Travelers Say These Are the Best U.S. Airports

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Air traveler satisfaction at U.S. airports has plummeted, according to J.D. Power’s 2022 North America Airport Satisfaction Study.

Satisfaction levels are down 25 points on a 1,000-point scale compared with the 2021 report. And the lesson learned from comparing the two reports appears to be that an empty airport is a happy airport.

When travelers were surveyed in 2021, air travel had been greatly suppressed compared with pre-pandemic times. That made for less crowded terminals, and travelers gave high marks to their airport experience.

But this year, a much greater volume of travelers has resulted in record-high flight cancellations, mostly due to labor shortages. And travelers clearly are unhappy about the new situation.

In a summary of the study’s findings, Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power, says airports today are “extremely crowded” and that passengers are “increasingly frustrated.” He adds that the situation is likely to last through 2023:

“In some ways, this is a return to normal as larger crowds at airports tend to make travelers more frazzled, but in cases where parking lots are over capacity, gates are standing room only and restaurants and bars are not even open to offer some reprieve, it is clear that increased capacity in airports can’t come soon enough.”

Still, a handful of airports get relatively high satisfaction ratings on a 1,000-point scale. They are:

Mega airports

Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport: 800
San Francisco International Airport: 796
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport: 791
John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York): 791
Harry Reid International Airport (Paradise, Nevada): 790

Large airports

Tampa International Airport (Florida): 846
John Wayne Airport, Orange County (Santa Ana, California): 826
Dallas Love Field: 825
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport: 813
Raleigh-Durham International Airport (North Carolina): 813

Medium airports

Indianapolis International Airport: 842
Pittsburgh International Airport: 839
Jacksonville International Airport (Florida): 826
Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers): 826
General Mitchell International Airport: (Milwaukee): 824

For the study, mega airports were defined as those with 33 million or more passengers per year. Large airports were defined as those with 10 million to 32.9 million passengers per year. Medium airports were defined as those with 4.5 million to 9.9 million passengers per year.

In compiling the rankings, J.D. Power conducted more than 26,500 surveys of U.S. and Canadian passengers who traveled through at least one U.S. or Canadian airport in the preceding 30 days. The firm looked at six factors. Listed in order of importance, they are: