New research has found the world’s most stressful airport – and it’s bad news for the UK.
London Gatwick Airport has been named the most stressful after visa advice website VisaGuide.World quizzed 1,642 air passengers of 53 different nationalities who made at least two international air trips in 2023.
They were asked what aspects of air travel stressed them out the most. These turned out to be a high number of passengers, large airports often difficult to navigate due to their size, crowded airports, the frequency of flight delays and the distance from the city centre.
Using these concerns, Gatwick Airport – the UK’s second largest airport – was named the most stressful.
Although the number of passengers that use Gatwick is below average compared to other airports, it has one of the highest passenger density scores.
It takes second place for the percentage of annual delays, with the distance from London’s city centre making it not the easiest to reach as well.
The data shockingly found that half of the top ten most stressful airports are in Europe, with Turkey’s Istanbul taking second place on the list.
It is Europe’s busiest with 64,289,107 passengers recorded in 2022, which makes it the world’s seventh busiest airport. Travellers say they find it difficult to navigate due to its large size spanning over 76 million square metres.
In third place is Germany’s Munich Airport – recording less than half of Istanbul’s footfall. But despite this, it still experiences its fair share of delays.
Denver International Airport in the US takes fourth place, with London’s Heathrow Airport coming in at fifth.
Heathrow is Europe’s second busiest airport with 61,614,508 passengers and it is even smaller than Munich airport.
Los Angeles International Airport takes sixth place on the list, with seventh coming in at Rome–Fiumicino International Airport.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport takes eighth, John F. Kennedy International Airport gets ninth, and O’Hare International Airport is the tenth most stressful airport in the world.
