Too few staff, long waiting times and unpunctual flights - the airports in Europe fare poorly in a global comparison. In the AirHelp Score of the air passenger rights organization AirHelp, only five European airports make it into the top 50, one German airport is not among them.

After a two-year corona break, AirHelp rated all airports and airlines in the world as part of the comprehensive AirHelp Score. European airports in particular did very poorly in this year's ranking: Of the 151 airports evaluated in total, only five airports in Europe made it into the top 50. Düsseldorf Airport was the first German airport to appear in 85th place.

Europe's best airports are in Spain

For the AirHelp Score, the airports were evaluated in the categories of punctuality, customer opinions and food and shops. With a total score of 8,25 points, Spain's Madrid-Barajas Airport takes 12th place, making it Europe's best airport in 2022. Second place in Europe also goes to Spain: with 8,05 points, Bilbao also secured a place the podium – in terms of punctuality, the Basque airport is even 0,13 points ahead of Madrid (8,39 and 8,26 points respectively). In terms of customer opinions (8,19 and 7,81 points respectively) and the range of food and shops (8,30 and 7,28 points respectively), Spain's capital is ahead by a nose. Bilbao is ranked 24th in the world.

The third best airport in Europe with 7,79 points is Vienna International Airport, Austria's largest and most famous airport. In the overall ranking, the Austrian airport only achieved 44th place. Milan Linate Airport in Italy (50th place with 49 points) and Bergen Airport in Norway (7,74th place with 50 points) only just made it into the global top 7,72, ranking fourth and fifth in Europe .

The UK has the worst airports in Europe

Not only in a European comparison, but also in the global overall ranking, British airports in particular do poorly: Four of the ten worst airports are in Great Britain. With an overall score of 6,48, London Luton Airport is Europe's worst and the third worst airport in the world. Antalya Airport (6,50 points) and the three other British airports Bristol Airport (6,54 points), Manchester Airport (6,56 points) and London Gatwick Airport (6,64 points) are just ahead. In the overall ranking, only the Canadian Aéroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau de Montréal is in between with 6,60 points.

In addition, Europe's ten worst airports include Lisbon-Portela Airport (6,75 points), Brussels South Charleroi Airport (6,78 points), Prague Airport (6,8 points), Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport (6,8 .6,85 points) and Naples Airport (XNUMX points).

Düsseldorf Airport is the best airport in Germany

Six German airports were evaluated in the AirHelp Score 2022. The best of them is Düsseldorf Airport, with an overall score of 7,47 points, which ranks 85th in the world. With a score of 7,15, the North Rhine-Westphalian airport is also the most punctual in the country. The second best airport in Germany is Munich Airport “Franz Josef Strauss”, which ranks 7,44th in the world with a total score of 89. As far as customer satisfaction is concerned, the airport in Bavaria's state capital is the German winner.

The following places go to Hamburg Airport (7,32 points), BER (7,17 points), Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt (7,07 points) and Cologne Airport (6,86 points. Frankfurt Airport has in German comparison, the best range of shops and food (8,17 points).

"Our goal at AirHelp is not only to inform passengers about their rights and to support them in enforcing them in the event of delays and cancellations. Rather, we want to ensure that passengers have a generally satisfactory flight experience. AirHelp has one of the most reliable and accurate collections of flight data in the world. This enables us to give vacationers and business travelers a well-founded insight into the services of airlines and airports. At the same time, the AirHelp Score is a useful tool for companies to assess their position and identify areas for improvement,” explains Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp.