Pacific Northwest’s airports score very well in continental Airport Frustration Index

Bloomberg Businessweek recently surveyed over 3,000 frequent air travellers, crunched departure and arrival data, and looked at airport travel times to find out which cities are the most and least stressful places to catch a plane in North America. As it often does in quality of life contests, our region of the country did very well, with its major metro airports dominating the bottom of the list as the least frustrating places to hop on a flight.

The criteria were as follows:

  • Commute
  • Time at the terminal
  • Departures

Based on BB’s research, the top ten least frustrating airports are:

  1. YVR/Vancouver International (Score: 17.6)
  2. PDX/Portland Oregon International (Score: 18.4)
  3. AUS/Austin-Bergstrom (Score: 23.1)
  4. YYC/Calgary International (Score: 27.7)
  5. PHX/Phoenix Sky Harbor (Score: 28.3)
  6. TPA/Tampa International (Score: 29.5)
  7. SEA/Seattle-Tacoma International (Score: 31.7)
  8. YOW/Ottawa International (Score: 35.0)
  9. MSP/Minneapolis-St. Paul International (Score: 36.2)
  10. SAN/San Diego International (Score: 38.1)

Bloomberg found the most frustrating airports were New York’s LaGuardia, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, and Virginia’s Dulles Airports.

Not all North American airports were ranked.