R8|Thursday, November 14, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
BEST AIRPORTS 2019
Phoenixand Tampa
Outshine Competition
4 ,400
feet
Minneapolis-
St. Paul has
the longest
walk, from
curb to gate,
more than
⅘of a mile.Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport is centrally located, has good food, few delays, moderate fares, speedy Wi-Fi, short security screening waits and cheap parking.timearrivals got worse at 14 of the 20 large airports.
The biggest decline was Dallas/Fort Worth, down to
75% from 82% of flights arriving within 14 minutes of
scheduled arrival time. Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Den-
ver, Houston Bush and Seattle all saw on-time arrivals
drop at least 3 percentage points.
Airports can do some things to improve on-time
performance, such as building adequate taxiways, run-
ways and gates. But it’s largely a reflection of the local
dominant airline. In this case, DFW’s decline reflects
American’s operational problems this year. Likewise,
Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis—all Delta hubs—had
the best on-time record among large airports.
Wi-Fi bogged down in Houston, Philadelphia and
Seattle, according to speed tests compiled by Ookla.
(Seattle again was fastest.) But for the most part, Wi-
Fi got a lot faster at big airports.
Phoenix, for example, jumped from 9.5 megabits per
second download speed to 93.5 Mbps. Minneapolis fin-
ished last in Wi-Fi speed in 2018; this year it's in
eighth place among large airports, jumping to 60.9
Mbps from 7.7 Mbps.
The lowest average food reviews were in Newark,
JFK, Fort Lauderdale and Seattle. The highest re-
views after San Francisco came from Denver, Dallas
and Phoenix.3.59%
offlights were
canceled at
Chicago
Midway over
12 months
ended in July
2019, the
highest for any
of the largest
40 airports.SkyHarbor has trained therapy dogs patrol
terminals with volunteers to calm travelers.FROM
TOP: SHUTTERSTOCK; TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT; STEVE CRAFT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; SHUTTERSTOCK
personalplace—more pleasant, says James Bennett,
director of aviation services for the city of Phoenix.
The airport even started stationing therapy dogs in
terminals in 2017, working with volunteers who give
directions.
By branding itself as America’s friendliest airport,
Mr. Bennett says Sky Harbor began taking more own-
ership of the customer experience. In the past, air-
ports often just leased space to airlines and let air-
lines rule the roost, even though airlines usually just
wanted cheap places to load and unload passengers
and luggage.
“We want to try to make sure that that passenger
experience is as painless as possible,” he says.
Competition is such that an airport can win while
still being mediocre in several categories. Phoenix
ranked 19th in the number of nonstop cities served
among the 20 largest airports—it lacks lots of interna-
tional service. A hub for American, it’s in the middle
of the pack in terms of average fare and 15th in terms
of the longest walk from the curb to the farthest gate.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is
in the midst of a massive $24 billion rebuilding pro-
gram at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark. Improvements
have already started coming online, especially at La-Guardia, where one-third of the gates in use are new.
But with that has come even more hassle for travelers
with construction inconvenience mixed in with record-
high passenger traffic.
“We know we have a very, very long way to go,”
says Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Au-
thority. “With new facilities and a renewed emphasis
on customer and passenger experience, we can move
from back of the pack to first class.”
Detroit was the favorite among readers without the
analytical data. Detroit tied for third overall with Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., among large airports when analytical
data was included.
Tampa finished best among medium-size airports
without ranking first in any of the 15 categories. Its
lowest scores came in operations. Over the 12-month
period ending July 31, only 78% of flights arrived on-
time in Tampa, ranking 17th. The airport’s cancellation
rate was high enough to rank it No. 13.
Airport chief executive Joe Lopano says Tampa is
located in a thunderstorm alley and weather often
forces ground operations to halt. The local NHL team
is named the Tampa Bay Lightning, after all.
But the airport has had an aggressive campaign to
recruit new airline service, often using incentives to
promote the new service for the first two years. New
entrants have stayed after the incentives expired,
Mr. Lopano says. Tampa enjoys nonstop service toContinued from page R1Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Zu-
rich in Europe, plus Seattle,
San Francisco, San Diego and
Salt Lake City in the West. That
increased competition helps
keep fares low.
With a growing business
community, “there’s a recogni-
tion by all airlines that we are
not just a leisure beach destina-
tion,” he says.
Tampa also benefits from a su-
per-efficient design that reduces
walks. The airport is shaped like
a flower stem, with a central ter-
minal and parking, then four sat-
ellite buildings with gates con-
nected by short tram rides.
Travelers say the airport is
known for its cleanliness, and
they take note of other changes,
like good local food. Tampa re-
bid its concession contract so
that instead of one company op-
erating every restaurant, the
airport now has four different
concessionaires. That created
competition. The airport re-
cently spent $4 million renovat-
ing bathrooms in the main ter-
minal to look like the ones at
high-end hotels. It’s also con-
structing express
drop-off and pickup
curbs for passengers
without checked
luggage who already
have their boarding
pass to reduce con-
gestion.
Portland Interna-
tional Airport is most famous among travel
nerds for its noise-reducing carpet. Its orig-
inal 1987 warm blue-green design showing
the PDX runway layout has inspired cloth-
ing, shoes, its own Facebook page and a
cult following.
Vince Granato, chief operating officer of
the Port of Portland, says travelers also
like the local eateries—the Portland air-
port was one of the first to shed chains—
and local retailers with reasonable prices.
“We want to make sure when you get into
the airport here, you know you are in
Portland,” he says.
Among the findings in the data: The
shortest average security waits for stan-
dard screening in June, a peak travel
month, were at Chicago O’Hare for large
airports and Nashville for medium-size air-
ports. The longest were in Atlanta and Dal-
las Love Field, airports with one big central checkpoint
subject to crowds.
San Francisco has the best food among big air-
ports, at least according to Yelp reviewers, but me-
dium-size airports tend to do food even better. Hous-
ton Hobby, Portland, Honolulu and Austin, Texas, all
had higher Yelp scores than SFO’s. Worst: Chicago
Midway, even worse than Newark’s. Midway is great
if you want a hot dog. Otherwise, slim pickings.
Food is supposed to be a lot better in the new air-
port terminal in New Orleans, which opened Nov. 6,
too late for this year’s rankings. The new terminal,
long delayed in construction, still has kinks to work
out. It opened with long lines and angry travelers
worried about missing flights.
At the suggestion of readers last year, we looked at,
but didn’t rank, the longest walk between gates—hy-
pothetically the longest possible connection. Travelers
pointed out that at big hubs, more people are connect-
ing than walking from curb to gate. The connection
distances sometimes involved different airlines, mak-
ing the numbers impractical in many cases. But they
do give an indication of the sprawl of the airport.
And they do sprawl. Philadelphia was the worst at
7,603 feet, reported by the airport. Los Angeles was also
over 7,000 feet. The mile-plus club also includes Denver,
Charlotte, Chicago-O’Hare, Minneapolis and Newark.
The results show that, compared with last year, on-Tampa International Airport finished first overall in the WSJ rankings for
midsize airports, while New York’s LaGuardia finished last.TheMiddleweight Champion
1.Tampa (TPA)Reliability
average*- Portland (PDX) tie
- Austin (AUS) tie
- Nashville (BNA)
- Sacramento (SMF)
- San Diego (SAN)
- Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Oakland (OAK)
- San Jose (SJC)
- Houston Hobby (HOU)
35.0
57.5
55.0
62.0
68.5
38.0
61.0
70.5
56.5
63.059.0
40.5
44.5
48.5
52.0
52.5
44.0
44.0
53.0
55.081.6
74.7
73.8
62.5
49.7
67.8
58.4
49.1
51.6
45.2Value
average*Convenience
average*Reader
grade11.Dallas Love (DAL)- Raleigh/Durham (RDU)
- Washington Reagan (DCA)
- Baltimore (BWI)
- Honolulu (HNL)
- St. Louis (STL)
- New Orleans (MSY)
- Washington Dulles (IAD)
- Chicago Midway (MDW)
- New York (LGA)
50.0
26.0
18.0
32.0
62.0
61.0
63.0
35.0
46.0
10.063.5
56.5
55.0
51.5
29.0
45.5
41.0
42.0
28.0
45.046.6
60.0
63.8
51.6
45.9
32.5
21.9
33.8
34.4
33.1B B B B B B BC+
B
C+B–
B
B–
B–
B–
C+
C+
C+
C+
D+*For a full explanation of data and categories, see wsj.com/BestAirports2019Best airport in each category
WorstTampa opened a 1.4-mile train from the main terminal to the rental car center.