Survey ranks Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle and Los Angeles worst airports in the world

by Scott Carmichael on

A Priority Pass survey of frequent business travelers has revealed what many of us knew all along – London Heathrow is the worst airport in the world. Heathrow is followed by Charles de Gaulle and Los Angeles.

These three airports tend to pop up on “worst airport” surveys most of the time, and anyone who frequents any of them will understand why. Heathrow is improving slowly, and the new Terminal Five is making travel through the UK airport a slightly better experience, but the other terminals are still quite a disgrace.

Charles de Gaulle is another dump of an airport. Even though it has invested heavily in some new terminals, there are still plenty of parts of this facility that need to be flattened and built from the ground up.

Los Angeles airport just signed off on a multi-year, multi-billion Dollar renovation plan, which should be completed by 2013. Of course, that still means 4 more years of being in the top three of worst airports in the world.

Singapore Changi, Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok and Amsterdam Schiphol are voted best in the world, and anyone who has spent any time at these airports will understand why. These are the kind of airports where it is actually a treat to be stranded for a couple of hours, unlike places like Heathrow where your only urge is to get the hell out of the place as quickly as possible.

What do you think? Do these airports deserve to be crowned “worst in the world”, or do you know of an airport that is even worse? Leave you comments below.
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Heathrow hires author to write about Heathrow

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hate it? Embrace it! Heathrow Airport has decided to immortalize the plights of their passengers – rather than bury or ignore them. The airport has tapped best-selling author Alain de Botton – whose titles include The Consolations of Philosophy and How Proust Can Change Your Life – to spend a week in Terminal 5 and reveal what really happens in this environment.

He kicked off this project on Tuesday. Sometimes, he crashes behind a desk in the departures area, talking to passengers and just watching the action. But, he’s been given full access to Terminal 5 and the freedom to write whatever he wants (with the upside that someone will probably read it, unlike our endless frustrated tweets). De Botton’s plan is to show what goes on in a terminal, though he claims he’ll write about whatever he feels like.

Themes already coming to mind, apparently, are technology, globalization and consumerism, which suggests that this high-brow author is unlikely to dive into the muck now. I’m sure whatever he devises will be insightful … but how much does that matter when you’ve been stuck in a sweaty cabin for two hours and still haven’t pulled back from the gate?