Is your airport one of America's best -- or worst?
It turns out New Yorkers were right to complain.
In a new review by ThePointsGuy.com of the 30 busiest airports in the U.S., the three New York City-area airports came out on the bottom, with LaGuardia Airport landing dead last.
Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport topped the list, which was based on 10 categories like flight delays, cancellations, average security wait times and distance from the city center. The scores were based on data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the airports’ websites and research firms like J.D. Power & Associates.
About Phoenix Airport, James Cury of ThePointsGuy.com told CBS MoneyWatch: “It did really well across the board except in one area. For how long it takes from the city center to drive to the airport, it took the No. 1 spot, and it was No. 2 in how long it takes from the city center using public transportation.”
Meanwhile, he said of LaGuardia, “You might have seen photos of people getting out of their cabs on the highway because traffic is so backed up. It came in dead last in terms of flight delays and cancellations and was 28th out of 30 in terms of driving time from the city center. It was 22nd out of 30 in average security wait time, and parking was the most expensive of all 30.”
Cury said one thing he wasn’t expecting was that the best airports would skew West so strongly.
“The top five or six airports are all West Coast-based. I didn’t expect there would be that many aggregated in one area -- I thought there would be some in the Midwest or the South.”
Best U.S. airports
1. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
2. Portland (Oregon) International Airport
3. San Diego International Airport
4. Salt Lake City International Airport
5. Honolulu International Airport
Worst U.S. airports
26. Detroit Metropolitan Airport
27. Chicago O’Hare International Airport
28. Newark Liberty International Airport
29. John F. Kennedy International Airport
30. LaGuardia Airport