UK’s worst airports named and shamed
Luton has been named as the worst UK airport for the fifth year running after scoring the lowest ever marks in a Which? Travel magazine customer satisfaction survey.
In contrast, Doncaster Sheffield airport was named as the best, scoring 87% for customer satisfaction compared with Luton’s 29%.
Which? Travel said passengers used words including ‘chaos’, ‘crowded’ and ‘rip off’ to describe Luton, which is in the midst of a £110 million project to expand its capacity by 50% by 2020.
"That can’t have helped the appallingly low customer satisfaction score of 29%, but Luton has languished at the bottom of our survey for five years and building work is no excuse for the one-star rating or lack of sufficient seats, shops or toilets and the penny-pinching prices, such as £1 for plastic bags," said Which? in its damning report.
The customer scores for all airports, with the exception of Doncaster Sheffield and Southend, slipped year on year, and only four of the 31 airport terminals in the Which? survey scored more than two out of five stars for the prices in shops and food outlets.
Both Doncaster Sheffield and Southend scored five stars for customer service, but both are small airports with only limited services.
Of the larger airports, Birmingham and Heathrow Terminal 5 scored the highest with a 61% customer satisfaction rating. Heathrow T3 and T4 scored only 52% – the same as Gatwick’s South Terminal – and T2 was slightly better at 57%. Gatwick’s North Terminal scored 51%.
Manchester Airport’s scores ranged from just 43% for T3 to 53% for T2.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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