America’s Worst Airport Is In the New York City Area

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 19, 10:30AM EST

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America’s Worst Airport Is In the New York City Area — © Roman Tiraspolsky / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Air travel, nearly snuffed out at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has surged to 2019 levels. Thanksgiving passenger traffic this year may reach an all-time high for the period. Service has suffered because airlines do not have enough planes and, in some cases, do not have enough staff to handle the avalanche of customers. For travelers who pass through some of America’s airports, the problem is worse. The Wall Street Journal named America’s best and worst airports based on a series of yardsticks. Newark Airport, which serves the New York City region, ranked dead last.
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The Journal’s ranking was based on 19 categories as it measured the country’s 20 largest airports based on traffic. These focused on convenience, reliability, and value. Notably, the airport with the worst score after Newark was another near New York City. Laguardia Airport, named after Fiorello Henry La Guardia, who was New York’s mayor from 1934 to 1945, holds this distinction.

The Journal’s authors commented on the two New York airports, “ LaGuardia’s physical makeover is already well under way and you won’t recognize the place if it’s been a while. And Newark’s new Terminal A makes its debut in early December.” There is no guarantee these will improve service.

San Francisco’s airport ranked first among the 20, with Atlanta, America’s busiest airport based on passenger traffic, not far beyond. Among smaller airports, Sacramento and San Diego ranked at the top. California seems to have cornered the market for the best airports.
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The analysis does not point out that travelers through New York’s airports are trapped. People flying from the regions cannot drive to Detroit or Baltimore to fly. No matter how poor the service, New Yorkers are stuck.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.