French airports among ‘worst in world’ in new ranking
French airports have been classed as among the worst in the world, with Paris-Orly taking 126th place on the list of 132 global airports, and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle taking 121st place.
The major issues in France included punctuality (for which French airports received an average score of 60%), service quality (20%) and the shopping and restaurant/refreshment options (20%).
Of all the French airports listed, Toulouse-Blagnac (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie) performed the best, taking 89th place in the ranking.
The 2019 list - the seventh annual ranking of its kind - was compiled by AirHelp, a company that specialises in airport passenger rights and compensation.
To score well, airports did not need to have any particularly stand-out features or unusual attractions; rather they were scored on straightforward, basic factors such as time performance, service quality, and food and shopping options.
The Hamad airport in Doha, Qatar, took the top spot; closely followed by Tokyo Haneda (Japan), and Athens (Greece).
Also in the top 10 were Afonso Pena (Brazil), Gdansk Lech Wałęsa (Poland), Sheremetyevo (Russia), Changi (Singapore), Rajiv Gandhi (India), Tenerife North (Spain), and Viracopos/Campinas (Brazil).
The worst airport, at number 132 of 132, was Lisbon Portela (Portugal).
Also in the bottom 10 were Kuwait (Kuwait), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Henri Coanda (Romania), Malta (Malta), Porto (Portugal), Billy Bishop Toronto City (Canada), and Manchester and Gatwick (UK).
AirHelp recommended that French airports should “engage the different airline companies in discussions” to help solve their problem of poor punctuality.
Paris-Orly has arguably already begun to take steps to improve the quality of its passengers’ experience, as it continues to build a new 80,000 m2 extension, which will link the old South and West terminals, in a bid to help improve passenger movement and flow.
