Even as shopping malls face challenges in getting people to them, airports are beginning to take on the aspects of malls — diverse shopping, interesting restaurants, more carts, more to do, than in the old days of "food court / notions and magazines / duty free".
It's fascinating as well that airport authorities are starting to get as much money from the associated retail as they do from the airlines.
DEN came up 12th in Large airports in the JD Power survey listed. I don't know any of the higher rated ones well enough to compare (except maybe MCO, but it's been a few years), but I agree with its superiority over LAX and ORD and IAH. (Interestingly, ONT came in 6th in Medium airports; another sign of how it's an underappreciated gem that's been mismanaged from an air route perspective by the LAX folk).
I know DEN has some significant changes in mind around security and baggage claim — it will be interesting to see if that changes any of the ratings.
Originally shared by +Washington Post:
Airports have discovered how to make people happier about waiting for their planes
As amenities on planes have been taken away, the airports themselves have gotten more luxurious.
Airports in Asia have known this for at least 20 years – one of the reasons I tend not to fly Europe <-> New Zealand via the USA.
Even within an airport, it's shocking how varied the experience can be. SFO terminal 2, for example, is generally very pleasant, while T1 is ghastly.
(And yes, both ONT and SNA >> LAX. Shame hardly anyone flies there.)
+Colm Buckley SNA gets plenty of traffic, but ONT is a ghost town, largely by LA Airport Authority design. I hope that the acquisition of ONT by the city and neighboring organizations will let them start drawing airline traffic back there and provide the service that part of SoCal so badly needs.