won't understand the immigration officers swearing at each other or even the passengers sometimes. Very typical Chinese things.

Yeah, I understand completely but can only go off my experiences which have always been pretty seamless and painless.
I have no doubt that in an airport that size that one day I’ll probably regret saying it though
Today we had a 0830 departure so arrived there at 0515 as we had a great run with traffic and a taxi driver that didn’t believe in going under 120 clicks!
Noticed the X-rays have been removed from entrance but they put us in a little sheep pen until the swab test was done. Straight to the CX counter and no one in F or J lines so no drama there. We had seperate J tickets PVG-HKG and HKG-SGN on CX and asked the agent to check bags through to SGN she asked for Vietnamese eVisa, smiled and did it no fuss and in quick time. Immigration had I’d estimate about 70-80% of lines open and only 2 people in front of us so really quick and then straight to lounge.
Looked to be some renovations happening near the CX lounge so perhaps some new shops?

 

[anat0l]

SIN and HKG obviously stand out as clear favourites, but there are definitely some things that work in their favour.

They don't have any domestic flights for one, or any flights where the customs conditions can change (e.g. Schengen vs non-Schengen, EU vs non-EU). HKG may be arguable with the ferry connections to the GBA is like a domestic connection in a way, but it still wouldn't account for a great deal of traffic.

With all the different kinds of routes of traffic required, airports like FRA and CDG will never win best airport awards unless they drastically rebuild or change their passenger flows. CDG sometimes looks like the operation is held together with duct tape and Hot Wheels ramps.

Due to the sheer numbers it handles, somewhere like ATL will also never win an award. They just need a big airport to make a lot of passengers (both domestic and international) get to where they need, hopefully without breakdowns. It's efficiency over form.

For airports that handle both domestic and international traffic of significant volumes, I'd say KUL is a good contender for great airport.

People often report that USM is a beautiful airport, which is likely true. That makes it a bit of a gem; probably not so much if it were handling at least twice as much traffic as it does now.

I seem to recall some years ago (not decades!) that YVR and CPH often made the list for attractive airports.