Newcastle Airport flying high

Newcastle airport has been found to be the best performing large airport in the country by a survey carried out by Which?

The new research gave Newcastle International 69%, compared to London Southend, which was flying high on 84%.

Smaller airports tended to outperform larger ones, the survey found.

Newcastle Airport is the 11th busiest airport in the UK, carrying nearly 4.5m passengers and boasting a £1.7m rise in revenues in 2012.

It is expected that £70 million will be invested in the airport during the current ‘Master Plan’ period, which runs from 2006 to 2016.

Dave Laws, chief executive of Newcastle International Airport, said: “We are delighted at the results of the latest Which? passenger survey, which places Newcastle top amongst the larger airports.

“This is very much in line with us securing the AOA Award for best regional airport for four years in a row, and is welcome recognition for our dedicated staff and business partners who work hard to deliver a high quality customer experience.”

Only three of the UK’s largest airports made it into the top ten; Newcastle, Birmingham Terminal 1 (66%) and London Heathrow Terminal 5 (66%).

London Luton was grounded with a customer score of just 43% and only two stars in almost all categories including speed of check-in, airport environment and toilets.

London Heathrow’s Terminal 1 (45%) and Terminal 3 (46%) also scored poorly with a dismal two stars for airport design.

Which? also found that online check-in is failing to put an end to lengthy queues at airports with very little difference in the time people waited at check-in desks compared to bag drop desks after checking in online.

The member survey revealed Stansted airport consistently had the longest waits for check-in and bag drop and Southend airport again scored highly, with the average waiting time for bag drop 8 minutes, half the 16 minutes that you’d wait, on average, to drop off a bag at Stansted.

A third of Which? members list queuing as one of the most frustrating aspects of air travel.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “Our research shows a jumbo jet-sized gap in the performance of UK airports with smaller terminals generally performing better. It is clear some of our major airports have some work to do if they are to keep more of their passengers satisfied.”

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