The Top Luxury Airports in Europe and the Wider World

With international travel slowly but surely back on the agenda and summer right around the corner, the time to treat yourself to a truly extravagant holiday is most definitely now. And when you’re splashing out, it’s not just the destination that should be as opulent as possible…

Whether it’s a layover or the end of your journey, the airport you’re landing at can be a real opportunity to put your feet up, spend some cash, and enjoy a range of fine dining too. And before or after a long flight, who wouldn’t want to travel through an airport you can do all this in?

To help make sure every aspect of your holiday caters to the finer things in life, we’ve scoped out airports from around the world, investigating their overall star ratings, their number of lounges and a host of other features to see which afford the most luxury to those on their travels.

Thinking of jetting off soon? You just might want to pass through one of the airports from our research below…

Identifying the world’s most luxurious airports: What we did

So, just how did we find the most opulent airports across the globe?

To begin with, we collated and then narrowed down approximately 100 top airports from around the world. We then identified certain attributes that would help us to assign a final score to each at the end.

These attributes were as follows:

• Star rating: From our list of airports, we identified the star rating they’d garnered over at Skytrax.

• No. of luxury brands sold: From each airport’s website, we tallied the number of luxury brands, rather than shops, that were stocked there. We also discounted high street brands that tended to be relatively more accessible.

• No. of table service restaurants: Here, we identified restaurants where food is brought to patrons. Anything that required customers to queue at a counter to then collect their food was discounted, as well as any fast-food outlets, coffee chains and bars or pubs that didn’t sell food.

• No. of lounges: We then counted the number of areas that travellers could relax and unwind in while waiting for flights.

• Cleanliness rating: We headed back over to Skytrax again to pinpoint the cleanliness of public areas across each airport.

• Google review score: Finally, we searched for each airport in Google and made a note of the star rating they had garnered from their reviews.

Using these data points, we assigned a final score to each airport, allowing us to measure the luxuriousness of each location.

The World’s Top 10 Luxury Airports

Europe’s Top 10 Luxury Airports

Taking the top spot for Europe’s most luxurious airport, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport garnered a total index score of 67 out of 100. And from its Google reviews, it’s easy to see why: “It gets better every time I visit”, gushed one very happy traveller.

Switzerland also had a very strong showing, with Zurich Airport coming joint second with Germany’s Frankfurt Airport (both had a total index score of 66). Again, reviews were nothing less than effusive. Zurich, in particular, had its fair share of plaudits, being named a “world class airport” by one reviewer and “one of the most beautiful airports I have ever been to” by another. Frankfurt Airport, meanwhile, was noted for being “by far one of the best airport experiences” in its Google reviews. Germany’s Munich Airport also garnered the fourth-place spot.

Italy fared well too, landing two airports in the top ten, Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino, with scores of 57 and 52 respectively. The UK, Denmark, Turkey, and the Netherlands also shared one place apiece.

Europe’s Worst 10 Luxury Airports

With low scores for designer brands, fine dining and the number of lounges, Belfast International Airport is the worst luxury airport we found in our research. And the reviews certainly echo the low number of amenities too: “An unmitigated disaster” seethed one, “utterly pathetic” noted another, while “the management should be ashamed at how antiquated [it] is” suggests the place is in need of a total renovation.

Despite two places in the top ten list, Italy also accounted for two airports in our worst ten list too, with both Naples International Airport and Venice Marco Polo making appearances with scores of 34 apiece. The former was even branded an “absolute disappointment” by one Google review.

The second-worst airport on the list, Rhodes Airport, also scored low for each of our attributes, with a particularly damning review emphasising its ill-equipped amenities: “Still no air con in a full terminal”. With summer edging ever closer, nobody wants to sit around for their flight in hot temperatures with nothing to cool them down.

Europe’s Best Airports for Designer Shopping

For anyone looking to splurge on some extravagant holiday wear, it should come as no surprise that a city with its own fashion week is also home to Europe’s best airport for designer shopping. With the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and Hermès offering the best in chic couture, Paris CDG takes our top spot with a designer shopping score of 14/20.

Second and third place, meanwhile, goes to two more cities also known for their grandiose, high-ticket clothing. Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino both scored 12/20 on our index, with Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci just some of the lavish brands offering wares for the opulent and dapper.

With 10/20 on our index, London Heathrow also put in a respectable showing, giving shoppers a chance to splash out between flights if they so desire.

Europe’s Best Luxury Airports for Exclusive Lounges

Frankfurt Airport’s impressive array of exclusive lounges puts it far and away at the number one spot, with an unmatched score of 20/20 – second-place Paris CDG and Amsterdam Schiphol both scored 13/20 by comparison. Boasting “exclusivity, individuality and discretion”, Frankfurt’s range of exclusive lounges allows guests a chance to relax, unwind and enjoy a moment’s peace and quiet ahead of their flights through the airport’s VIP services.

Europe’s Cleanest (And Least Clean) Airports

When it comes to cleanliness, our findings are all relative. Those worried about passing through less-than-sanitary airports needn’t have to. No airport scored less than 11/20 on our lists.

With that said, Milan Malpensa takes the top spot as Europe’s cleanest luxury airport, with a cleanliness score of 20/20. Even a cursory glance at its five-star Google reviews shows that many guests were pleased with just how spick and span the place is.

London Heathrow, meanwhile, was the UK’s cleanest luxury airport with an impressive score of 17/20.

Europe’s Best Luxury Airports for Restaurant Choice

When you have time to spare on an empty stomach, a quick sandwich and some coffee just won’t cut it. You need something sophisticated to sate your hunger. If you’re passing through Scandinavia, then you’re in luck. Both Stockholm Airlanda and Oslo Airport took the joint top spot (along with Munich Airport) for their choice of restaurants.

Looking for something from all corners of the globe? Try Airlanda’s East & West, where classic Swedish fare sits alongside everything from Japanese delights to Indian favourites. Or if French cuisine accompanied by exciting views of the runways is what you crave, then why not try its Sky Horizon restaurant instead?

Over in Oslo, Fiskebaren and Havsalt specialise in superb seafood dishes, while Two Tigers offers up an array of Asian flavours for travellers to try.

Europe’s Best Luxury Airports for Customer Satisfaction

When it comes to caring for its customers, both Munich Airport and Turkey’s Istanbul Airport go above and beyond, with both scoring 19/20 in our customer rating score on the way to sharing our top spot.

Munich boasts easy navigation, impressive organisation, and plenty of amenities for those passing through. Google reviews for Istanbul, meanwhile, had plenty of praise. “It’s basically a city inside a hotel” enthused one, while another summed things up more simply, saying: “One of the best airports I have gone through!” It’s hard to argue with comments like that, especially when you consider that it’s one of Europe’s busiest airports too.

Want to find out more about the world’s most luxurious airports? Explore the results of our study in full below…

Heading overseas this summer? We hope our guide to the UK and Europe’s most luxurious airports inspires you to travel in style.

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