Best and worst airports in Scotland revealed as small hub takes top spot

SCOTLAND’S best and worst airports have been ranked in a new study.

And the highest-rated air hub in the country is also among the UK’s top ten.

Airports have been judged concerning queues at check-in, queues at bad drop, queues at security, queues at passport control, baggage reclaim, seating, and staff.

Consumer site Which? has also compared ratings of food and drink prices, selection of shops, bars and restaurants, and toilet availability.

One of Scotland’s smallest flight hubs took the top spot.

With a customer score of 70 per cent, Inverness Airport was rated the country’s best,

The Highlands airport was ranked ninth in the UK.

Inverness Airport received four out of five stars for security queues, staff, and toilets.

It also gained three stars for its seating availability.

Glasgow was ranked as the second-best airport in Scotland and 12th in the UK.

It received a customer score of 62 per cent, with its seating, staff, toilets, baggage reclaim and queues at the check-in desks, bag drops, and security receiving positive ratings.

But Scotland’s second biggest airport only received two stars for its passport control queues and the selection and prices of its shops, bars, and restaurants.

Edinburgh Airport, the country’s busiest, was ranked third and 15th in the UK.

It received a customer score of 57 per cent, with three stars for its range of shops, bars, and restaurants, staff, toilets, and queues at check-in desks, bag drops, and security.

But two stars were given for passport control queues, baggage reclaim, seating, and shop, bar and restaurant prices.

Aberdeen Airport was ranked the worst in Scotland with a customer score of 56 per cent.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport was rated the best in the UK, with five stars given for staff and bag drop and security queues, and a customer score of 81 per cent.

The Merseyside air hub was followed by London City (80 per cent) and Norwich (78 per cent).

A spokesperson for HIAL, which operates Inverness Airport, said: “Our team at Inverness Airport is dedicated to providing a high standard of customer service for all our passengers and visitors and we regularly receive very positive feedback.”

But Edinburgh Airport hit out at the findings from Which?

A spokesperson said: “This report is of no use to passengers as it is based on opinion and perception rather than fact and data. It’s not a robust study from Which? – a fee-paying organisation aiming to gain more subscribers.

“As an airport we use data to display our security wait times on our website and we provide a weekly round-up of times on our social media channels. We think it’s important to reliably inform our passengers and 96.1% move through security within 15 minutes.

“We’ll continue to share data that is useful to passengers and would encourage readers to look closely at the methodology and approached used in this study by Which? and evaluate whether it actually is focused on them or the organisation itself.”

A spokesperson for AGS Airports, which operates Aberdeen and Glasgow, said: “We put our passengers at the heart of everything we do and, we continue to strive to deliver for our passengers and Scotland. In order to maintain our high levels of service we continually seek feedback from the millions of passengers who use our airports.

“For context with this survey, the sample sizes for both Glasgow and Aberdeen represent 0.02% of the passenger figures for each airport for April 2024.”

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