By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-17 11:06:58 | Updated at 2026-09-17 11:55:03
55 minutes ago
Satisfaction with America’s airports has gained a little altitude over the last year, according to a leading industry survey of flyers.
These gains came at great cost and after years of work, according to Michael Taylor, managing director of travel, hospitality, and retail at J.D. Power, which has conducted the survey for the past 21 years.
“I tell our clients in North America that, in this industry, improvement begins with a b—as in billion dollars. That’s basically what you’ve got to be spending in order to make a big difference in how people perceive your airport,” Taylor told The Epoch Times on Sept. 16, when the report was released.
Many airports have undertaken expensive renovations. As those projects come to completion, the needle is moving upward for flyer satisfaction.
Flyers’ impressions of American airports improved by 14 satisfaction points for mega airports, 13 points for large airports, and 16 points for medium airports from the previous survey.
The total scale is 1,000 points. Mega, large, and medium American airports averaged 617, 657, and 672 points, respectively.
Airports are not graded on a curve. It is possible for flyers to register a “perfect” experience at any one of them, though those are rare. They occur on only 12 percent of journeys through any U.S. airport.
The J.D. Power 2026 North America Airport Satisfaction Study was conducted at airports between July 2025 and July 2026. Almost 25,000 Americans and Canadians flying through American airports answered the survey.
Flyers rated airports across seven different categories: 1) ease of travel within the airport, 2) level of trust with the airport, 3) quality of terminal facilities, 4) staff interactions, 5) ground travel to and departure from, 6) arrival at and ground travel from, and 7) food, beverage, and retail options.
Winners and Losers, 2026
Although the industry average rose, some airports scored better than others.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) scored highest in flyer satisfaction for mega airports, Tampa International Airport (TPA) led the pack of large airports, and Charleston International Airport (CHS) carried the day among medium-sized airports.
All three airports expressed pride in winning and sent statements to The Epoch Times from their leadership.
MSP has won the top ranking in its category for four out of the past five years, Brian Ryks, CEO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates the airport, pointed out.
“Our repeat No. 1 ranking is a testament to the appreciation travelers have for the service, hospitality and amenities that make trips through MSP easy and memorable,” he said.
Travelers arrive at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Terminal 1 on March 23, 2026. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Last year, the Midwestern airport served more than 36 million passengers, a volume that puts it in the mega category. Yet it was only the 17th busiest airport over that period.
For TPA, this was its third first-place finish in the survey over the past five years.
“Being recognized in the large airport category is a tremendous achievement, particularly during a time of ongoing construction and improvements,” airport CEO Michael Stephens said.
Tampa’s airport is building Airside D, a 600,000-square-foot project that will add more gates, a new screening facility, more restaurants, and more lounges. It is scheduled to open in 2029 at an approved cost of more than $1.5 billion.
The Florida airport serves more than 24 million flyers per year.
Holiday travelers pass by "Phoebe" the Flamingo at the Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2023. Chris O'Meara/AP Photo
Elliott Summey, CEO of the Charleston airport, said his team’s “dedication to safety, service and Southern hospitality makes a difference for our travelers every single day.”
He played up efforts to fly local.
“From our local restaurants and award-winning culinary offerings, to the amenities that create a genuine sense of place, we want the CHS experience to feel unmistakably Charleston,” he said.
The airport’s first-place showing “validates our belief that an airport can be more than a place you pass through, it can be part of the destination experience,” Summey said.
For instance, the airport is famous for its locally made rocking chairs, which many of its 6.3 million passengers last year used to take a load off.
The survey names losers and winners every year.
Philadelphia International Airport and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport came in last place in the large- and midsize-airport classes for 2026.
New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport tied for last place among mega airports.
J.D. Power found that flyers’ satisfaction with airports influences how much money they spend there.
Flyers who judged their experience at a given airport as “perfect” spent an average of $47.60, which was $20.22 more than flyers who said it was “just OK.”
Travelers walk through Newark Liberty International Airport on Nov. 27, 2024. Vincent Alban/Reuters
American Versus Foreign Airports
Some worldwide airport surveys do not rank American airports particularly high on a comparative scale.
For instance, the Skytrax World Airport Awards lists the top 100 airports in the world. American airports do not crack the top 10, or even the top 20, on that list. An American airport first appears in the No. 29 slot, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The Epoch Times asked J.D. Power’s Taylor what he made of those rankings by international travelers.
“You can’t swing a dead cat and not have it fly over a separate country in Europe, so the logistics are completely different,” he said.
The sort of traffic that gets ranked in other rankings is for international travel, he said, “a much different financial proposition than flying from Dallas to Houston, which is what a lot of traffic is like in the United States.”
America has far more major airports than most nations. That makes for an asymmetry in funding repairs and improvements.
Other countries can throw money into one or two airports, whereas in America, “we have probably 60 or 70 major airports,” Taylor said, which makes wide-scale improvements much more expensive.
The large number of mega or large airports also makes for a massive volume of flyers.
The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the United States, with a passenger volume last year of more than 106 million. That figure also makes it the busiest airport in the world.
Still, the improvements to U.S. airports are coming along. Portland International Airport has won multiple awards for the redesign of its main terminal at a cost of more than $2.1 billion and a construction time of 11 years.
The wood lattice ceiling, green spaces, and other innovations have made travel a better experience for many.
“You can’t tell me that’s not among the most beautiful airports in the world,” Taylor said.
