While most people love a small regional airport (no lines at security! easy to get to your gate! no tram!), the fact is that most of us wind up traveling through the halls of a mega airport—that is, those with 33 million or more passengers per year—at one time or another. Each year, J.D. Power compiles a North America Airport Satisfaction Study, which helps us glean key bits of information about airports of all sizes. This year’s best mega airport is one that might surprise you—but first, let’s look at some of the key findings of the study.
The first is that even though airports log massive amounts of passengers, breaking records for the amount of people streaming through the gates, satisfaction is increasing. Pat on the back, airports! Mega airports gained an increase of eight points, while medium airport gained 10 points and large airports got a 15-point boost over last year.
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And of the mega airports that got the most kudos from customers, the first-place finisher is Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, beating travel juggernauts like Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Miami International Airport and New York's JFK even though it's smaller than some of the heavily populated hubs on the list.
MSP won the top spot last year, too, and for good reason: Although it's a really busy airport, it's known for being clean and efficient with friendly staff, and those food offerings are spot on. Just this year, Concourse G got upgraded with 10 new chef-driven restaurants and fresh-to-go areas. Plus, don't forget to visit the all-purple Prince store in Terminal 1 to pay homage to our favorite guy who partied like it was 1999.
The study shows that passengers like when airports create that kind of local identity, leaning into regional culture and incorporating local food-and-drink choices: see the Shipyard Brewing’s pub in the Portland International Jetport in Maine, One Flew South serving Southern cuisine in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and Cole’s offering (what they say to be their own invention) the French dip sandwich in the Los Angeles International Airport. Satisfaction with “local flavor” increased 14 points across all airport sizes when passengers believed they are experiencing an authentic local tasting.
Another insight is that when people rate their airport experience as “perfect,” they spend an average of (hold on, this is pretty specific) $42.39 in the terminal. People who thought their experience was “just OK” only spent $25.85. This is an interesting data point to us—does it mean that you should spend more money to have a better opinion of the airport? Does upscale dining completely affect the way you view the journey? It may help to know that only 11-percent of people rated their experience as perfect, so maybe they are just genuinely happy people who would have a blast regardless of their spending.
Finally, the study found that passengers moving through mega airports experienced longer wait times and more crowding than those using medium or large airports. File this one under “common sense.”
Here are the 10 best mega airports in the U.S., according to J.D. Power:
1. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
2. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
3. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
4. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
5. Harry Reid International Airport
6. John F. Kennedy International Airport
7. Orlando International Airport
8. Miami International Airport
9. San Francisco International Airport
10. Boston Logan International Airport