Australia Makes A Rare Appearance As The World’s Best Airports For 2023 Are Revealed

Qatar’s Hamad International Airport surprised the industry last year when it was named the best airport in the world, ahead of Haneda in Tokyo and Changi in Singapore in the annual Skytrax ranking of the world’s top airports. Now, there’s been a bit of a change in the 2023 rankings, with Singapore Changi Airport reclaiming the top spot after years of coming up short, besting Hamad – which falls to #2 – and Haneda at #3.

For just about every traveller who has been through Changi before, this isn’t much of a surprise. The massive aviation hub was designed as a destination unto itself with numerous amenities and features to take the pain out of those long layovers. Across the pandemic, Changi took a tumble down the list with a lot of resources and operations cut in response to Covid-19.

There aren’t many airports with IMAX cinemas and indoor waterfalls so Changi taking the crown makes sense. The rest of the list is just as strong, although it hasn’t changed much from last year’s round-up of the world’s best airports.

Haneda, which just installed two new hotels and a rooftop onsen, rounds out the top three and below that, you’ll find South Korea’s charming Incheon International Airport (#4) and Paris’ functional Charles de Gaulle Airport (#5). Most of the airports on the list are from Asia, The Middle East and Europe, although the USA gets a punch in with Seattle-Tacoma (#18) being the highest-rated US airport. Elsewhere, Aussies only get one shot in with Melbourne Airport (#19) barely scraping into the top 20.

Cape Town International Airport was named the best airport in Africa, while Delhi Airport is the best airport in India and South Asia and Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport wins the best airport in South America award.

Considering Seattle-Tacoma was ranked as the 53rd best airport in the world in 2021 before jumping up to the 27th slot in 2022, the Washington State airport is on an impressive run. Yet, it’s hard to piece together just why.

As I said when I reported on the SkyTrax best airport awards last year, the firm’s methodology when putting together these rankings is rather vague. Numerous surveys are examined to put together the ranking and I know there are no financial incentives for airports or passengers. Furthermore, no third parties are involved in the data collection, which touches on all aspects of an airport like terminal comfort, check-in process, ride-share access, service and hygiene standards. Ease of security checkpoints is another key performance indicator. The criteria is discussed here.

SkyTrax Top 20 Airports In The World For 2023

1. Singapore Changi Airport (Singapore)
2. Hamad International Airport (Qatar)
3. Haneda Tokyo International Airport (Japan)
4. Incheon International Airport (South Korea)
5. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (France)
6. Istanbul Airport (Turkey)
7. Munich Airport (Germany)
8. Zurich Airport (Switzerland)
9. Narita International Airport (Japan)
10. Madrid-Barajas Airport (Spain)
11. Vienna International Airport (Austria)
12. Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (Finland)
13. Rome Fiumicino Airport (Italy)
14. Copenhagen Airport (Denmark)
15. Kansai International Airport (Japan)
16. Chubu Centrair International Airport (Japan)
17. Dubai International Airport (UAE)
18. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (USA)
19. Melbourne Airport (Australia)
20. Vancouver International Airport (Canada)