Sky Harbor ranks No. 2 for dining at airports
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s restaurant lineup has scored more kudos. A report out Tuesday from fledgling frequent-flier site RewardExpert ranks Sky Harbor the second-best major U.S. airport for dining. The airport, which completed a multiyear restaurant makeover focused on local restaurants in 2014, scored 4 out of 5 points, second only to a perfect score by Denver International Airport.
The ratings by RewardExpert, a yearold free service that helps travelers maximize their frequent-flier points for free flights, are based on a combination of satisfaction, price and quality. The scores are based on nearly 75,000 reviews on Yelp, as well as data from Zagat, J.D. Power and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which ranks airports on their healthy menu items, according to the report.
Sky Harbor, whose score is based in part on nearly 5,500 traveler reviews of restaurants there, had the highest quality score per reviewer and is the fourth least expensive major airport for dining.
The restaurants scoring the highest based on reviews on Yelp and Zagat: Wildflower Bread Co., Chelsea’s Kitchen and Cowboy Ciao. All are in busy Terminal 4, which is home to American and Southwest airlines, the airport’s dominant carriers.
Sky Harbor’s restaurant makeover focused on Terminal 4, though the airport is adding restaurants to tiny Terminal 2 and will do the same in Terminal 3 when a renovation there is finished in a few years. OHSO Brewery opened on Saturday in Terminal 2.
The RewardExpert report ranks 20 airports. The worst performers, each scoring 1.5 or less out of 5: the three airports in metropolitan New York: Newark, JFK and LaGuardia.
Travel ticker
American Airlines continued to shrink at Sky Harbor in January.
The airline, which has cut flights and brought in smaller planes on many routes as it continues reshaping its network after the 2013 merger with Tempebased US Airways, saw passenger counts decline 4.6 percent in January from a year ago. That is on top of a 7 percent annual decline in 2016. American remains the airport’s biggest carrier, with nearly 1.6 million passengers in January.
Southwest Airlines, the No. 2 carrier, saw January passenger traffic rise 2.3 percent to 1.15 million. Frontier was the big gainer, posting a 137 percent jump, from about 35,000 passengers to nearly 83,000 as it added more destinations.
Overall airport traffic for the month was flat with 3,492,291 passengers, up 0.1 percent from January 2016. Details: skyharbor.com.
Allegiant Airlines, which serves nearly three dozen cities out of PhoenixMesa Gateway Airport in east Mesa, has extended its flight schedule for bookings through Nov. 14. Southwest, which also opens its schedule in shorter windows than most major airlines, said that on March 16 it will open its schedule through Nov. 3. Southwest is currently accepting reservations through Sept. 29.
Details: allegiantair.com, southwest.com