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This Just In: Newark & LaGuardia Are The Worst Airports In America
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Dec 16, 2015
Modified Dec 16, 2015
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Ben Yakas Design Studio
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Dec 16, 2015
Modified Dec 16, 2015
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A new ranking of all the airports in the United States was released this week, and lo and behold, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia are the top two worst, which is news that will shock absolutely no one who has ever been to or even vaguely heard about either.
The rankings were put together by calculation site Travelmath, which crunched data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on everything from canceled flights, to delays, to average fares, to TSA claims. Our beloved Newark clocked in at 322nd out of...322 airports ranked, while LaGuardia clutched at its ankles at number 321. And lest you think John F. Kennedy Airport is the tri-state area's savior, that bad boy came in at number 315—ahead of Dulles in D.C. and Chicago O'Hare, but behind Dallas/Fort Worth.
There are a number of factors that make NYC-area airports the worst, not the least of which is the TSA claims—according to Travelmath, JFK had a whopping 644 claims against the TSA regarding damaged, lost or stolen items in 2015, climbing well ahead of Los Angeles International's 454 claims. There's also the fact that our airports are some of the biggest, making flight delays, tricky connections, long taxiing times and related confusion more likely.
Still, when ranked alongside airports of similar sizes, JFK and Newark are still far shittier than Miami International, Baltimore-Washington International, Ronald Reagan Airport in DC, and Chicago Midway. LaGuardia is too crappy to even make the top ten among its smaller brethren. If you've ever flown Southwest out of LaGuardia and wondered why the terminal is basically just a double-wide trailer next to the saddest bar on earth, you'll know why.
Then again, the best airport, according to Travelmath, is Canyonlands Field. That airport is in Utah, and you do not need to go there.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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