UK’s Best & Worst Airports 2024: Is this accurate?

The annual and controversial Which? report on UK airports

UK airports are a mixed bag. There’s no real standout, but there are some duds. Each year Which surveys passengers about their journeys (~7,000 in 2024). The winning airports crow about their success, and the low-ranking airports cry foul. MAN described the Which survey as “over-simplified judgements based on the outdated and unrepresentative testimony of a narrow group of travellers”. Ouch.

What is the Which? annual airport report?

This is an annual survey that in 2024 involved 4,962 members of the Which? Connect panel. They shared information on 6,695 experiences of flying from UK airports. The survey was conducted in April 2024.

Some airports with more than one terminal have their scores separated. Heathrow appears in the list four times for T2, T3, T4, and T5. MAN has all three of its terminals scored separately, and Gatwick’s North and South terminals are separated.

Each airport (or terminal) is given a master “customer score” out of 100, expressed as a percentage. Then customers rate ten elements of the airport experience out of five. These are:

• Queues at the check-in desk
• Queues at bag-drop
• Queues at security
• Queues at passport control
• Baggage reclaim
• Seating
• Staff
• Prices in shops, bars and restaurants
• Range of shops, bars and restaurants
• Toilets

Which? states that the customer score is “based on a combination of overall satisfaction and how likely people are to recommend the airport.”

You can see some big differences between the scores for terminals at the same airport. Manchester’s T2 has a 51 per cent customer score, whereas T1 has just 40 per cent. This reflects the reality (T1 is old, and a poor experience) but in MAN’s case T1 will be closing next year.

The worst airport in the UK is….

There are two ways to slice the data, and either way gives the same answer: Manchester Airport.

As an airport (Combining the scores for T1, T2 and T3) it’s the worst with an average customer score of 42.7%. Heathrow has an average score of 54.8% across it’s four terminals and Gatwick’s average is 55.5 across their two terminals.

Manchester’s T3 has the lowest customer score of any airport or terminal at 37%. It’s old, has a poor layout and relatively poor facilities. The terminal is possibly the most renamed airport building in the country, starting out at Terminal A in 1989, then Terminal A – Domestic. In 1993 it became Terminal 1A, followed by Terminal 1A – British Airways and Domestic. Finally, it became Terminal 3 – British Airways and Domestic and then in 1998 just Terminal 3.

Sadly for MAN travellers, whilst T1 is due to disappear in 2025 the future for T3 is uncertain, and by that I mean it could live on for a number of years.

It does feel harsh to see Manchester rated so low, but that feeling comes more from where the airport will be in a couple of years rather than where it is now. There have been optimisations and improvements, but they’ve been focused on T2 (hence its higher score). Aether is due to open soon, but it’s not really the main terminal (and I doubt it will appear on next year’s Which? report).

The best airport in the UK is…

Liverpool John Lennon. I hear from LPL travellers that it’s a great airport. With just under half a million passengers travelling from there each year, it’s small enough to provide a speedy check-in and security experience. It’s also of a size where you have some decent facilities. There are seven places to eat, six shops and an airport lounge (Aspire).

The biggest challenge for Liverpool is that almost all of its flights are budget or chartered. EasyJet, Ryanair and Jet2 dominate their timetable. There are very few long-haul connecting flight options (Dublin via Aer Lingus or Ryanair, Amsterdam via Easyjet)

Is the Which? Scoring right?

Some airports are crying foul over the scoring.

There’s always the risk that the people most motivated to review or rate something are the ones who had the worst experience, but that would apply to all airports and Which? say they use a customer focus panel who you would think are motivated to provide feedback rather than vent.

Skytrax run an annual “World Airport Awards” which is voted for by travellers. In their 2024 awards Heathrow (all terminals) was the 21st best airport in the World (Rising from 22 in their 2023 awards). Gatwick is the 28th best. They are the only two UK airports listed.

The Daily Mail has an active survey on which airport is the UK’s worst. So far, the worst airports are listed as Manchester T3 with the highest % of votes, followed by Manchester T1, Manchester T2, Stansted and Luton. That data is mostly in line with the Which? survey.

What are the obvious trends?

Is size important?

At first glance small airports rank better than larger ones. The top five is Liverpool, London City, Norwich, Exeter and Southampton. All small-ish, with mostly charter or budget carriers.

The great advantage of a small airport is the time it takes to park, check-in, and get past security. Newcastle, which is joint sixth with Bournemouth, is famed for the speed at which you can deplane and then get into your car. Yes, facilities in smaller airports are more limited than larger ones. The real emotional pain in an airport is not the brand of eateries in there but the frustration you feel when you queue for an hour to get through security.

I overlaid the CAA data on passenger numbers for each airport and used a fairly simple approach to defining an airport’s size:

• Large: Over 1m passengers/year
• Medium: 100k passengers/year to 999,999/year
• Small: Less than 99,999 passengers/year

The average customer rating is:

• Large: 51.4%
• Medium: 65.5%
• Small: 73.25%

So the smaller the airport, the higher the score

Is an airport in the South better than the North?

Marginally, yes. Assuming there’s an imaginary line just below Birmingham that divides the North from the South, then the average customer score for Southern airports is 60.3% vs 58.93% for the North.

Are London airports better or worse?

Worse. The average Customer Score for the five London airports is 56.3% vs 61.1% for outside of London

What are the airports saying?

The report was released two days ago, so not all airports have had a chance to respond. Some may not offer anything, but here’s what the airports are saying so far:

Liverpool: “To be named as the UK’s number one airport by travellers is a tremendous accolade.”

Cardiff: “Thank you to our teams for all their hard work; we pride ourselves on getting travellers off on their holidays quickly and smoothly,”

London Luton: “Whilst all feedback is important, we do not see the analysis provided by Which? as representative of the views of millions of passengers who travel through the airport each year.”

Manchester: “As in previous years, Which? is letting consumers down with over-simplified judgements based on the outdated and unrepresentative testimony of a narrow group of travellers, as well as publishing misleading statements and factual inaccuracies.”

UK Airports – All The Scores