To hear frequent flyers wax poetic about Singapore ’s Changi Airport , you would think that the airport itself was the destination . It has a rooftop puddle , an orchid garden , a butterfly garden , a sunflower and light garden , a koi pond , a gratis movie house , gaming centers , sports zones , a lounge area for sleep , and SO much more . It is , quite simply , charming . Though it is not exactly " novel , " having first opened in 1981 , Changi has sure continue up with the Kardashians in the way it has adjust to modern technical school and traveling demands .
You ’ll never hear anyone talk about American airports in quite the same way of life .
Most of our airports particular date back to the middle of the 20th hundred , if not all the manner back to before the Great Depression . Even as previous terminals have been demolished and replace with newfangled buildings , the basic provision bones of these airports are 50 + twelvemonth old , designed during a time of much light air change of location ( and even when they tried to plan for the future , they WAY undershot it ) and on parcels of farming that would soon be accept up by the ever - expanding metropolis around them . And then there is some just plain weirdness , like in Denver .
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So , with help from travel experts – pilots , flight concomitant , former baggage manager , and frequent traveller – and our own experience flying through way too many of these hellholes , we ranked the absoluteworst - designed airport in America .
10. Washington Dulles International Airport
Opened:1962Annual passengers:21.5 million*Delayed flights:16 % arrivals , 17 % departures**So , OK , to get to the C gates you have to ride a caravan past the terminal and take the air through a burrow back to the gates ? How is this an actual thing ? Granted , as far as aerodrome go , this one – designed by Finnish - American designer Eero Saarinen – is quite attractive , but when form trumps functionality in a place where the ONLY thing that matters is functionality , we really ca n’t give any bonus point for being pretty . The Byzantine layout with semi - adjoining terminals seems to emphasize a design prerogative that had less to do with functionality and more to do with preening to mid - century modern sensibilities . And … the " mobile couch " ? ? ? Sure , they ’re being phased out , but just so you bonk , for the intention of historical knowledge , once upon a meter someone – Saarinen , the designer – cogitate it made sense to transport rider to and from aircraft in a omnibus - camper - tank - looking matter . And then , naturally , he promoted them with ananimated videoby the gods of all thing mid - century forward-looking , Charles and Ray Eames .
9. McCarran International Airport
Opened:1963Annual passengers:45.4 millionDelayed flights:20 % comer , 22 % departuresAt McCarran – the Las Vegas airport that is literally across the street from the MGM Grand Casino but will still cost you $ 18 in cab fare to get there – you will have a very , verydifferent experience depending on which pole you ’re go through . The shiny new Terminal 3 : no problem , assuming you’re able to sail the different levels to get to control - in without getting caught in a vicious loop of escalators to nowhere . ( The signage is a bit … misleading . ) But Terminal 1 ? If you ’re condemned to fly out of gates C 1 - 8 , just know that you will take the air about one full mile down a crowded hallway back up with slot machine and the world ’s bad tourist , and every last substantial inch of it is carpeted , which means it was design by someone who never once walk a roll base down a mile - long hallway . There are also smoking lounges and lots and lots and lots of slot . receive to Vegas .
8. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
Opened:1940 ( set up ) , 1959 ( new last opened)Annual passengers:10.9 millionDelayed flights:18 % arrivals , 17 % departuresWhat a sad place this is . You would conceive with the amount of tourism that New Orleans draws in – roughly 10 million hoi polloi and rise each year – that the airport would be a little piece more … less gross ? It ’s glaring . And sad . And there are , like , four bathroom stalls , and they ’re dirty . And the alternative for anything other than sit and being pitiful – i.e. , dining , retail – are equally as – you guessed it ! – sad . And it ’s tiny , but not in a charming way ; more in a suffocating , sad way . The good news program is , a new five - logic gate airport terminalto the air of $ 917 million is currently under expression and should be candid by October of 2018 , soyour raucous visit to New Orleansno longer has to end on a sad , deplorable note . Because this is unfeignedly the sad trombone of American airport . ( With all due respectfulness to Louis Armstrong , who also apparentlydidexperiment with the trombone . )
7. Denver International Airport
Opened:1995Annual passengers:54 millionDelayed flights:18 % arrivals , 20 % departuresHaving been built from the solid ground up and make out in 1995 on a vast stretchability of empty land more than 20 miles outside of Denver , DEN is by far the new aerodrome on this list . It for certain has some bells and whistles the others don’t / can’t , including the heavy solar generation system of any airport in the US and the fastest Wi - Fi of any US airdrome that isalsofree AND ad - free . But .
Denver ’s aerodrome ( it is often note because it ’s a mind - boggling stat ) is larger than the island of Manhattan – you make love , where 1.6 million people live – and the airport ’s sprawling proportion make every one of its many flaws that much spoilt . For instance , they also ramp up this SUPER STATE - OF - THE - ART automate luggage organisation that was reckon to change line travel as we know it . It cost one C of millions of dollars , with track and conveyor belts run by computing machine … and it never really worked . So now all that state - of - the - art substructure pose idle , and instead the airport uses a mazy underground tunnel system to physically drive luggage from one ending of the monolithic “ underground city ” to the other . And there ’s only one driving lane in each direction , so baggage driver in this Manhattan - sized underground city deal with traffic as defective as Manhattan itself .
One of our aerodrome insiders also note , “ when the aerodrome is that heavy and spread out , it takes that much longer to get the baggage from one end to the other , which also allows for more opportunities for your luggage to get lose as it falls out of the cart . ” And we sleep with check or lost baggage is the third - worst offence an airport can commit behind flight of stairs delays and extended security lines .
Flickr/Michael Kappel
6. Los Angeles International Airport
Opened:1929 ( first established ) , 1961 ( new final building commence replace originals)Annual passengers:74.9 millionDelayed flights:24 % arrivals , 24 % departuresWhen LAX was designed , Los Angeles was n’t the sprawling , smog - gag megalopolis we all know and love today . Which means that when it was first project 80 years ago , that area was nothing but pale yellow and barleycorn fields and not the " prime ocean - side by side veridical the three estates ” it is now . But that does n’t intend it is n’t still a massive and complete clusterfuck to navigate . lease a railcar once you land ? Allow at least an time of day of travel metre just to shuttle to the railcar rental facilities . And if you have to pick up or overleap someone off ? HAHAHAHAHAHA welcome to the double - decker shoe of hell , the most miserable microcosm of LA dealings you never trust for . Real friends take cab and do n’t ask to be throw off off / beak up , FYI .
5. John F. Kennedy International Airport
Opened:1943Annual passengers:56.8 millionDelayed flights:23 % arrival , 23 % departuresGreater New York ( including New Jersey ) has three major airport andthey all suck . rationality why one sucks more or less than the others are immanent , but JFK breastfeed slightly less by comparison . The big squawk here ? The travel prison term between terminals , which can really take an hour , no joke . That feel you get when you ’re in Terminal 1 and you have to get to Terminal 8 to take hold of a connection in anything less than two hours ? That is the flavour of absolute hopelessness . ( Because T1 attend external flight and that signify you also need to clear in-migration , recollect your purse , go through custom , re - check your traveling bag , and go back through certificate in addition to the longsighted terminal - to - end shuttle drive in American history . ) The problem is that JFK was built during a time when every airway get its own pole , which does n’t work for an aerodrome this large . add up insult to wound : two of the terminal were recently demolished – terminus 6 in 2011 and 3 in 2013 . [ ruby angry face emoji ]
4. Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Opened:1945 ( first established ) , 1956 ( first last opened)Annual passengers:76.9 millionDelayed flights:20 % arrival , 23 % departuresChicago O’Hare is thebusiest airportin the world(a distinction it partake in , depending on the class , with Hartsfield - Jackson in Atlanta ) in terms of the number of flights it handles per year ( which is closemouthed to 900,000 ) . Busier than LAX . officious than JFK . And busier than any of the miserable airports on the other side of the Atlantic ( Heathrow , Charles de Gaulle ) . O’Hare is also among the top - five US aerodrome with theworst escape hold . It is also the 9th lot of Dante ’s hell . We can crab about long final transfers at LAX or JFK – those are immense aerodrome so you have to be a footling realistic there – but they are nothing compare to the indigenous ineptitude of everything at O’Hare , which has a luck to do with capacity issues : the drome is merely too small to hold its own dealings . The layout is unnecessarily complicated , high-risk signage increases mental confusion , the coming into court is ratty and go out , gate switching are constant and often last minute , connections are constantly late , and the Airport Transit System from terminal to terminal does nothing to ease the hell of just getting from one confluence to another .
3. Chicago Midway International Airport
2. Newark Liberty International Airport
Opened:1928 ( first established ) , 1953 ( first raw depot replaced original)Annual passengers:37.5 millionDelayed flights:25 % arrivals , 25 % departuresAnd then there ’s Newark , which has the enviable distinction of being the bad airport in the countryaccording to math , deal into write up factor like the numeral of cancelled flight , the average delay time , and the figure of minute of arc it takes to taxi to the gate . Newark has foresightful lines for check - in , long lines for security , long lines for gild lounges , retentive credit line on the tarmac waiting for take off . Plus it ’s frightful and dirty and is also at least an time of day from NYC , so in the event of a long delay , a trip-up to the urban center is n’t needfully feasible . Also expect broken caravan and escalators , spotty and not - free Wi - Fi , zero power outlets , and stinking limited seating area ( with armrests that do n’t move , so good luck if you get ground overnight and do n’t want to pay for an offsite hotel in , ugh , New Jersey ) .
1. LaGuardia Airport
Opened:1939Annual passengers:28.4 millionDelayed flights:28 % arrivals , 23 % departuresAnd thus completes the NYC drome trifecta . There are dateless reasons to detest LaGuardia . It ’s always crowded and there ’s nowhere to posture . It ’s dirty . It does n’t connect to the subway ( thoughthat is finally in the whole shebang ) . nutrient options are bad ( it ’s a minor thing to gripe about , but seriously , is this airport not in the heart of the self - oil cradle of civilisation , New York ? ) and extra amenities are pretty much nonexistent . The cap leaks , there are holes in the carpeting , there is one power outlet per 700,000 citizenry , and you may probably regain some molding if you really want to go looking for it . It is the second - worst airport in Americaaccording to math . It is a clusterfuck of planning that , honestly , absolutely suits the city . But there is hope , and hope is all we have : LaGuardia is presently undergoing a$4+billion(with a " B " ) renovation that will uncluster its fuck into one coordinated terminal by 2021 , which may or may not have something to do with the world shaming it receive in 2014 when then - VP Joe Biden referred to it as a " third world country . " ( Echoingearlier sentimentsof now - President Donald J. Trump , who for sure wants to make our airports great again , despite ahistory of less - than - winswith the airline industriousness . )
- one-year rider data according to 2015Airports Council Internationalstatistics.**Delay data point according to 2016US Department of Transportationstatistics .
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