But this article claims to list the most stressful ones.
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America’s most stressful airports — 7 Comments
I’ve spent time in too many airports to mention and have a fair amount of experience on this subject. The changes to airport security mandated by the FAA after 9/11 made all but the tiniest airports more stressful and completely upended a few. Kansas City is a good example. It had a great design where one was rarely more than 30 or 40 yards from one’s gate to the outside curb. Due to cost and staffing, one can’t have a TSA check point at every entrance, so Kansas City had to create a few, and then design a maze of interior walls to keep folks corralled. The brilliance of the architect’s design (easy entry and exit from multiple points) became the airport’s tragic flaw.
Most of the worst are the big city airports in cities that were also populous prior to commercial air travel. Heathrow, DeGaulle, O’Hare, Kennedy… Unless you arrive by subway, train or cab you can count on at least 40 minutes from entering the grounds to getting to your gate on a good day. Not having to park may save you another 10 – 15 minutes, on a good day. On a less than perfect day an hour isn’t unusual and I’ve had durations of more than 2 hours due to security being backed up. I’ve even missed a few flights due to logjams at TSA.
And that’s assuming it’s an airport you know well. For folks unfamiliar with an airport, or air travel in general, navigating most big city airports is a nightmare of stress and confusion. I’ve seen many people have panic attacks at a ticket counter or, more commonly, in a TSA line. The best seem to be the airports in decent-sized cities that hit their economic stride in the ’60s, or later. Or cities where older, urban airports were abandoned for new complexes. Many of those city leaders had the forethought to locate the airport far from the city center, where land was open and cheap. Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City is one of my favorites. You often end up with a long commute to where you’re going once outside, but the design is more comforting and less stressful. Pittsburgh has a surprisingly convenient airport for such an old city, although it’s a l-o-n-g way from anywhere. I once spent over an hour in the Ted Williams’ tunnel trying to get to Logan.
With more than a thousand flights under my belt I’ve got air travel down to a very efficient process and I still choose to avoid it, when possible. Prior to 9/11 I often arrived about 30 minutes from departure if it was an airport I knew well. Now 2 hours is often not enough time. And that 1 – 2 hours is not spent doing anything relaxing. You’re typically queued up with sweaty, stressed out, confused people.
Embarkation and disembarkation of cruise ships is even worse. I did that once. Likely won’t do it again, unless it’s a small ship.
If the criteria is “delays & cancellations,” that most of the list is in snow & ice prone regions is no great shock.
But I’d rather crawl across broken glass than fly through LAX & DFW is getting close…NEVER enough hired help working TSA pre-flight security.
also wonder why cities with an airport public transportation hub don’t design TSA checkpoints into the public transportation system. I’ll use Chicago’s O’Hare as an example.
One end of the Blue Line terminates inside O’Hare Airport. Get some data on days of the week and times of day that have the most passengers riding to O’Hare to catch planes. On the most frequently used schedules add a TSA car to the El train. Passengers using the El to catch a flight will board the TSA car at their station (have to have a valid boarding pass to board that car) then they and their luggage are screened during the trip to the airport. When the train arrives security makes sure pre-screened people from that car, and only those people and their luggage, navigate a walled corridor off the station that deposits them inside the airport, past the airport’s TSA screening checkpoints.
Elon Musk recently bid on a tunnel project to cut the travel time from the Loop (downtown Chicago) to O’Hare in half (from about 45 minutes to 20). It’s an absurdly massive and expensive undertaking. I’d wager most business travelers originating in the Loop would pay $50 more to ride an El with a TSA car that eliminated their need to navigate security at the airport. That’s the part of the process everyone loathes the most, and is the least predictable. When I worked in Sao Paulo, Brazil the airport was only 15 miles from my office, yet the drive was typically 2 hours. It’s no fun averaging 7.5mph in a taxi, but it was pretty standard and predictable. What really adds stress is the unpredictability of the situation at the airport. Getting from the curb to the gate. Making that part of the commute (which is mostly “down” time anyway) and eliminating it once arriving would be very attractive to passengers.
The commute time (unless unusual due to bizarre weather or accidents) is something frequent travelers factor in, and business travelers often have a driver or on public transportation where they can work; make calls, send and receive emails… Those things are difficult to do in a TSA queue. Musk should focus on the TSA side of the equation. But, I suppose that wouldn’t result in billions of government dollars going to his Boring Corporation, so why not build a system of underground tunnels?
I travel a lot for work. As noted above, the airports with the most extreme and severe weather events are the most ‘stressful’ in terms of cancellations and such. In my travel experience Philadelphia is the place I most try to avoid. Summer thunderstorms there, and in Syracuse NY, have ruined many of trips of mine. I often travel to and from LGA from BOS, very rarely have a problem. Newark, on the other hand, is quite risky. Air Canada is notorious for cancelling BOS to Montreal flights, so I tend to drive instead. Much less expensive and takes a similar amount of time.
I’m a card carrying Global Entry guy and so get TSA Precheck everywhere it is available. Makes getting into the terminal a breeze.
Rufus said: ” I’d wager most business travelers originating in the Loop would pay $50 more to ride an El with a TSA car that eliminated their need to navigate security at the airport”
~~
Those of us who travel for business tend to have pre-check. I’m a million miler on United, and applied for Global Entry while working in Canada. I always get pre-check. That only cost about $100 (plus time and hassle of the interview) and lasts for 5 years.
And I travel in and out of MDW and ORD – with pre-check, there’s virtually no stress at all.
The problem is the metric they use, which is influenced by weather conditions. Nothing about Rochester’s airport is particularly stressful. It’s just that traveling to and from Rochester between the 3d week of December and the end of February carries with it a risk that you’ll run into adverse weather. (Syracuse has a more agreeable airport, IMO, but if anything worse problems with weather).
Many of those city leaders had the forethought to locate the airport far from the city center, where land was open and cheap
Chicago south side and south suburban residents have been trying to get another airport southwest of the city for 20 years, at least. That is why Midway is so busy. I used to travel to medical meetings but now the only air travel I do is for family and we use MDW. Next summer we are going to drive. The last time I drove across the country was 1995.
We have pre-check and I tried to apply for Global Entry but the web site would not accept my passport number, no matter how I tried got configure dates. Our last overseas trip was 2015 so it doesn’t matter any more.
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I’ve spent time in too many airports to mention and have a fair amount of experience on this subject. The changes to airport security mandated by the FAA after 9/11 made all but the tiniest airports more stressful and completely upended a few. Kansas City is a good example. It had a great design where one was rarely more than 30 or 40 yards from one’s gate to the outside curb. Due to cost and staffing, one can’t have a TSA check point at every entrance, so Kansas City had to create a few, and then design a maze of interior walls to keep folks corralled. The brilliance of the architect’s design (easy entry and exit from multiple points) became the airport’s tragic flaw.
Most of the worst are the big city airports in cities that were also populous prior to commercial air travel. Heathrow, DeGaulle, O’Hare, Kennedy… Unless you arrive by subway, train or cab you can count on at least 40 minutes from entering the grounds to getting to your gate on a good day. Not having to park may save you another 10 – 15 minutes, on a good day. On a less than perfect day an hour isn’t unusual and I’ve had durations of more than 2 hours due to security being backed up. I’ve even missed a few flights due to logjams at TSA.
And that’s assuming it’s an airport you know well. For folks unfamiliar with an airport, or air travel in general, navigating most big city airports is a nightmare of stress and confusion. I’ve seen many people have panic attacks at a ticket counter or, more commonly, in a TSA line. The best seem to be the airports in decent-sized cities that hit their economic stride in the ’60s, or later. Or cities where older, urban airports were abandoned for new complexes. Many of those city leaders had the forethought to locate the airport far from the city center, where land was open and cheap. Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City is one of my favorites. You often end up with a long commute to where you’re going once outside, but the design is more comforting and less stressful. Pittsburgh has a surprisingly convenient airport for such an old city, although it’s a l-o-n-g way from anywhere. I once spent over an hour in the Ted Williams’ tunnel trying to get to Logan.
With more than a thousand flights under my belt I’ve got air travel down to a very efficient process and I still choose to avoid it, when possible. Prior to 9/11 I often arrived about 30 minutes from departure if it was an airport I knew well. Now 2 hours is often not enough time. And that 1 – 2 hours is not spent doing anything relaxing. You’re typically queued up with sweaty, stressed out, confused people.
Embarkation and disembarkation of cruise ships is even worse. I did that once. Likely won’t do it again, unless it’s a small ship.
If the criteria is “delays & cancellations,” that most of the list is in snow & ice prone regions is no great shock.
But I’d rather crawl across broken glass than fly through LAX & DFW is getting close…NEVER enough hired help working TSA pre-flight security.
also wonder why cities with an airport public transportation hub don’t design TSA checkpoints into the public transportation system. I’ll use Chicago’s O’Hare as an example.
One end of the Blue Line terminates inside O’Hare Airport. Get some data on days of the week and times of day that have the most passengers riding to O’Hare to catch planes. On the most frequently used schedules add a TSA car to the El train. Passengers using the El to catch a flight will board the TSA car at their station (have to have a valid boarding pass to board that car) then they and their luggage are screened during the trip to the airport. When the train arrives security makes sure pre-screened people from that car, and only those people and their luggage, navigate a walled corridor off the station that deposits them inside the airport, past the airport’s TSA screening checkpoints.
Elon Musk recently bid on a tunnel project to cut the travel time from the Loop (downtown Chicago) to O’Hare in half (from about 45 minutes to 20). It’s an absurdly massive and expensive undertaking. I’d wager most business travelers originating in the Loop would pay $50 more to ride an El with a TSA car that eliminated their need to navigate security at the airport. That’s the part of the process everyone loathes the most, and is the least predictable. When I worked in Sao Paulo, Brazil the airport was only 15 miles from my office, yet the drive was typically 2 hours. It’s no fun averaging 7.5mph in a taxi, but it was pretty standard and predictable. What really adds stress is the unpredictability of the situation at the airport. Getting from the curb to the gate. Making that part of the commute (which is mostly “down” time anyway) and eliminating it once arriving would be very attractive to passengers.
The commute time (unless unusual due to bizarre weather or accidents) is something frequent travelers factor in, and business travelers often have a driver or on public transportation where they can work; make calls, send and receive emails… Those things are difficult to do in a TSA queue. Musk should focus on the TSA side of the equation. But, I suppose that wouldn’t result in billions of government dollars going to his Boring Corporation, so why not build a system of underground tunnels?
I travel a lot for work. As noted above, the airports with the most extreme and severe weather events are the most ‘stressful’ in terms of cancellations and such. In my travel experience Philadelphia is the place I most try to avoid. Summer thunderstorms there, and in Syracuse NY, have ruined many of trips of mine. I often travel to and from LGA from BOS, very rarely have a problem. Newark, on the other hand, is quite risky. Air Canada is notorious for cancelling BOS to Montreal flights, so I tend to drive instead. Much less expensive and takes a similar amount of time.
I’m a card carrying Global Entry guy and so get TSA Precheck everywhere it is available. Makes getting into the terminal a breeze.
Rufus said: ” I’d wager most business travelers originating in the Loop would pay $50 more to ride an El with a TSA car that eliminated their need to navigate security at the airport”
~~
Those of us who travel for business tend to have pre-check. I’m a million miler on United, and applied for Global Entry while working in Canada. I always get pre-check. That only cost about $100 (plus time and hassle of the interview) and lasts for 5 years.
And I travel in and out of MDW and ORD – with pre-check, there’s virtually no stress at all.
The problem is the metric they use, which is influenced by weather conditions. Nothing about Rochester’s airport is particularly stressful. It’s just that traveling to and from Rochester between the 3d week of December and the end of February carries with it a risk that you’ll run into adverse weather. (Syracuse has a more agreeable airport, IMO, but if anything worse problems with weather).
Many of those city leaders had the forethought to locate the airport far from the city center, where land was open and cheap
Chicago south side and south suburban residents have been trying to get another airport southwest of the city for 20 years, at least. That is why Midway is so busy. I used to travel to medical meetings but now the only air travel I do is for family and we use MDW. Next summer we are going to drive. The last time I drove across the country was 1995.
We have pre-check and I tried to apply for Global Entry but the web site would not accept my passport number, no matter how I tried got configure dates. Our last overseas trip was 2015 so it doesn’t matter any more.