Fodor’s Travel Wire has a nice piece on Airports We Love (and Hate) that gives a break down of the places you would most/least like to be stuck during a layover. Personally, one of the best airports I’ve ever been stuck in was Munich. The terminal was glimmering clean and it just so happens I got to hang out in the executive lounge…which might have helped my attitude a bit since champagne, beer and snacks were free. Munich actually made it on the list here…on the plus side. Another airport that got plaudits was Cincinnati Airport. I’ve been there and even shot a pano inside, but I don’t remember it being particularly wonderful. The piece cites the “huge mosaics of laborers” created by Winold Reiss for the Cincinnati Union Railway Station during the Great Depression and that hang now in the terminal.
On the worst side of things is one of my least favorite airports: JFK. All I can say about JFK is thank goodness for the JetBlue terminal. Without that, JFK sometimes seems positively Third World. Speaking of Third World, another thumbs down goes out to Mumbai International Airport, and again I agree. The airport is a cacophonous nightmare, even though you have to give it some credit, since we are talking about one of the most sprawling cities in the world.
The only thing missing from the list are little airports like John Wayne in Southern California, which would make it big time on the positive side. I love little airports like this and do my best when traveling to take off or end up in them.