World's coolest airports: hubs of sky-high style

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 15 years ago

World's coolest airports: hubs of sky-high style

Loading

Walking to the day spa at Munich Airport is a travel experience in its own right. You stroll through the eight-storey-high atrium of the Kempinski Hotel Airport Munich, a vast edifice designed by Chicago architect Helmut Jahn and resembling a glass cathedral.

Decor in the atrium consists of potted geraniums on glass shelves soaring to the skies, artificial palm trees of enormous size, gleaming red chairs, green-glowing translucent floor tiles and curtain-like walls of glass.

If, however, you prefer to wait in the bar rather than the spa, try Munich's Airbrau, the world's first airport brewery. Rich Bavarian beers are concocted on the premises in huge copper kettles. Or just settle for a strong coffee and a newspaper - they're provided free.

Munich Airport, recently named the best venue of its kind in Europe (for the fourth consecutive year) by air services evaluator Skytrax, typifies a new breed of super airport: spacious and highly efficient, speeding passengers between terminals while delivering everything from massage and spa treatments to fine dining and name-brand shopping.

The world's top air hubs are sharpening their acts, improving facilities and adding spaces for passengers to dine, shop, shower, entertain their children, drink in civilised surroundings and relax before flights. Grand new airports are springing up around the world, with some particularly ambitious ones under way in Gulf states - including the world's biggest, in Dubai.

The British-based Skytrax, which distils data from more than 8 million airline passenger questionnaires to produce its annual rankings, places Hong Kong in top slot as the world's best airport, followed by Singapore Changi, Seoul Incheon and Kuala Lumpur. Munich snared fifth place.

Hong Kong International Airport has won the top Skytrax award seven times in the past 10 years. One of the world's busiest passenger and freight hubs, it enjoys the advantage of being comparatively new. It opened in 1998, as did Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Hong Kong's new airport replaced Kai Tak, inaugurated in 1925 and long considered one of the world's most spine-tingling airstrips on which to land.

Advertisement

Kai Tak's single runway, jutting into Victoria Harbour, required incoming planes to fly alongside massed skyscrapers.

By day, airline passengers zooming in from the sky would flash past Hong Kong residents hanging out their washing. By night, you could see the flickering of televisions behind windows. The approach was particularly thrilling in a monsoon. Nowadays, Hong Kong's airport is less hair-raising but infinitely more spacious and sleek. It offers shopping on par with the world's finest malls. Outlets include Christian Dior, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, Bally and Hugo Boss.

You can zip into Hong Kong Central on the train in less than 25 minutes - or switch to the Disneyland Resort line for entertainment of a different sort.

Hong Kong's airport is a major challenger to Singapore Changi, long considered the world's most convenient airport by many travellers and keen to retain its standing.

Today's mega-airports are the 21st-century equivalents of the great railway stations of the Victorian age, transport temples such as New York's Grand Central Station and St Pancras in London.

Airports have evolved into stand-alone enterprises, turning over millions of dollars from retail and accommodation, as well as from air transport. New examples are built on stupendous scales to create a feeling of light and airy spaciousness. Beijing's international Terminal 3, which opened in time for the Olympics, typifies the breed.

Designed to look like a Chinese dragon, it is the world's second-largest building (after Aalsmeer flower auction house in Amsterdam).

As well as dishing up fine dining and duty-free shopping, the world's top airports concentrate on the basics. Clear signage is crucial to let passengers know where they need to be and when. Between long-haul flights, somewhere to shower and sleep for a few hours is wonderfully welcome.

Transit hotels help and Asian airports excel. Singapore offers the Ambassador Transit Hotel in Terminals 1, 2 and 3, a haven of peaceful serenity where staff wake you gently in time to catch your onward flight.

Seoul provides the Incheon Airport Transit Hotel in the transfer area; Kuala Lumpur has the Airside Transit Hotel (plus a reflexology centre to help you unwind) and at Tokyo Narita, you can rent rooms by the hour.

Outside Asia, London's Gatwick Airport (busiest single-runway airport in the world) offers Yotel, developed by a sushi restaurant chain and based on the Japanese "capsule hotel" model. Hong Kong International Airport's Travellers' Lounge is equipped with showers and reclining chairs for napping.

In aviation's earlier years, such comfort was unheard of. Airports (often called aerodromes) were little more than refuelling stops.

Airlines fed most of their passengers on the ground in the days before frozen food and microwave ovens. Airport menu staples included sausage rolls, hot omelettes, macaroni, peas and salmon, tinned fruit, mineral water and condensed milk. Passengers in the 1950s would have swooned to glimpse the lavish lounges today's airlines lay on for business and first-class travellers.

Top contenders include the Qantas First Class facilities at Sydney Airport, designed by Marc Newson, and Virgin Atlantic's Clubhouse facility at London Heathrow. Flying economy class doesn't necessarily preclude you from dropping into a lounge between flights. Travellers' lounges run by the Plaza Premium group are available in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. They may not be quite as sumptuous as the premium lounges provided by airlines but they are more egalitarian - you just pay an entry fee.

HIGH-FLYER FAVOURITE

Everyone has their favourite airport and the Sydney-based chiefs of major travel firms, who travel for a living, are no exception. Here are a few of their choices:

* "Hong Kong International - it's a breeze to navigate from curbside to departure gate. Good access, shopping and plenty of things to keep you amused whilst waiting for your flight." - Andrew Yell, general manager, Creative Holidays.

* "Denver airport in Colorado. The Mexican food is great and there's a wide variety of beer available for the thirsty traveller. It's a very easy and convenient airport to navigate throughout." - Stewart Williams, managing director Australasia, Globus.

* "Ayers Rock - it is unique to fly into, travellers receive a warm welcome from friendly staff, everyone is smiling. It works!" - Les Cox, managing director, AAT Kings.

* "Sydney Airport - because when I'm there, I'm always going somewhere interesting. And the lounges there are first rate." - Matthew Bryant, managing director, YQ4 Travel.

* "Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, because it is more like a shopping mall than an airport, which means there is plenty to do and see while waiting for delayed flights." - Paul McGrath, managing director, Trafalgar Tours.

* "Changi, Singapore because if you have time to kill, there are plenty of things to do - swim, get a massage, shop, eat at a restaurant. There are also good facilities to refresh." - Tammy Marshall, managing director, Contiki.

* "When travelling to the US, my favourite airport is LAX [Los Angeles International]. It is easy to navigate because it is one big circle. It offers some great food options and it's well organised for handling large volumes of passengers. Changi airport in Singapore is my favourite when travelling from Australia to Europe due to the ease of being able to have a shower, find a bed if necessary and even take a massage."- Lorraine Sharp, managing director, Insight Vacations.

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading