Sky Harbor earns No. 1 ranking
Wall Street Journal list praises Phoenix airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has pushed Denver out of the top spot as the best airport in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal in its newly released annual ranking of American airports.
In its 2019 report, the newspaper said its methodology included “five measures of operations, such as on-time arrivals, five measures of value, such as average fare, and five measures of convenience, including a grade from readers.”
For the last category, more than 2,500 Wall Street Journal subscribers offered their likes and dislikes.
The Journal also split this year’s rankings in two, ranking 20 large and 20 medium-size airports separately. Phoenix was No. 1 in the large airport category and Tampa International ranked highest among medium-size airports.
“Sky Harbor is the gateway to our state and the largest economic engine in Arizona,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in an emailed statement.
“It’s wonderful to see the airport being recognized for its focus on customer service, reliability and convenience on a national platform. This is a solid testament to both our airport employees and the hundreds of volunteer Navigators who donate their time at Sky Harbor.”
The Wall Street Journal’s rankings gives Sky Harbor high marks for its improved internet speed, high Yelp ratings for restaurants in the airport and inexpensive price of an Uber to downtown
Phoenix.
The airport also ranked high in ontime arrival. Perhaps the Valley’s great weather gives it a bit of an advantage over other airports in the country.
The areas where Phoenix was dinged? Its limited international service and the length of the walk from the curb to gate.
Closing out the bottom of both sets of rankings were New York’s metropolitan airports.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport ranked in the bottom two slots of the large airport category. New York’s LaGuardia Airport ranked last in the medium category.