Glasgow Airport was one of two Scottish airports ranked in the top 10 airports in the UK

Air travel is an integral part of modern life, with the UK's airports serving as gateways to destinations worldwide. In 2023, a remarkable 276 million passengers passed through the UK’s more than 50 passenger airports, each with their own unique features and challenges.

Now, a comprehensive study has ranked the nation’s airports, revealing which ones excel at serving their passengers, and which are lagging behind. The research, conducted by Andy Halliday and his team at City of Doncaster News, a go-to source for local news in Doncaster, employed an innovative scoring system to evaluate airports across seven factors impacting the passenger experience.

Halliday commented on the motivation behind the study: “With millions of passengers relying on UK airports each year, we wanted to create a definitive ranking that goes beyond simple customer reviews.

“By analysing everything from transport links to flight punctuality, we're providing travellers with a comprehensive understanding of which airports consistently deliver the best experience.”

Rating The Nation's Airports

The study rated airports based on seven factors: their Skytrax score, accessibility, transport links, number of flight cancellations, delay times, flight punctuality, and Which? customer rating scores. Each factor was given either a positive or negative weighting, which was then used to calculate each airport’s final score and rank them from best to worst.

Glasgow Airport was one of two Scottish airports on the list, see where Edinburgh Airport ranks below:

Glasgow Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Stansted Airport
Exeter Airport
Birmingham Airport
London City Airport
Edinburgh Airport
London Luton Airport
Manchester Airport

Glasgow Airport was named the UK’s best airport in the study, scoring 10. What’s interesting about this result is that Glasgow airport didn’t actually have the best score in any single category. Instead, it had good scores in all categories without underperforming in any single category, which put it on top.

Glasgow scored especially well in the average delay category, with flights being delayed for only 12.88 minutes on average. It was also one of only two airports in the top ten to score “very good” on accessibility.