Muscat, Oman has the world’s best airport, Minneapolis is best in the U.S., and Calgary is tops in Canada, a new study from AirHelp says.
The company ranked 200 world airports for on-time performance, customer opinion (based on surveys) and food + drink, then issued a final score. AirHelp puts on-time performance as the main component, worth a full 60% of an airport’s final score. A score of 8.5 indicates 85% of flights arrived on time. They count a plane as on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival.
Customer opinion (they were asked about wait times, airport staff, accessibility and cleanliness) and food + shops each account for 20% of the final score.
Muscat International Airport in Oman was top finisher for 2023 with a score of 8.54 out of 10. Second was Recife/Guararapes-Gilberto Freyre International Airport in Brazil, while the final podium spot went to Cape Town International Airport in South Africa.
Calgary International Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Here are the top 10 in the world, with final score.
Muscat: 8.54
Recife: 8.49
Cape Town: 8.48
Brasilia, 8.43
Doha (Qatar) 8.41
Osaka, 8.37
Belem (Brazil), 8.36
Belo Horizonte (Brazil) 8.35
Tokyo Narita, 8.31
Amami (Japan) 8.27
Pretty remarkable that Brazil has four in the top 10 (top eight to be exact). And, no, I can’t say why.
The top three in the U.S were Minneapolis (8.15; good for 13th in the world), Seattle-Tacoma (7.96; 34th in the world) and Detroit Wayne County (7.91, 38th overall).
Other notable U.S. and world airport scores include Los Angeles at 69, La Guardia at 70, Chicago O’Hare at 71, Orlando at 1117, London Heathrow at 163, Paris-DeGaulle at 173 and London Gatwick at 193.
Canada fared quite poorly, which isn’t surprising for a survey that puts such a premium on on-time performance.
Toronto Pearson Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Best in the country was Calgary, way down at spot 142 (out of 200). YYC had a 7.17 score overall; 6.8 for on-time performance, score for on-time performance, 7.8 for customer opinion and 7.7 for food + shops.
Vancouver, which often gets ranked as Canada’s best airport, came in at position 146 in the AirHelp rankings. YVR had an overall rating of 7.14; 6.6 for on-time performance, 8.1 for customer opinion and 7.6 for food + shops.
Edmonton came in at 152 on the top 200 list, with an overall score of 7.06. YEG had a 6.8 on-time performance score, 7.9 for customer opinion and 7 for food and shops.
Montreal-Trudeau was 182 on the list with a total mark of 6.75; 5.9 for on-time performance, 8 for customer opinion and 8 for food and shops.
Toronto Pearson was 188th overall, with an AirHelp total score of 6.56 (5.9 for on-time performance, 7.4 for customer opinion and 7.7 for food + shopping.
