The Best Airports in the United States: 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards
Unforgettable food. Cutting-edge design. Immersive experiences. These are some of your top criteria for judging what makes a quality hotel—not to mention a worthy resort, cruise, spa, or island. In tallying up the 575,048 votes cast in our 37th annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey, we were struck by both your eagerness to embrace the new and your reverence for tried-and-true classics. Your favorite hotel in the five boroughs is the two-year-old Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, but you also can’t stop returning to storied French Polynesian resort The Brando. You’ve jetted through the sprawling Istanbul International Airport, booked intrepid sailings to Antarctica, and fallen in love with historic yet innovative cities like Copenhagen. Read on to start planning your next round of travels—these are the best airports in the United States, as voted by our readers.
View the Readers' Choice Award winners for best airports in the world here.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
Westhoff/Getty10. Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)
Detroit's state-of-the-art airport blew our readers away this year for a variety of reasons—fine restaurants, extensive shopping options, cleanliness, efficiency. But it's the major, futuristic touches—like the ExpressTram, an automated train painted cherry red, that carries passengers along a stretch of Edward H. McNamara terminal (a helpful touch considering this is the world's second-longest airport concourse)—that put DTW on the list this year. At the center of that same terminal sits a 39-foot-wide fountain that shoots water in sporadic arcs and darts, inspired by the lines of a flight map.
Courtesy Portland International Airport9. Portland (Oregon) International Airport (PDX)
PDX gets a lot of love from readers for being easy to access—and not just by roads. Bike paths and a MAX light rail line make it one of the best-connected airports in the US. Its food and shopping choices offer fliers a chance to sample Portland specialties, like java from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, local whiskeys at the House Spirits Tasting Room, and handmade goods from Tender Loving Empire. In a nod to the city's creative side, the airport has a 17-seat movie theater that screens short films 24/7, free of charge. Great local shops (yes, Nike counts as local) and free Wi-Fi, too, make this one of the most traveler-friendly airports around.
8. Hartford Bradley International Airport (BDL)
More travelers have discovered Hartford, Connecticut’s airport—now New England’s second-busiest airfield after Boston Logan—thanks to a recent surge in new flights, including the arrival of Breeze Airways, the latest startup from JetBlue founder David Neeleman. Customers praise the airport's convenient on-site parking, plentiful charging stations, free Wi-Fi, and an overall relaxed atmosphere, making this mid-sized facility an attractive alternative to flying out of New York’s and Boston’s monster hubs.
RaksyBH / Alamy Stock Photo7. Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport (PVD)
Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport gets kudos from fliers as a “great little airport” that’s easy to reach and to navigate: More than two-thirds of New England’s population lives within a 75-minute drive of the Providence airfield. Long favored by budget carriers as a less expensive alternative to Boston Logan, the airport has been growing steadily in recent years and is well-positioned to benefit from a resurgence in domestic air travel. Next year, in fact, PVD will become a hub for the new Breeze Airways, with 44 weekly departures expected by 2027.
Seamus Payne/Courtesy Tampa International Airport6. Tampa International Airport (TPA)
Tampa's airport has long felt like a vision of the future from 50 years ago—because it was. But thanks to $1 billion worth of upgrades, TPA is poised to jet into this century and beyond. A new SkyConnect people-mover system, with high-tech trains from Japan, is making this already convenient airport (which is very close to downtown) more accessible than ever. Also new: automated e-gates that allow fliers to scan their own boarding passes at the shuttles leading to airside concourses and new public artworks, including an Instagram-friendly, 21-foot-tall flamingo sculpture poking its head below the surface of the water (aka the ceiling).
Alamy5. Palm Beach International Airport (PBI)
Palm Beach’s airport is tiny next to busy rival Ft. Lauderdale; even before the pandemic, the annual passenger count was under 7 million. But that’s why it’s beloved by regulars, with some online reviewers even calling it “quaint.” Fliers like the ease of getting in and out, the lack of lines and crowded gates, and the plentiful food and beverage options, and thanks to expanded service from airlines like Frontier and Breeze Airways, even more travelers will be able to enjoy its abundant charms. For amusement, there’s a putting green beyond security, and even a full-service spa to ease the stress of flying—though, at PBI, you may not need it.
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4. Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP)
MSP has continued to score high with readers for its extensive food, dining, and entertainment options—so much so that it may make you forget you're here to, you know, leave. No fewer than 50 stores sell brand-name clothing and shoes, and there’s even a special Prince pop-up shop, where you can stock up on books, vinyl records, apparel, and tickets to tour the High Priest of Pop’s Minnesota estate and studio, Paisley Park. On the dining front, standouts include Smack Shack, which began in 2010 as a food truck and now serves a menu that includes lobster rolls (including a vegetarian version made with oyster mushrooms!) and fried shrimp po’boys, while the Blue Door Pub is a great place to try a Twin Cities staple, the cheese-stuffed Juicy Lucy.
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Courtesy Indianapolis International Airport3. Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
Indianapolis's airport has long been one of the top-scorers in our survey, and there’s no secret why. Even as it grew to accommodate nearly 10 million passengers a year—a sizable increase for this mid-sized facility—it has retained the qualities that have made it a perennial favorite. Travelers praise its outstanding design features (it was the first airport in the US to earn LEED certification for an entire terminal campus), as well as its convenient shopping and dining options, including outposts of Indy favorites like Sun King Brewery and Tinker Coffee Co.
Peter Garritano2. LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
In a New York City miracle, LaGuardia has transformed from one of the world’s most loathed airports to one of our readers’ favorites thanks to an $8 billion renovation. The brand-new Terminal C—a bright and airy concourse home to Delta Air Lines—opened to passengers in June 2022 with floor-to-ceiling windows and outposts of local restaurants like Bubby’s of Tribeca. The expansive 1.3 million-square-foot Terminal B is equally aesthetic, but also highly efficient with three times the space for security checks and TSA lanes equipped with automated bin systems and advanced imaging technology. It truly is a “A Whole New LaGuardia,” as the yellow and blue signs promised for the six brutal years it was under construction.
Courtesy Savannah Hilton Head International Airport1. Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV)
SAV is not a particularly busy airport, but it’s that smallness, not to mention its town square–inspired layout, that makes it feel intimate and inviting. Travelers might feel as if they’ve been transported back in time to a historic Southern street, complete with benches and a large clock. Here, they can shop for cigars or golfing gear and dine at the PGA Tour Grill. It might come as little surprise that this Georgia airport was once named the “happiest” in the country—in a survey by a dating site, no less.
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