SOME airports are known for being the antithesis of elegance. The reputation of Luton Airport in Britain was famously trashed by a television advert for Campari, a posh drink, in the 1980s. In the clip, a well-dressed man offered a drink of the stuff to a fashion model on holiday and asked, “Were you truly wafted here from paradise?” She replied in her full cockney accent, “Nah, Lu’on Airport!” Its reputation as a place to fly from has never quite recovered since. In August it was named Britain’s worst airport by Which?, a consumer group.
But at least Luton’s terminals are modern and safe—and that cannot be said of others around the world. In this week’s print issue, Gulliver’s colleagues from around the globe have reviewed some of the world’s worst airports. These range from departure lounges with no toilets in South Sudan to aeroplanes having near misses with people crossing a runway in the Central African Republic. But the harshest criticism is reserved for America, a country in the rich world that should know how to run its airports better:
-
Are America’s airports the worst in the world?
-
Is the bubble only starting?
-
Retail sales, producer prices, wages and exchange rates
-
Foreign reserves
-
The sudden demise of Donald Trump’s voter-fraud commission
-
The impact of Czechoslovakia’s split
[In America] Idiotic bureaucracy abounds. Travellers from Europe to Latin America who change planes in the United States must pass through immigration control, thus running the risk of missing their connection. What is the point of asking people who do not wish to enter the United States why they wish to enter the United States? Transit passengers in Singapore or Nairobi do not have their time wasted like this.Our overall judgment…is that, adjusted for national income per head, several busy American airports would be contenders for worst in the world.
Gulliver can certainly sympathise with that choice. After flying out of London Heathrow’s shiny terminals—which look more like swish shopping malls than places you can take a flight from—the experience of arrival at many airports in America feels like a landing in the developing world.
But do you agree with our judgement on America’s dire airports? Please do share your anecdotes of terrible terminals or awful airstrips below. The best will be collated and published on Gulliver later in the year.
Source: economist
Are America’s airports the worst in the world?