Airports might be the gateway to an adventure, but they can also be very stressful. Ideally, you want to arrive at the airport just a couple of hours before your flight, breeze through security and fly off on time. But if you’ve flown more than a couple of times, you’ll know that such a smooth experience is a pretty rare case.
Flight delays, pricey parking and painfully long queues are among the many factors that could ruin your trip before it’s even started. But at which of Europe’s airports can you expect a more seamless experience? Holiday car rental experts at StressFreeCarRental.com have dug into stuff like total airport visitors, distance from the city centre, charge for one week’s parking, total number of airport restaurants, departure delay frequency and WiFi download speed, and landed on the top ten most (and least) stressful airports in Europe.
Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris led the pack of most stress-inducing airports in Europe, with over 57 million passengers passing through annually. It’s also a whopping 40km away from the Parisian centre ville, making it très difficile to travel to.
Unsurprisingly, the list of airports that made the top ten most stress-inducing are in popular tourist hotspots like Rome, London, Munich, Amsterdam and Istanbul. With recent flight cancellations, summer strikes (that have since been called off) and massive crowds that throng the halls during the festive season, it’s no surprise that London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports ranked second and third.
Even with a short half-hour commute from the city, Frankfurt Airport ranks in seventh position as it’s the most expensive to park your car for a week (€234) – a stark difference from the cheapest spot at Leonardo Da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, costing only €20 for seven days. Go figure!
Here are the list of the most stressful airports in Europe, according to the survey.
- Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris
- Heathrow Airport, London
- Gatwick Airport, London
- Leonardo Da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, Rome
- Amsterdam Airport Schipol, Amsterdam
- Munich Airport, Munich
- Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt
- Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, Madrid
- Istanbul Airport, Istanbul
- Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, Barcelona
And here are the least stressful airports in Europe – let’s hope you’ll be flying from one of these this summer.
- Billund Airport, Billund
- Luxembourg Airport, Luxembourg
- Vilnius International Airport, Vilnius
- Menorca Airport, Menorca
- Hanover Airport, Hanover
- Newcastle Airport, Newcastle
- Corfu International Airport, Corfu
- Trondheim Airport, Trondhiem
- Turin Airport, Turin
- Cagliari Elmas Airport, Sardinia
Did you see that these European cities are the most overcrowded with tourists right now?
Plus: These are all the strikes at European airports happening this summer.
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