OT: The World's Best Airports

[Guest guest]

Airlines: The World's Best Airports

Lisa DiCarlo, 04.07.05, 2:42 PM ET

 

http://www.forbes.com/services/2005/04/07/cx_ld_0407bestairports.html?partner=ne\

tscape

 

NEW YORK - Travel preferences are a very personal thing. Some people

don't mind driving two hours out of their way if it means a cheaper

ticket. For others, getting in and out quickly is the most important thing.

 

Today, Skytrax, a London-based airline and airport passenger research

firm, will release the results of an annual survey that ranks the

world's best airports. We are presenting the data in detail here on

Forbes.com.

 

Skytrax does not measure elements like on-time performance, lost baggage

or customer complaints. Rather, the survey (which contains more than 5.5

million responses) asks passengers about 31 criteria, including airport

access, public transit availability, terminal comfort, ambience and

cleanliness, immigration wait times and service, terminal signage,

friendliness and language skills of airport staff, ease of connections,

entertainment, shopping and dining options, and Internet options.

 

Asia's airports dominate the rankings, which Skytrax says is no surprise

given that its airports benefit from 21st-century facilities. Perhaps

not surprising, no U.S. airports cracked the top ten. In fact, they

barely cracked the top 20. Minneapolis-St. Paul came in a No. 20

worldwide and No. 1 in North America, based on the aforementioned criteria.

 

Service at U.S. airports has fallen along with that of the carriers.

Earlier this week, the annual Airline Quality Rating survey showed that

service had deteriorated at most of the major U.S. carriers, with AMR's

(nyse: AMR - news - people ) American Airlines and Delta Air Lines

(nyse: DAL - news - people ) in the bottom half of the ranking. These

and other carriers have cut well over 100,000 jobs even as passenger

levels are up.

 

Two of the more financially stable airlines, JetBlue Airways (nasdaq:

JBLU - news - people ) and Southwest Airlines (nyse: LUV-news-people ),

came in at Nos. 1 and 3, respectively.

 

Butch's Note .. there is a slide show here .. the top ten are:

 

Hong Kong

Singapore

Seoul

Munich

Osaka

Dubai

Kuala Lumpur

Amsterdam

Copenhagen

Sydney

 

© 2005 Forbes.com Inc.™

[Guest guest]

>

>

> On Behalf Of Butch Owen

> Wednesday, April 20, 2005 5:31 PM

>

> OT: The World's Best Airports

>

> Two of the more financially stable airlines, JetBlue Airways (nasdaq:

> JBLU - news - people ) and Southwest Airlines (nyse:

> LUV-news-people ), came in at Nos. 1 and 3, respectively.

>

 

 

Interesting, Butch. Sad none of the U.S. airports rate well. Here in the

Way-West, we used to use Alaska over Southwest. Not any more. We delivered

Rachel, visiting with baby at Christmastime, to the airport to head home 3

hours before her Alaska flight. She was completely checked in, had her

boarding pass (i.e., was in the computer manifest) and was waiting at her

gate when she decided (30 minutes before flight was to board) that baby

needed a change. When she returned to her gate (maybe 10-15 minutes later)

her plane was heading away from the gate. There she was, just enough diapers

and formula for the trip home; everything else on the plane en route. They

(Alaska) were completely unapologetic and offered no explanation or

compensation. They had overbooked, of course, and gave her seats to someone

else. She spent 5 hours at Sea-Tac (she didn't call me because she didn't

want me to worry and come back the 65 miles to help-not much I could do

anyway). We've used SW since and have had much better service. JetBlue is

now servicing parts the West coast, and I intend to use them, too.

 

Be Well,

Marcia Elston http://www.wingedseed.com

" Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot. " Hausa Saying from

Nigeria