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Following on from The Local’s coverage of the Spain’s best airlines, which you can find here and linked below, today we’re looking at the best airports in Spain.
Now, what constitutes a ‘good’ airport could mean many different things. Location and accessibility is one thing (nobody likes landing in a new place to realise they’ve then got another hour on the train or bus, do they?) but there’s also the customer service in the airport itself.
Most travellers care about punctuality, obviously, and many will also care about the shops and restaurants (or duty free) on offer if they’re stuck there during a long delay.
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AirHelp, a travel service company, has unveiled its annual AirHelp Score for 2024, ranking the world’s best airlines and airports. For them, the criteria was a combination of punctuality or ‘on time performance’, customer opinion rating, as well as a score for ‘food and shops’ facilities.
From that an overall score is calculated and airports are ranked, and five Spanish airports ranked in the top 100 globally.
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Here are the Spanish airports that made the cut:
Bilbao airport came 29th in the world ranking, an impressive result for a relatively small international airport. It obtained an overall score of 8.03 points, with 8.1 for punctuality, 8.1 in customer ratings and 7.8 in leisure facilities such as shops and restaurants.
Madrid-Barajas was ranked 50th, receiving an overall score of 7.92 with 7.9 for punctuality, 7.7 for customer ratings and 8 for services. Madrid is one of Europe’s best and busiest international airports. If you’re flying across the world from Spain, say to Latin America or Asia, the chances are you’ll pass through Barajas and have a layover there.
Ibiza airport came in at 78th with an average score of 7.77. Breaking down the results, the Balearic hub scored 7.5 for punctuality, 8.2 for customer ratings and 8.1 for shops and restaurants.
Barcelona El Prat finished 89th place with an overall score of 7.73. The Catalan capital airport, the second busiest in Spain, scored 7.6 for punctuality, 7.7 in customer ratings, and 8 for food and shop offerings.
An airplane takes off at the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport behind a pine forest. Photo: Pau BARRENA/AFP.
Seville airport squeezed into the global top 100, finishing in 98th place. The Andalusian airport scored a solid 7.68 overall, with an 8 for punctuality, 7.4 for customer rating, and 7 for its leisure offerings.
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In terms of passengers, Madrid and Barcelona airports are far and away the busiest in Spain, so it’s impressive both cracked the top 100 internationally despite handling such volume.
Madrid-Barajas recorded the highest number of passengers in Spain in 2023 with 60,220,984, according to figures from Aena, Spain’s airport network.
It was followed by Barcelona-El Prat, with 49,909,544 passengers.
Following that there was a significant drop-off in passenger volume: Palma de Mallorca, with 31,105,987; Málaga-Costa del Sol (22,344,373); Alicante-Elche (15,747,678); Gran Canaria (13,961,638); Tenerife Sur (12,337,244); and Valencia Manises (9,948,141).
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