Phoenix Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport has topped the Wall Road Journal’s annual rating of one of the best airports within the U.S. for 2023.
The 2023 rating scored giant and midsize airports throughout the nation on 30 measures targeted on reliability, worth and comfort. It additionally factored in suggestions from prospects on what they like and dislike about airport options like parking and bogs.
“Residents of this desert metropolis have loads of gripes. One factor you’ll hear few complaints about: the airport,” Daybreak Gilbertson, a former shopper journey reporter for USA At the moment and The Arizona Republic, wrote within the WSJ’s report. “Phoenix Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport is a breeze to get to. It provides a stable lineup of airways and flights. And vacationers not often fret about flight delays and cancellations given the never-have-to-look-at-the-forecast climate.”
Sky Harbor final got here in at No. 1 within the Wall Road Journal rating in 2019.
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The place Phoenix Sky Harbor scored excessive within the WSJ 2023 airport rankings
The Phoenix airport scored excessive on a number of reliability measures, together with the common taxi day trip of the airport (No. 1 at 14 minutes, 56 seconds) and into the airport (No. 3 at 7 minutes, 6 seconds). Taxi instances are when flyers wait on the tarmac for the airplane to take off and to exit the airplane upon touchdown.
Even with the excessive marks, Sky Harbor is engaged on enhancing these wait instances. A brand new taxiway is being constructed with assist from $194 million in federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation.
Sky Harbor additionally ranked among the many airports with the fewest common departure and arrival delays and the fewest flight cancellations, which the Wall Road Journal attributed partly to Phoenix’s gentle year-round climate. Its common home round-trip airfare of $387 was among the many least costly within the nation.
It got here in because the No. 1 airport for many handy Uber journeys to town heart. The shut distance between the airport and downtown Phoenix — about 5.5 miles — was additionally a think about WSJ naming the Phoenix Conference Heart one of many nation’s high 10 conference facilities in September.
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The place Phoenix Sky Harbor scored low within the WSJ 2023 airport rankings
Sky Harbor’s poorest scores have been within the automotive rental score, one thing the Wall Road Journal attributed to the excessive price of rental vehicles they priced for a November weekend.
Regardless of that, vacationers whom WSJ surveyed praised the Rental Automobile Heart and its accessibility to the airport terminals through the PHX Sky Prepare. A undertaking extending the Sky Prepare to attach the terminals to the Rental Automobile Heart opened in time for Christmas 2022.
Like in J.D. Energy’s newest airport survey, Sky Harbor scored a low score for its eating places and bars. The airport is constant to bolster its eating availability.
Six new eating places opened in Terminal 4’s new Southwest concourse this 12 months, together with the primary airport location of celeb chef Bobby Flay’s restaurant Bobby’s Burgers. Two extra eating places, together with one from Meals Community star Man Fieri, are anticipated in 2024. And followers of the fast-casual Italian restaurant Fazoli’s rejoiced when it opened a kiosk at Terminal 4 in February.
Sky Harbor ranked 14th amongst airports for its variety of nonstop locations, with 127. Vacationers whom WSJ surveyed suppose the airport may use extra long-haul worldwide routes; it at the moment has simply three, two to London through American Airways and British Airways, and one to Frankfurt, Germany, through Condor Airways.
Whereas Sky Harbor officers proceed attempting to draw extra long-haul worldwide flights, airways are including routes to Canada and Mexico from Phoenix to satisfy the excessive demand for worldwide journey.
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