Worlds Best & Worst Airports For Connecting Flights 2024

Selecting The Best Airports For Making Connecting Flights And Ones To Really Avoid Can Save Your Holiday

Calculating airport time is always a major part of travel planning. Arriving an hour before your flight can often not be nearly enough time. When booking flights that include connections what’s the minimum time you need to make it to the next departure gate? Trying to avoid a tight connection could leave you with extra hours in the airport but missing the connection can cost a whole day or more. When booking a cruise or a package tour often you are dependent on their booking office unless you’re willing to pay an up-charge and our experience would indicate that it’s money well spent*.

Welcome to Mumbai

After you’ve missed enough connections you start paying attention to which airports are the worst and which are the best for making those connections. In looking at reviews of airports there are some common threads that help define the best and worst. The better airports for connections have a high rate of on-time departures and arrivals, good layouts and modern internal transportation, well staffed security and passport checkpoints and a reputation for assisting people with tight connections. Following are the results of a 2019 study of airports and their connecting times.

Worst Airports For Making a Connecting Flight

Madrid Adolfo Suarez – Barajas Airport (MAD) +1.75 Hours
Frankfurt International (FRA): +1.5 Hours
London Heathrow (LHR): +1.5 Hours
Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG): +1.25 Hours
Shanghai Pudong International (PVG): +1.2 Hours
Los Angeles International (LAX): +1 Hour
Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD): +1 Hour
Tokyo Narita International (NRT): +1 Hour
Boston Logan International (BOS): +1 Hour
Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) +1 Hou

Best Airports for Making a Connecting Flight

Zurich Airport (ZRH): <10 minutes
Salt Lake City International (SLC): <15 minutes
Tampa International (TPA): <15 minutes
Orlando International (MCO): <15 minutes
Charlotte Douglas International (CLT): <20 minutes
Denver International (DEN): <20 minutes
London Stansted (STN): <20 minutes
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL): <25 minutes
Dubai International (DXB): <25 minutes
Hong Kong International (HKG): <25 minutes

This won’t guarantee you can avoid missing connections but it can go a long way when planning for that trip.

Of course there had to be an App to help. If you fly a lot FlightConnections can be a real asset. So don’t waste hours searching airports, airlines, flights and connections. Visit the website here FlightConnections! or download the app in Apple App Store or Google Play.

FLIGHTCONNECTIONS FEATURES:

Interactive Flight Route Map.
Plan a trip based on your preferred departure airport.
Find new, nearby airports on the map.
Filter by airline or travel alliance.
Discover airline routes and flight schedules / timetables.
Compare direct flights or connecting flights.
Show connecting flights with one or two stops.
Show connecting flights with different airlines, or the same airline only.
Find cheap flights and book flight tickets for the best price available.

SINGAPORE – 18 NOV, 2016: Travelers enter immigration control at Changi International Airport in Singapore.

*Often it is difficult to take control of your flight bookings if you’re using a cruise line or tour company to include flights. Let’s face it their first priority is profit and the truth is that you are much more concerned about the potential for missing flights than those agents. Our experience tells us when it’s important to pay the additional charge to avoid too short connections. Also we’ve found that if you argue with them and provide a strong case you can often get better connections.

We’ve also found a number of travel companies that are famous for booking connections that are either too short or have excessive layovers (8 plus hours) and most often they are travel itineraries that include flights. Land tours and river cruises are usually the worst.