Your metro's airports, are you satisfied?

[Dariusb]

How many commercial airports does your metro area have? Are you satisfied with the service that they provide if not, what in your opinion can they do to improve?

[SFBruin]

I think that SeaTac does a good job of serving Seattle.

I haven't got to use it much since Covid, though.

[Double L]

Houston has two international airports and I like both of them. Bush Intercontinental does this thing where as you enter, which lane your in, determines which terminal you go to, then when you arrive at the terminal, there is an upper floor for dropping passengers off at the terminal and a lower floor for picking them up. I’m not sure what other airports do that but I thought it was a good way to manage the process. The older terminals of Bush Intercontinental (like terminal A) have average architecture But the newer ones like terminal E have very nice architecture. I’m satisfied with it as an airport.

[Steely Dan]

ORD is a great airport to have nearby because of its innumerable destinations and schedule options, but it's apparently a dreadful airport to connect through, or so I've been told (weather delays, overcrowding, grossly obscene price gouging like 12 bucks for a fucking miller lite, etc.)

MDW is a fine airport if you wanna fly southwest. ~95% of MDW passengers are on southwest. The only other airlines there are Porter to Toronto and Volaris with a half dozen routes to various cities in Mexico. So it works well for what it is- a de facto southwest aiport.

Both airports are directly connected to downtown via heavy rail transit, which is nice.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

ORD is a great airport to have nearby because of its innumerable destinations and schedule options, but it's apparently a dreadful airport to connect through, or so I've been told (weather delays, overcrowding, grossly obscene price gouging like 12 bucks for a fucking miller lite), etc.)

MDW is a fine airport if you wanna fly southwest. ~95% of MDW passengers are on southwest. The only other airlines there are Porter to Toronto and Volaris with a half dozen routes to various cities in Mexico. So it works well for what it is- a de facto southwest aiport.

Both airports are directly connected to downtown via heavy rail transit, which is nice.

I fly through O'Hare all the time, it's actually decent for a connection given that it's a monster of an airport. I will go out of my way to connect through ORD over Newark.

[Kngkyle]

Newark is my 'home' airport as it's only about a ~25 minute Uber for me from Jersey City. My second home airport would be O'Hare as that is where I used to fly out of, and continue to fly into a hand full of times per year. I'm fairly loyal to United so this judgement is based on Terminal C at Newark and Terminal 1 at O'Hare. I'm lucky in that both of these airports basically have non-stop flights to everywhere, and often pretty cheap.

Newark:
I feel Newark gets an unjustified bad rap. Terminal C at Newark is world-class. I can't think of a terminal in North America that has the same quality of food, seating, and service options. The Ipad ordering at almost every seat at every gate is glorious. All airports need that. Sure, the lounges are always packed but when the regular gate-space is as nice as it is, I don't mind one bit. The only complaint I have about Newark is how it all goes to shit at the sight of bad weather. There just isn't enough runway / taxiway capacity to maintain hardly anything. So it's definitely a risky airport to connect through, even if it is fairly rare. (I think I got stuck on the tarmac twice in ~30 flights last year)

O'Hare
Terminal 1 at O'Hare is showing it's age for sure, and I look forward to it finally getting a proper renovation whenever ORD21 really kicks off. Pretty much everything about the airport is mediocre except for the scale at which it can operate and the direct CTA connection. The place is damn efficient and now has sufficient runway / taxiway capacity to be able to actually operate in bad weather. Where Newark excels in passenger facilities, O'Hare excels in operational efficiency. I feel O'Hare also gets an unjustified bad-rap because of what it used to be before the $7b+ runway re-alignment project was largely completed. It's a totally different airport today than it was 10-15 years ago.

Also, TSA Pre-Check can totally change your travel experience. My best door-to-aircraft door time was 34 minutes for Newark.

[giallo]

YVR in Vancouver is great for me. I've been located in East Asia for close to 20 years, and no matter where I am, I can almost always get a direct flight home.

ICH in Seoul is great. My wife and I fly to Taiwan a lot to visit her family, and we can fly directly to Taipei or Kaohsiung. ICH has direct flights to a bunch of places in Europe, and, of course, to Vancouver.

I used PVG in Shanghai for years. It has great connections, but the airport is terrible.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

ORD is a great airport to have nearby because of its innumerable destinations and schedule options, but it's apparently a dreadful airport to connect through, or so I've been told (weather delays, overcrowding, grossly obscene price gouging like 12 bucks for a fucking miller lite), etc.)

MDW is a fine airport if you wanna fly southwest. ~95% of MDW passengers are on southwest. The only other airlines there are Porter to Toronto and Volaris with a half dozen routes to various cities in Mexico. So it works well for what it is- a de facto southwest aiport.

Both airports are directly connected to downtown via heavy rail transit, which is nice.

All we need is an airport for small planes - one that could fit downtown - maybe 0n the lake .....

[SlidellWx]

MSY just opened a fantastic new terminal last year, and pre-COVID it had excellent service for a city of our size. Non-stop international service to YYZ, YUL, PTY, and LHR year round. Summer seasonal service to FRA. Only major market not served was PDX. Fantastic options for both business and leisure travel. Hopefully, the airport will get back to the same number of destinations served in the next year or so.

[AviationGuy]

Very happy with Austin Bergstrom airport. Good looking architecture with lots of light, nice colors, Terrazzo floors, live music, good local restaurants on the air side, and nice landscaping all the way to the main highway outside the airport. The cell phone lot is great, too, with places to eat and nice restrooms. The area near the airport leaves a lot to be desired but the crummy looking businesses are gradually being demolished and replaced. So the area is not quite the eyesore it once was. It used to be a huge embarrassment because it was the first thing visitors would see upon exiting the airport.

Bergstrom used to be a huge pain to get to from the city; e.g., multiple traffic signals, extremely slow traffic. In recent years, 71 has become an expressway all the way to the airport, and the 130 tollway makes it easily accessible even from Round Rock and Georgetown. Although I'm not up on details, I understand that when 183 is complete, it will provide additional easy access.

Pre COVID there were non-stops to London, Frankfurt and maybe some others in Europe but I'm not sure what the current status is.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by harryc

All we need is an airport for small planes - one that could fit downtown - maybe 0n the lake .....

Are you saying reopen Meigs Field?

[Dariusb]

Although Killeen has an airport, I prefer to fly out of Austin. Very nice airport.

[xzmattzx]

I admittedly have it good here in Delaware, so I'm a little spoiled. Still I want it all.

The two airports that I/Delawareans use the most are PHL and BWI. I use BWI the most, in particular, because of the prices, even though it's an extra 45 minutes away for me.

However, we have 10 major airports within 3 hours, providing limitless options: JFK, LGA, EWR, ACY, ABE, MDT, PHL, BWI, DCA, and IAD. (This is ignoring smaller airports that offer commercial flights, like TTN and SBY, which are also within 3 hours of here.) I have personally used EWR, MDT, PHL, BWI, and IAD. With these ten airports, I have my pick of price, location, or both.

Still, I wish there was some major airport like JFK, EWR, or IAD even closer than those three are. I wish Philadelphia had a second major airport, like BWI for Washington DC or LGA for New York City, instead of the little airports in Atlantis City and Allentown. I also wish that we had a few commercial flights from ILG, the airport here in the Wilmington area; we are the only state without any commercial flights. (Frontier will begin offering a single flight to Orlando in November.)

[harryc]

Originally Posted by bnk

are you saying reopen meigs field?

yes !

[Yuri]

São Paulo got three airports: the international one (GRU, 40 million pax), the central domestic one (CGH, 18 million pax) and the outskirts/cargo/company hub one (VCP, 10 million pax).

It's the Brazilian domestic and international hub and covers pretty much everything, making it possible to fly directly to over 100 domestic and 50 international destinations.

[SignalHillHiker]

St. John's has only one, obviously - YYT. I've mixed emotions about it. It's a gorgeous airport, one of the most attractive smaller ones I've seen. But we've lost our direct flight to Dublin and the direct ones to London are too expensive, so we're back to flying west to Montreal or Toronto in order to get to Europe - more than doubling the flight time.

[Innsertnamehere]

Pearson is much better now that it has a transit connection from downtown. Terminal 1 is a complete palace, if a bit overcrowded. The key is to get Nexus, which gives you accelerated security clearance and customs if you are flying south of the border.

Billy Bishop is wildly controversial. A lot of people like it because it’s so close to downtown, and because it’s such a smaller airport it’s a lot more relaxing to use. On the other hand it takes barely any more time to get to Pearson with the UPx now from downtown, especially during rush hour, and the planes landing at Billy Bishop are constantly buzzing along the waterfront.

Haven’t flown out of Hamilton yet. It’s a small budget focused airport, and from my understanding looks the part. Not really anything notable about it.

[bartolo]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Pearson is much better now that it has a transit connection from downtown. Terminal 1 is a complete palace, if a bit overcrowded. The key is to get Nexus, which gives you accelerated security clearance and customs if you are flying south of the border.

Billy Bishop is wildly controversial. A lot of people like it because it’s so close to downtown, and because it’s such a smaller airport it’s a lot more relaxing to use. On the other hand it takes barely any more time to get to Pearson with the UPx now from downtown, especially during rush hour, and the planes landing at Billy Bishop are constantly buzzing along the waterfront.

Haven’t flown out of Hamilton yet. It’s a small budget focused airport, and from my understanding looks the part. Not really anything notable about it.

I've flown in and out of Hamilton, and it's basically the equivalent of a bus station for Airplanes. Getting through security is a breeze since their is usually only 1 flight going on at a time.

I flew into the Island last summer, and I really enjoyed it. I flew in from Fredericton, and on that trip I took a car, plane, ferry, bus and train to get back to Hamilton.

YYZ is one of the nicer airports I have been to.

[mhays]

Sea-Tac is pretty good for our city's size (ps it's located in the city of SeaTac which dropped the hyphen).

Back in the 90s, it was limited to one runway during low visibility, or 40% of the time. The third runway was then added, far enough away to allow dual all-weather operations. After an additional period when the old runways were upgraded, it became far more reliable for airlines.

They responded by starting to add new flights, particularly overseas. Our connections wen't from underwhelming to pretty decent, though still well below SF and Van on the international side. Traffic grew to 51 million last year. We still have a tiny international arrivals hall, but a new one could open...was going to be later this year.

I like Sea-Tac, for the same reasons it's straining. It's a very small piece of land, it's close in, and there's a train to Downtown every 6/10/15 minutes depending on time. But it's really hard to add capacity. Land is so tight that a planned satellite terminal would have check-in across a highway from the actual gates, connected by skybridge.

Meanwhile, 30 miles north of Downtown Seattle, new service just started at Paine Field in Everett, alongside Boeing's largest plant. This is very small scale, but will be an opportunity to grow over time, and take some of the pressure off Sea-Tac.

[JManc]

I've only connected through Sea-Tac on my way to Alaska but it always seems to be crazy busy for its size.