The Nation’s Best, and Worst, Airports

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WSJ Your Money Briefing 8 min 3 speakers 2 chapters transcribed 2 months ago
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ReliaQuest Advertiser 0:00
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J.R. Whalen 0:30
Here's your Money Briefing for Wednesday, November 23rd. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. The holiday season marks a big test for the nation's airports.
Dawn Gilbertson 0:44
Really what matters in the end to travelers is, you know, no amount of New York bagels is going to keep passengers happy if they're stuck at the airport for hours.
J.R. Whalen 0:55
So what are airports doing to improve customer service and get you to where you're going? We'll talk with WSJ travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson about the Wall Street Journal's rankings for the nation's best and worst airports. After the break.
ReliaQuest Advertiser 1:08
This podcast is brought to you by ReliaQuest. Cyber criminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation. ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense, AI that detects, contains, and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest, agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at ReliaQuest.com. That's R-E-L-I-A-Q-U-E-S-T.com.
J.R. Whalen 1:45
The Transportation Security Administration expects travel volumes this week could approach pre-pandemic levels, with 2.5 million passengers or more passing through U.S. airports on the busiest days.

What holiday travel pressures are testing U.S. airports this season?

J.R. Whalen 1:56
So which of the nation's airports are best prepared to handle the crowds and keep passengers happy? Dawn Gilbertson writes the Carry On Travel column for The Wall Street Journal, and she joins us with the WSJ's rankings of the best and worst airports. Hey, Dawn, thanks for being with us.
Dawn Gilbertson 2:11
Oh, thanks for having me again.
J.R. Whalen 2:12
So, you know, Dawn, it seems like the nation's airports always come under the spotlight at this time of the year. This holiday season is a big test for the airports when you consider the chronic delays and the mishaps that happened over the summer.
Dawn Gilbertson 2:24
Yeah. I mean, anybody who flew, you know, say early in the summer, you know, saw the mess and all the headlines that, you know, delays at airports, lost luggage, worker shortages. So airlines have been working around the clock to add employees. And we're talking thousands of employees in some cases at, you know, at individual airlines. So they say they're ready.
J.R. Whalen 2:44
So how'd you go about ranking the airports? What was most important?
Dawn Gilbertson 2:47
Well, we have 19 metrics in our rankings. And by the way, this is the first time we have done the airport rankings since before the pandemic. So the last one was in 2019. So 19 factors from on-time arrivals to the price of an Uber to even the price of a bottle of water. The most important factor that we used this year was reliability. Nine of the metrics are things that really matter to travelers. Everything about getting in and out of the airport on time in terms of your flights.
J.R. Whalen 3:19
All right, well, let's end the suspense. Which airport came out on top?
Dawn Gilbertson 3:22
Well, in the major airport category, so it's the 20 busiest airports, the winner might surprise people. It's the San Francisco International Airport. Anybody who's traveled through there may have been hit by a fog delay over the years, but San Francisco really, really shined in on-time performance. I mean, our top three were San Francisco, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. And what Atlanta and Minneapolis did well was the same thing that landed San Francisco at the top. Their flights were on time, and they scored really well in customer satisfaction. And the metric we use for that is the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey for airports.

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