MONEY Rates the 20 Biggest Airports Head for National, Dallas/ Fort Worth and Phoenix, but avoid New York's JFK.
By Debra Wishik Englander

(MONEY Magazine) – Okay, the envelope, please. And the winner is . . . National Airport in Washington, D.C. National Airport? That's right, the homely little terminal our congressmen use to jet to and from the heartland. When MONEY ranked the 20 busiest U.S. airports on criteria ranging from flight performance to ease of access, humble National bubbled to the top (see pages 130-131). The main reason: it's so easy to get to (National is all of four miles from downtown, and if you don't like driving, there's always the subway). Not surprisingly, National also headed our separate list of the best big airports ''to fly to'' (see page 134) -- owing to convenience. Dallas/Fort Worth International, current holder of the nation's best on-time record, won honors as the easiest airport ''to fly through.'' And Phoenix's Sky Harbor International was rated the ''best to get stuck in,'' thanks to the distinctive Southwest flavor of its restaurants and shops. As for the worst airports, Hartsfield Atlanta International, Newark International and John F. Kennedy International occupied the bottom three spots overall -- mainly because of their lackluster performance on the ''fly to,'' ''fly through'' and ''get stuck in'' rankings. Why did we decide to rate airports? Because they have as much, if not more, to do with the quality of air travel as the airlines they serve. More than half the time you spend flying somewhere is spent on the ground, navigating to, from and around terminals. And the terminals can leave a lot to be desired. As travel-guide editor and frequent flier Robert Fisher puts it: ''Most airports are like purgatory: they're meant to be gotten through as quickly as possible.'' Worse, many airports are like limbo: they seem designed to detain you indefinitely. There's the traffic jam at the departure ring, the mob at the baggage check, the long wait at the gate and, likely as not, an equally long delay on the runway -- not to mention the interminable wait to claim your bag at the other end. Not all of this is the airports' fault, of course. Ridership on scheduled flights at domestic airports has risen 60% in the decade since the airline industry was deregulated, reaching about 450 million passengers last year. Yet no major new airport has been built in this country since Dallas/Fort Worth International opened in 1974. The larger cities are so overdeveloped that it would be hard to find land for a new terminal, not to mention tolerant neighbors. The result? Secondary airports absorb the overflow, to the detriment of airports and travelers alike. Under the circumstances, the existing big airports constitute a natural resource as precious, and limited, as band space on the FM dial. And, like radio, they are a part of all of our lives. The 20 busiest of them, for example, represent only 7% of all U.S. airports yet account for nearly two- thirds of all passenger traffic. In an effort to single out the best of this group for praise, and point a finger at some of the worst, we sent a team of 18 reporters and stringers to visit the 20 largest airports, interview officials and passengers, and gather data ranging from federal flight-delay figures to the number of automated teller machines and the price of a burger and a cola (which ranged from $2.80 in Pittsburgh to $6.45 in Los Angeles). We did not try to rate the airports on flight safety, crime or terrorism; the odds of becoming a victim are so low that we felt a ranking would not be meaningful. (Your chances of being killed in the crash of a scheduled flight last year were one in 1.6 million per trip, for example.) Instead, we collected information appropriate to life's more prosaic emergencies: the airport information number, the phone number of an inexpensive hotel. When all the data were weighed, National led the overall list, followed by Phoenix, Logan International in Boston, La Guardia Airport in New York City and Stapleton International in Denver. Though National is not long on ambience (it ranked only 10th on our ''best to get stuck in'' list), it nonetheless holds the nation's third-best on-time record, despite handling 245,000 flights and 15.4 million passengers a year. ''As one of the Federal Aviation Administration's high-density airports, we are limited by law to just 37 flights per hour, comfortably within our capacity,'' explains James Wilding, general manager. The airport's chief virtue, however, is convenience. ''The great thing about National is its speed,'' says Richard Cowan, a reporter for the Congressional Quarterly in Washington. ''You can get there from downtown in just 15 minutes by car or 20 minutes by subway.'' The cab ride costs only $8, the Metro $1, although you have to carry your bag the last 150 yards if you can't wait eight minutes for the shuttle bus. And when the airport's five-year renovation is finished, there will be double the number of parking spaces, new roads and cab stands, and a terminal at the subway stop. Newark International and John F. Kennedy International, both in the New York City area, ranked next to last and last respectively. Both airports are expensive to reach from downtown Manhattan (a 13-mile, 45-minute taxi ride to JFK costs at least $22, for example; the cheapest alternative, the $6.50 Train to the Plane, really means spending 45 minutes lugging your bags from a subway to a bus). Neither airport scored especially high on amenities. And JFK, due in part to the lengthy connection time if you have to change terminals (one circuit of the shuttle bus takes 45 minutes during rush hour), placed third from the bottom on the ''best to fly through'' list. Tom Middlemiss, a JFK spokesman, says the congestion will ease as the airport pursues a long-term renovation that will include revamped terminals plus new access roads and moving walkways. Our ''best to fly to'' category was dominated by airports located close to their respective cities. Behind National came Denver's Stapleton, Phoenix's Sky Harbor and Boston's Logan, all about five miles from downtown. Fifth was New York's La Guardia, which is about seven miles distant -- albeit, as at Logan, the trip involves crossing a river and usually paying a toll. At Logan and La Guardia, however, you can make the trip fun by taking a water shuttle from downtown. Cost at Logan is $5, and at La Guardia $20. In the ''best to fly through'' category, the nation's highest on-time record helped propel Dallas/Fort Worth to the top spot. Only 21% of DFW's arriving flights and 17% of its departures have been delayed more than 15 minutes since the Department of Transportation began keeping track in September. ''We have six fully operational runways that work simultaneously,'' explains Joe Dealey Jr., chief of public relations, ''and we've been shut down by weather less than 24 hours total in the past 14 years.'' By comparison, San Francisco, with only four runways, placed second from the bottom of the ''fly through'' list largely because of the nation's worst record of delays: 28% of departures and 42% of all arrivals. Airport officials blame their dismal record partly on the airlines' habit of scheduling many departures at the same hour. As Manny Weiss, program manager for system capacity for the FAA's Eastern Region, explains: ''Regardless of the technical efficiency of an airport, if four planes are supposed to leave at the same time each day, some of them will be delayed as much as 30 to 40 minutes.'' This is the case in spades at San Francisco, where 11 airlines schedule 28 flights to take off at 9 a.m. every morning. Delays are compounded when an airport serves as a hub, or flight center, for an airline, as San Francisco does for Pan Am, Pacific Southwest and United. In the hub-and-spoke system, which has become the norm since deregulation, each airline schedules most flights to originate in or terminate at a limited number of hub cities where passengers change planes. One solution to the airport squeeze: major renovations financed by the $6 billion Airport and Aviation Trust Fund, a money cache supported in part by the 8% U.S. tax you pay on airline tickets. The Administration authorized only $1.7 billion to be spent from the fund this year, half a billion dollars short of what Congress appropriated. Without needed overhauls, a federal task force predicted in March, the number of airports experiencing serious flight delays will more than double in the next eight years. On the bright side, our ''best airports to get stuck at'' list (page 134) can at least indicate which airports will be the nicest ones to be delayed in. Phoenix's Sky Harbor, with its Indian handicrafts, leads the list. There are handmade belts ($15 to $80) and snakeskin boots ($45 to $150) at Porter's Western Wear and Hopi Indian dolls ($72 to $140) at Godber's Indian shop. The fajitas and tortilla soup at the Fuente del Sol restaurant are recommended. And if you get bored, the city, the zoo, the Pueblo Grande Museum and two parks are all within a 30-minute drive. ''Phoenix is definitely the nicest airport to spend time in,'' says Peter Tanous, co-owner of the travel newsletter Frequent. ''You can even get terrific cactus plants (($10 to $45)) at the gift shops packed for transport home.'' Local specialties make San Francisco Airport a close second. There are California wine and cheese and Ghirardelli chocolate at the California Shoppe, not to mention the ever-present sourdough bread. Boston's Logan airport, with fresh lobsters and Steve's ice cream, placed third, Seattle/Tacoma (smoked salmon) fourth, and Denver (handmade silver jewelry) fifth. Several terminals are trying to improve the deservedly baleful reputation of airport food. Some have gone for quality dining: examples include Stapleton's Signature Room and Oyster Bar (average dinner entree: $16) with its magnificent view of the Rockies, Chicago's Seven Continents ($16.25) and the Captain's Table in Pittsburgh ($15). We also welcome fast-food outlets such as McDonald's at Minneapolis/St. Paul. While the food is standard, the tab is too -- a virtue compared with the inflated prices airport caterers sometimes charge. Eleven airports picked up points for maintaining rent-an-office centers (LAX has three) where business travelers can find desk, telephone, computer, copying machine, fax and so forth. Sometimes the office center doubles as a health club, as at the Air Vita fitness/office center in Phoenix. ''I like to have layovers in Phoenix,'' says Lauve Metcalfe of the Campbell Institute for Health & Fitness in Camden, N.J., ''because I can rent clothes, work out, take a sauna and also make my business calls in a quiet setting.'' Others prefer to do it themselves: Fred Lebow, president of the New York Road Runners Club and a founder of the New York Marathon, sometimes spends his layovers jogging the airport perimeter. Fortunately for Lebow and his fellow travelers, seven of the airports also offer rooms where you can shower and nap by the hour (cost at LAX's Skytel: $16 an hour). And for the ultimate in relaxation, next time you get stuck in Dallas, hop the shuttle van to the Hyatt Regency next door for tennis, racquetball, a dip in the pool or a round of golf on one of the hotel's two 18-hole courses (costs range from $11 to $37, depending on the time and day of the week; clubs rent for $22, shoes for $7.50). In addition to the usual diaper-changing areas, five airports -- San Francisco, Logan, La Guardia, Pittsburgh and Seattle -- feature play areas designed especially for the young. And if you are feeling sickly, you can get examined by a doctor during weekday business hours at 12 airports and have a tooth filled at two: Logan and JFK. While drawing up our ''best to get stuck in'' rating, we also factored in a necessarily subjective quality-of-life score based on our more than 100 hours of in-person reporting. Atlanta and Chicago suffered, for example, when our visitors found their restrooms dirty. (NBC sportscaster Marv Albert says he avoids O'Hare because ''the men's rooms are so disgusting.'') James McIntyre, the terminal director at Atlanta, replies that ''during our busiest times, with as many as 6,200 people on one concourse, we can't even get housekeeping into the bathroom to replace toilet tissue. We now use a dispenser that holds three rolls.'' Adds Cynthia-Val Jones at O'Hare: ''We are starting a major maintenance blitz.'' On the other hand, O'Hare boasts the best newsstands. Crime statistics for the airports are hard to come by, in part because officials are even more sensitive about them than restrooms. But every airport has occasional problems with baggage, car thieves and pickpockets, so take the normal precautions that you would in any public place. Another note of warning: Norman Crampton, author of the handy guide How to Get from the Airport to the City All Around the World (M. Evans, $4.95), advises that you ask the dispatcher how much the fare will be, then tell the driver what the dispatcher said. If the driver claims the fare is higher, resolve the dispute before the cab starts. Or avoid hassles altogether by waiting for a hotel-operated van. Finally, if your budget can tolerate it, a healthy gratuity ($1.50 to $2 per bag rather than the normal $1) often can help speed you on your way -- especially with overworked skycaps at the curbside check-in. The boost can be psychological as well as practical. Nancy Friedman, owner of Telephone Doctor, a St. Louis-based telephone consulting company, reports that a skycap there recently asked her, ''Do you go first class or just look that way?'' ''It made me feel terrific,'' she says. ''I didn't care if he said it to everybody, I still overtipped him.''

BOX: First Person Our writer recounts her weekend of endless airports

Saturday, 3:45 p.m. EST; La Guardia Airport, New York City. Most of the reporting is done, most of the facts are in. But my editors want me to visit -- or revisit -- as many airports as possible in just two days, for one more taste of airport life. First stop: the live lobster tank. Enticing, yes. But at $10.95 a pound, I pass them by. Saturday, 5:15 p.m. CST; O'Hare International Airport, Chicago. My connecting flight is half an hour late, so I wander through United's stunning new glass-enclosed terminal. With no other help available, weary travelers at the baggage claim are badgering a bus ticket agent for information on hotels and taxis. In another 24 hours, I may be just as frustrated. Saturday, 9 p.m. PST; San Francisco International Airport. The moving sidewalks whisk me to the main terminal, where there's a fascinating exhibit of five centuries' worth of Japanese toys, from simple dolls to video games. Outside, I wave down my hotel van. ''Lady,'' the driver snaps, ''didn't you look at the curb?'' Apparently, he can only stop at certain colors. But am I supposed to crawl on my hands and knees for guidance? Sunday, 12:05 p.m. MST; Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix. The Air Vita health club is an oasis from the 88 degrees heat outside. I pedal off 400 calories on the exercise bicycle, then reward myself with a double macadamia brittle (600 calories) from Haagen-Dazs. Sunday, 10 p.m. EST; Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. Sure, it's late. But even if it were high noon, having to trudge 10 minutes to the tram would be aggravating. No doubt about it, I'm starting to get cranky, and I still have 1,650 miles to go. Monday, 9 a.m. EST; still in Atlanta. This airport looks no better in daylight. I have to step over trash to get into the restroom. The restaurants are cafeteria-style. And there are barely enough seats at the gate for one flight, let alone the three that are boarding. Monday, 11:29 a.m. CST; back in Chicago. Because of construction, we ''deplane'' -- as the flight attendants put it -- onto the main runway in a 30 degrees chill. To reach my connecting flight, I take an elevator down, head through a tunnel, stand endlessly on the moving walkway, walk a little bit more, stand on yet another moving walkway, then upstairs and -- help -- I'm back where I started! After this runaround, I'm even looking forward to getting back on a plane.

Monday, 5:30 p.m. EST; Logan International Airport, Boston. Terminal C here is new and clean; there's a Legal Seafood shop and temptation at Steve's Ice Cream. But I've had it. I just switch terminals and head home. Monday, 8 p.m., EST; back at La Guardia. After seven flights, 6,451 miles, 12 hours of sleep in 52 hours, and a weight loss of three pounds, somebody stops me to ask if I want to join a frequent-flier program. No way! -- D.W.E.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: ILLUSTRATION BY WARREN ISENSEE Reported by Karoline Harrington, Kathleen Adams and the MONEY stringers CAPTION: How the major airports stack up The leaders of MONEY's survey of the 20 busiest airports are those that are | most convenient for passengers to use. Some, like the winner, Washington's National Airport, have few flight delays and are located close to town. Others offer distinctive shops and special services. Phoenix, for example, has a combination health club and office center. For separate rankings of the best airports to fly to, to fly through or to spend time in, see page 134. DESCRIPTION: See above.

CHART: THE BEST AND WORST AIRPORTS . . .

. . . TO FLY TO

BEST 1. Washington 2. Denver 3. Phoenix 4. Boston 5. La Guardia WORST 1. Dallas/Fort Worth 2. Los Angeles 3. Detroit 4. John F. Kennedy 5. Houston

. . . TO FLY THROUGH

BEST 1. Dallas/Fort Worth 2. Washington 3. Los Angeles 4. La Guardia 5. Atlanta WORST 1. Seattle/Tacoma 2. San Francisco 3. John F. Kennedy 4. St. Louis 5. Denver

. . . TO GET STUCK AT

BEST 1. Phoenix 2. San Francisco 3. Boston 4. Seattle/Tacoma 5. Denver WORST 1. Atlanta 2. Newark 3. Philadelphia 4. St. Louis 5. Minneapolis

CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: NO CAPTION DESCRIPTION: See above.