The UK’s best (and worst) airports right now have been named by Which?

Summer 2024 has officially come to a close. You might have jetted off on holiday this year, and if so you may have gotten caught up in some of this year’s air travel drama. Between strikes, airport IT systems going down, and failing to get fancy new security scanners into every terminal, it’s not been the smoothest of seasons for British aviation.

Disruption is always annoying, and we all want to avoid it if at all possible. While you can’t prevent the Y2K bug showing up a quarter of a century late, you can choose which airport you fly from based on past reliability, and that’s where Which? comes in.

The consumer body ranks businesses in hundreds of industries, giving you guides as to exactly where it’s worth putting your money. The company has just released its complete rankings of every British airport, from best to worst, and some of the findings might surprise you.

Which? gave each terminus a rating out of five in 11 different categories including queues at check-in, security, bag drop, and passport control, amount and quality of seating, staff, prices in shops and restaurants, and accessibility of toilets. Which? then added all of those up to get an overall rating, which determined where each hub came overall.

The general trend seemed to be that the bigger the bases get, the less popular they are. Standing triumphant was Liverpool John Lennon, with a score of 81 percent, doing particularly well in its lack of queues at any point. In second place was London City, which also got 5/5 on its queue times and the quality of its staff.

Norwich, Exeter, and Southampton, which are all quite small, came third, fourth, and fifth, all three of which scored highly in every element except for their options for shopping. These are the 10 best places to fly from, according to Which?. The top five also come officially ’recommended’ by the group, which is the highest honour it can bestow upon a humble British business.

The best airports in the UK, according to Which?

1. Liverpool (John Lennon) – 81 percent (Recommended) 
2. London City – 80 percent (Recommended) 
3. Norwich – 78 percent (Recommended) 
4. Exeter – 77 percent (Recommended) 
5. Southampton – 75 percent (Recommended) 
6. Bournemouth – 72 percent
7. Newcastle – 72 percent
8. Cardiff – 71 percent
9. Inverness – 70 percent
10. East Midlands – 67 percent

But chances are you’ve never been to any of those little spots. You, like the vast majority of people, probably start your holidays in one of the UK’s bigger airports, which, despite flying to more destinations, seem to score lower in general. There are the worst terminals in the country, three of which are actually in the same place: Manchester.

The worst airports in the UK, according to Which?

• London Gatwick South Terminal – 55 percent
• London Heathrow Terminal 3 – 54 percent
• Bristol – 53 percent
• London Heathrow Terminal 4 – 51 percent
• Manchester Terminal 2 – 51 percent
• London Stansted – 50 percent
• London Luton – 47 percent
• Belfast International – 44 percent
• Manchester Terminal 1 – 40 percent
• Manchester Terminal 3 – 37 percent

Maybe this will be a kick up the runway for those in the bottom 10, and next year they could climb up a few spaces. If you want to see where your fave ranks, you can see the full list on Which? here.

Eyes on the skies 

There’s always more to learn about the airways in Britain. Did you see that Leeds-Bradford is getting its first ever long-haul flights? And a bunch of new routes are running from Birmingham. There’s also been new affordable flights from Edinburgh to New York and the return of direct flights from the UK to this beautiful Caribbean island.

Did you see that Big Mamma is opening first UK restaurant outside of London? 

Plus: An espresso martini festival is coming to the UK this month. 

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