Want to know the best airport to fly from on your next holiday? Which? reveals the best and worst UK airports, based on thousands of customer experiences
When international travel restarted in spring 2022 many airports simply weren’t prepared. Passengers at some of the biggest found themselves stuck in long queues, or crammed into overcrowded terminals, having to pay for an overpriced snack just to find somewhere to sit down.
Yet it wasn’t quite so bad for everybody. The Which? latest survey shows that there are some airports where you can expect to breeze through security and find smiling staff able to help if you have a problem.
To find out which you should try to avoid – and which to try – they asked more than 7,000 people about their experiences of flying from UK airports between July 2020 and July 2022. You can see their views in the table and reviews here.
There’s one thing that the best airports in the UK have in common. They’re all pretty small. That means they won’t have the same range of flight destinations as the biggest airports in our survey – but you’re likely to have a much better experience if you’re lucky enough to be able to use one of them.
For the first time ever this year they’ve awarded Which? Recommended Provider status to two airports – Exeter and Liverpool John Lennon.
Liverpool John Lennon 83%
Less than 40 minutes’ drive from Manchester Airport, this much smaller hub is a different world. It might not have the same range of flights as its enormous local rival but it’s well worth choosing if you’re heading to Barcelona, Rome, Majorca or a number of other popular holiday destinations.
Passengers parked easily, had a short walk to the terminal and got through check-in and security in no time. It got the maximum five-star rating for every queue – including the wait at passport control.
Verdict: As one passenger said, ‘It’s much smaller, less manic and so much more civilised than Manchester,’.