The World's Best and Worst Airports

Nov. 10, 2009 — -- Surely you've heard of the prestigious "Golden Pillow" Award. No? Well apparently you don't do much sleeping in airports.

Folks who do catch some shut-eye between flights rank the world's airports according to snooze-ability (the rather straightforward motto for SleepingInAirports.net is, "Looking to save on hotel bills? Why not sleep in the airport!").

Anyway, their Golden Pillow winner for 2008 was Singapore's Changi – because of its quiet and overall comfy-ness factor – dreamers especially recommend the airport's "slumber chairs" and its designated "napping areas."

You're going to see the name Singapore again and again in this column, since it invariably tops most "best airport" lists – but what about the rest of the best, and more entertainingly, what about the worst?

Here's a "worst" contender, or so I've read: Mineralnye Vody Airport in Russia. In 2007, Foreign Policy magazine cited "amenities" such as the fellow who sells daggers in the departure lounge, plus, all those feral cats skulking around. On the other hand, sounds like you'll never be bored there – but, perhaps it's improved since then.

Now, when it comes to U.S. airports, they tend to fall somewhere in the middle (with some glaring exceptions); but we'll get to them all, the best and worst – plus, my own personal philosophy on what makes an airport great.

For more air travel news and insights visit Rick's blog at: http://farecompare.com

For some, a great airport is one in which flights are on-time – and I can certainly get behind that. So can Travel + Leisure magazine, which examined government statistics on flight delays by airport, from April 2008 through March 2009. The magazine's best/worst list focused on on-time performance.