• Aviation ranking website Skytrax has revealed the world’s best airports for 2023.
• Singapore Changi Airport dethroned Qatar’s Hamad International Airport, which took first in 2021 and 2022.
• The Seattle and Vancouver airports were the only two in North America to make the top 20 list.

Aviation ranking website Skytrax unveiled its annual list of the world’s top 20 best airports on Wednesday, and last year’s winner has been dethroned by Singapore Changi Airport.

According to Skytrax, its results are determined via global customer satisfaction surveys of over 550 airports that rank things like food and retail options, security, terminal layout, comfort, seating, and WiFi. 

The website describes the awards as the “quality benchmark for the world airport industry” and said the surveys are “provided to airports at no cost, to ensure true credibility of results.” The questionnaires, which represent over 60 nationalities, were collected from August 2022 to February 2023.

“Changi Airport is honoured to be named World’s Best Airport for the 12th time,” Changi CEO Lee Seow Hiang said in a press release.

Having welcomed over 32 million passengers in 2022, Changi is famous for its high-end shopping and free activities, like a movie theater and butterfly garden. Travelers can even pay to go swimming in an airside pool.

Taking second this year is Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. Changi won for eight years straight from 2013 to 2020 before Doha secured the win in both 2021 and 2022.

Of the top 20 airports, nine are in Europe, eight are in Asia, two are in North America, and one is in Australia. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Vancouver International Airport came in at numbers 18 and 20, barely making the list.

But, the results are better than last year considering Seattle and Vancouver were numbers 27 and 28 in 2022, respectively. In fact, Seattle once again won the award for being North America’s best airport, and LaGuardia’s Terminal B won “world’s best new airport terminal.”

Take a closer look at the world’s top 20 airports of 2023.

20. Vancouver International Airport

Country: Canada

Ranking in 2022: 28

19. Melbourne Airport

Country: Australia 

Ranking in 2022: 26

18. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Country: United States

Ranking in 2022: 27

17. Dubai International Airport

Country: United Arab Emirates 

Ranking in 2022: 14

16. Chubu Centrair International Airport

TungCheung / Shutterstock.com

Country: Japan

Ranking in 2022: 12

15. Kansai International Airport

Country: Japan

Ranking in 2022: 10

14. Copenhagen Airport

Country: Denmark

Ranking in 2022: 17

13. Rome Fiumicino Airport

Country: Italy

Ranking in 2022: 24

12. Helsinki-Vantaa Airport

Country: Finland

Ranking in 2022: 11

11. Vienna International Airport

Country: Austria

Ranking in 2022: 19

10. Madrid-Barajas Airport

Country: Spain

Ranking in 2022: 16

9. Narita International Airport

Country: Japan

Ranking in 2022: 4

8. Zurich Airport

Country: Switzerland

Ranking in 2022: 9

7. Munich Airport

Country: Germany

Ranking in 2022: 7

6. Istanbul Airport

Country: Turkey

Ranking in 2022: 8

5. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Country: France

Ranking in 2022: 6

4. Incheon International Airport

Country: South Korea

Ranking in 2022: 5

3. Tokyo International Airport (Haneda)

Country: Japan

Ranking in 2022: 2

2. Hamad International Airport

Country: Qatar

Ranking in 2022: 1

1. Singapore Changi Airport

Country: Singapore

Ranking in 2022: 3