Any single one that I don’t have to spend much time in.
I used to live in a smaller market and normally had to fly through a hub (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver) to get where I needed to. For some time now I live in a much larger market, where most of my flights are direct. So I try to be in and out as quickly as possible.
Airports are necessary evil, and the post 9/11 world has made them even more time wasters.
Portland also has a real bookstore - a branch of Powell’s. I bought my first Diskworld book there.
When I was an airline pilot I was based in Boston, so I have a soft spot for Logan. So long as I’m not having to drive through Boston to get there.
The airport’s terminals are a bit different from each other and when I was on reserve I used to walk all over. At that time I probably knew every small detail of the place. There’s a hallway in the C terminal lined with movie posters, rocking chairs by some of the big windows looking out on the runways and cool flags hanging in the cavernous international (E) terminal. I also liked that the airport Hilton was connected to the airport by a walkway, and I used to visit and be envious of how nice it was compared to the hotels we used.
But everything changes, and airports change fast. I passed through Boston last week in my shiny private jet, stayed at the airport Hilton and took a moment to appreciate that! And since I had some free time I did an airport appreciation tour and found that I no longer knew my way around so intimately because a lot has been reconfigured. I had planned to have lunch at a spot in one of the terminals and found it was gone - the entire area had been gutted and replaced.
Still, as big airports go, Boston is kind of cool.
I already answered (CLT), but just a mention that up until hurricane Irma, ,y favorite airport by far was Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) in Sint Maarten. It was a beautiful airport, the pride of the island, and Irma leveled it.
London City Airport (LCY). Smack dab in the middle of London. Easily reachable on the local transportation network—far more convenient than a schlep to Stansted, Gatwick, or Heathrow. Regular short-haul flights within Europe. No long security queues. No long bus rides between the gates and the planes. I wish all airports were like this.
Changi, Singapore. It’s so awesome, everything is ultra modern, a zillion cool things, tons of public art, great food and shopping good connections. When you exit you don’t even talk to a human any more it’s all facial recognition. Amazing!
The airport at Vail, CO has a log home feel and, half the time I’m there, I’ll be skiing tomorrow so that’s nice. The other half of the time, I’m ready to come home from a fun vacation.
I do like O’Hare for one very good reason: I live close. I arrived there a few weeks ago and hopped into an Uber. The good driver and light traffic aligned just right and I was putting the key into my front door nine minutes (!) later. Another time I picked someone up and did the round trip in 25 minutes.
That HAD to be pre-9/11. Post 9/11, MCI is a clusterfuck- once you’re inside the security checkpoints, you have to leave and go back out to do ANYTHING- get food, take a leak, etc… But it’s not like there’s a lot of seating and hang-out room outside of security either.
My vote is probably Amsterdam Schipol or maybe the DFW international terminal.
I like the Philadelphia airport for the food, but my all-time favorite airport is Sangster International Airport (MBJ) in Montego Bay, Jamaica. For one thing, when I’m there, I’m in Jamaica. For another, it has great food and shops and that *irie *kind of feeling all over. Oh, and really cheap duty-free rum.
One of the best things about living in Chicago is, I (almost) never have to connect through O’Hare.
I also like how the T is so close to the airport. It’s the most convenient transportation-wise of any airport I’ve been to: the minimal time spent to get to the subway and then to central Boston was tiny compared to the time needed to get from Gatwick to Victoria Station and thence to your final destination, and I’ve never been to other airports besides those in my adult life that came close to being so convenient to transportation. (The worst in that regard is McCarran at Paradise/Las Vegas: the Strip district has a monorail which stops only a few hundred feet from the airport campus, which seems trollish to not simply extend to the airport. On the plus side, while the line for the taxis is as long as its reputed to be, it moves very quickly.)
The subway is connected to the Sydney Airport in Australia - I found that really convenient too. Pity that it seems to be the exception.
That’s the reason. Oakland, which is right across the Bay, rarely has delays, and is easier for me to get to. But kind of hard to fly to Hong Kong from.
Oakland isn’t on my list due to the lack of decent places to eat.
Louis Armstrong. Cause when you debark, there you are, in New Orleans! (also an easy ride to the city).
I like the little airport in Toronto. Not the big one out of the city, but the little one you can walk to. It’s right there in the city, and the staff are friendly and they serve free espresso drinks, soda, water, and snacks. Oh, and the seating is arranged in groups so it’s easy to hang out with friends, and there are lots of places to charge your electronics.
Really? I mentioned Reagan already, but the train runs right to the airport at SFO and SEATAC and there is a self-driving train from Oakland to BART. That’s off the top of my head in the US. Good transit in Hong Kong and Barcelona and Schiphul was already mentioned.
The damn bus from the T to the airport always annoyed me, both when I was in college and when I went back. And Logan is one of the worst airports to get to by car.
Maybe, some time in the distant future, Sacramento will finally extend its light rail line to the airport. That’s something that they’ve supposedly been planning for as long as I’ve lived here (since 2005). For now the only public transit option at SMF is a crappy bus from downtown that runs maybe once an hour. At least the bus to the airport seems to usually be reasonably close to on time. But the one going the other direction has never been anywhere close to on time the couple of times I’ve tried it. Like it was so far off schedule I couldn’t tell whether the bus was extremely late or if the next one was extremely early.
Other than the public transportation situation, Sacramento is a pretty nice airport. The current Terminal B opened around 2010 to replace the old terminal (which sucked). It feels very open and airy and has a lot of really cool public art. Unfortunately I don’t get to use that terminal much, as the airlines I usually fly on use Terminal A. But Terminal A isn’t bad either. It’s small and easy to navigate and has a nice food court in the middle. The only issue is long lines at security during peak times. Both terminals have lots of good places to eat, including some of my favorite local chains. And Sacramento’s climate makes for very few weather related delays.
I do love the BART connection at SFO though. On the occasions I decide it’s worth it to fly from there (typically only for long haul international travel) I can just take the Amtrak Capitol Corridor to Richmond and then BART to SFO. Easy peasy.
Come to think of it my statement isn’t technically true, as I’ve transferred through National and I’ve been to the National subway stop (when I was staying in Alexandria and wanted to get my blood pumping before heading to DC), but I’ve never flown into National and taken the Metro from there.
Ooh, I hate landing there. The plane has to make this sharp left turn coming through the mountains to hit the runway just right, and there’s normally cross winds. No thank you.
I’ve only been there once, and yes, it sucked for that reason. It felt very cramped at the gate, and the entire time I was there I was wondering how the hell the gate area met life safety issues. If there was a fire, people would be fucked.
What I liked about Burbank was Southwest opening up the front door and the rear door for getting off the plane. Do they still do that?
Speaking of that, any airport that lets you walk to the plane on the ground instead of a hamster trail is pretty cool. Think I’ve also done that in both Providenciales and Split. Maybe Zagreb too.
Another vote for PDX. It’s about as relaxing as an airport can be, and there are actually good food choices from grab it and go all the way to sit down and be served.
My least favorite airport is Miami. International re-entry is horrid and the layout does not lend itself to making connections.