What makes an airport great? Friendly staff? Fast security? More than one place to buy your early morning holiday pint? There are loads of elements that can make or break the overall airport experience, but luckily for us, there’s experts out there who can tell us exactly which terminals are the best, and which to avoid.
Airhelp, an online consumer advice service, is dedicated to keeping you informed on all things air travel, including the quality of every major airport in the world. It has created a ranking system which involves marking each terminus out of 10 on three criteria: food and drink options, customer opinions, and ‘on-time performance’. Out of these three figures, an overall ‘Airhelp score’ is calculated, and the airports are ranked.
So which came out on top in the UK for 2025? Liverpool John Lennon airport, with an Airhelp score of 7.99. Globally, however, Britain generally didn’t do very well – Liverpool John Lennon was only 35th overall, and the next British entry wasn’t until London City in 56th place. Heathrow and Gatwick were both much further down the list, at 178 and 235 respectively. So what is Liverpool John Lennon doing so much better than everyone else?
Being smaller, it’s more straightforward for JLA to keep to scheduled times, so the airport’s ‘on-time’ score was a substantial 7.8. Compared to Gatwick, which received 6.3 in the same metric, it becomes clear where the differences lie. Liverpool John Lennon also had an average 8.3/10 for customer ratings, so the staff are clearly providing a pretty enjoyable experience for travellers.
This isn’t the first time the little northern powerhouse has been recognised for its excellence either. Last year, Which? also named Liverpool John Lennon the best airport in the UK due to its lack of queues, high customer satisfaction, and great staff members. London City also did well in the Which? chart, so it seems that the experts are aligned on this.
So next time you’re planning a trip, consider going through a smaller airport if you fancy a smooth, delay-less journey. It may not have quite so many perfumes for sale in duty-free, but that’s a small price to pay for dependable, stress-free traveling.
Eyes on the skies
Wondering what else is going on in the world of British aviation? This airport was revealed to be the worst for cancellations last year, and Ryanair is making a major change to its bag policy very soon. And that’s not the only good news: two major British airports have officially scrapped the 100ml liquids rule. In fact, 10 UK airports have changed security rules around liquids in hang luggage –here’s everything you need to know.
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