It’s in Inchon, South Korea.
The Best Airport in the World? . . .
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Ballot box stuffing by the same goose-stepping dopes who voted Rain the world’s most influential person.
Singapore’s Changi Airport can’t be beat.
Proximity to the metropolitan area it serves should count for something, and by that measure ICN fails miserably (and Changi does extremely well, and should be praised).
Incheon International Airport is one of the best airports I’ve dealt with. Recently, I went to China where I experienced the joys, such as they are, of Terminal 2 of Beijing’s Capital Airport. That terminal just seems badly designed to me. The ticket counters are hidden from view (you have to go through customs first). This may not be entirely the airport’s fault, but it took me nearly an hour and half just to get out of the airport. In comparison, it only took me forty minutes to get through Korean immigrations and customs. I’ve never had a problem with ICN other than the fact that it is such a distance from the rest of Seoul. Hopefully, once AREX is extended to Seoul Station, it will make journeying to the airport much easier.
Airport thread! Yippee!
Obviously the voter(s) found his (their) way to the in-terminal massage parlor at ICN.
(Prior to living here, I would have assumed that to be an urban myth. Now, I wouldn’t.)
Actually, as an unethical and unqualified Engrishee teacher, I don’t travel enough to have an opinion on most airports. Asia’s new generation (ICN, BKK, HKG — I haven’t been to Osaka), and of course Singapore Changi are all pretty cool. But I would like to give a shout-out to my local flueghof, Pusan Gimhae (PUS), which I think is just about perfect in every way. I bitch much about Korea; but Pusan is way cool in many ways. Transportation is something Korea excels at; and Pusan’s airport, like its subways and highways, is a reflection of a weiku city.
I agree – Singapore’s is amazing. Has anyone on this site ever been offered this when coming into / going out of ICN? I haven’t. I think ICN is fine, but how it beat out Singapore’s is mindnumbing.
Despite its size, I like Chicago’s.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Detroit is like you’ve landed in a timewarp to the 1970′s (the new causeway is a beacon of hope, though) and Newark is a blackhole of incompetence and despair. It should be nuked.
Yeah, Singapore needs a nice airport for the many visitors from China:
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=37158
i’m a big fan of getting away from the airport as quickly as possible. in this regard, hong kong excels.
Best airport with no decent pub / lounge to chill out in before the flight leaves. The new express train, once it reaches Seoul Station, will make it about the best in terms of national transport hook-ups.
I’ve gone ICN to HKG umpteen times in the last few years. ICN is great, but it’s got nothing over HKG.
To the dumbass who wrote @4
It’s flughafen with an umlaut, or else flueghafen at best. Not flueghof. Get a brain, moran.
I’ve always been puzzled by the expat ire to ICN. It’s always been good to me (although trying to get Korean food in the arrival hall is oddly difficult). Still, I wouldn’t put it over Changi.
Pusan has gone from desolate shit-hole to international playa in the past couple of years. Three cheers for renovations.
Frankfurt is Germany’s main hub, and it blows. They should reroute everything to the much-nicer Munich.
And finally . . . Bangkok still has the best beer of any airport I’ve been through. Micro-brew!
Here’s a good reason for expat ire to ICN. If it’s the world’s best INTERNATIONAL airport, where’s the English-language book and magazine selection?
O’Hare gets my vote for worst airport in the world. Worse than Manila.
I would agree with the rankings overall, ICN / HKG / SIN are all 3 great aiports, all clean, well organised and fast. those 3 airports are simply examples to follow.
the only annoying thing in ICN is how far it is to the city center, however bear in mind ICN serves a 20 million metropolis, not the case of HKG & SIN… and in this regard it beats the shit out of NRT, which is getting quite old, is horribly inefficient, and where you need 2h30 MINIMUM from touching ground to sitting in your sofa in downtown tokyo. when you land in NRT, you’re only halfway. ICN cuts that to 1h30, HKG & SIN to 40 minutes.
btw, did you know the narita express could technically run much faster, but JR reached an agreement with the transportation ministry to limit its speed in order not to hurt the airport bus & taxi businesses ? they call that “harmony”… sure is a different way to look at things !
KUL is also very nice, clean, airy, conveniently linked to the city.
the new BKK is a complete joke, will never understand how designers managed such a narrow arrival area, hell to navigate. and after only 3 years, you can see the airport is not very well maintained.
CDG has been trying to upgrade, but nothing will change until the whole french mentality changes -> never. and the train ride between the airport and the city is enough to make even the most love blind person get into depression about the “city of love”. heard they’re now developping their own dedicated express train, excellent move.
but my favorite international airport’s got to be Samui… entirely made of wood, including the luggage belt conveyors
While we’re on the topic, this actually happened just a few months ago: In the departure hall of Pusan, an ajoshi approached me and asked where I was going. He then told me that my flight was canceled, but he could drive me in his taxi to Incheon, where I could get a flight. I laughed. He laughed too, then told me, no really, it’s canceled, and he could drive me to the Pusan train terminal.
All the hassle of Thailand, none of the fun.
All the hassle of Thailand, none of the fun.
OMG, there it is: Sparkling Korea’s next tourism slogan and ad campaign.
I didn’t want to bring up Manila, but now that someone else has done so: WTF? Philippine Airlines gets a new domestic + international terminal, yet forgets to include anything fun to buy/ eat/ see/ or do. Hours of staring into space, freezing cold. (Turn down the aircon!)
To the dumbass who wrote @11
Don’t correct yourself with an incorrect correction. The language nazis round here are multi-lingual
.
http://www.munich-airport.de/de/consumer/index.jsp
What, no umlaut? Arrghh!
We here at WeikuBoy management would like to apologize for the previous apology. Those responsible have been sacked.
My first attempt to use 한글 here, I misspelled 식헤 (shik-hae, the summer drink) as 식해.
I’m just too damn lazy to look up anything, even in the age of the motorized toobz. Which no doubt explains why I’m working here as an unethical, unqualified Engrishee dork.
Elgin
Changi Airport was designed for 2 purposes; to be the best hub in Asia and to impress visitors on the efficency of Singapore. Both are clearly profit-oriented which is to be expected in Singapore
As to ladies offering “special services”, I understand that there is a large variety of women from all over the world. Of course, I do not have first hand experience, I just read about it in the local papers!
식혜(rice drink) 식해 (fermented fish dish) 식헤 (Weiku boy’s own invention)
Highly commended though. At least you know what the drink is called..(or sounds close to it)
I have been a firm fan of ICN for the longest time until they sprung that damn new terminal on me. The wife and I had come back on a red eye from Hong Kong and were to immediately switch to a flight to the US (a different itinerary) we did not see our next flight anywhere (too early) so we asked the woman at the the info desk who directed us towards the new terminal. Fine. After a while we realized the lady was wrong and needed to get to the mian terminal only to find there was no way to return, unless one was on a flight that arrived at that terminal. We had to involve another information desk worker who had to take through a back “employees only” door, through an evacuation staircase down to the train platform and explain to the security gaurd just what we were doing. While I am very appreciative of her effort, the point is this was ill-thought design.
The reason I liked ICN was that it was one huge half circle, with no restrictions on movement. You could get to any gate with the limiting factor being only how fast your feet can move. If you miss your flight, its entirely *your* fault. Theres no leaving and going through security and waiting for a train (ORD)going on a bus or crossing three lanes of traffic and a parking lot running 300 meters with all your luguage in tow and blindly guessing which of six mammoth identical building might be ther terminal you need (LAX thats you). ICN was great, but they had to mess it up.
@6
ORD is just not on. There are no good duty free shops, but rather similar to all American Airports hosts wall to wall calorie stands and other eating establishments. I hate the train system they have and how it forces you to exit and re-enter security all the time, and of course the employees are rude .
Has anyone here gone through Terminal 3 of PEK (Beijing Capital Airport)? What are your thoughts? I saw when I took the newly completed Airport line of the subway, but I haven’t travelled in or out of there yet.
I agree with CaptBBQ’s thoughts on ORD. I’ve only travelled in and out of San Francisco on United. I’ve long found United’s termino at SFO poorly designed. If you have to transfer gates, even on domestic flights, more often than not you are going to have go through security again. LAX is a nightmare, too. Transferring from an international flight to a domestic one at Dulles (IAD) is an experience. A bad one.
식혜(rice drink) 식해 (fermented fish dish) 식헤 (Weiku boy’s own invention)
We at WeikuBoy management would like to apologize for the apology for the previous apology. Those responsible for the latest apology have been sacked.
If you have to spend some time in an airport terminal, Incheon is fine. Once you step outside, well, the less said about that the better.
I think it’s a great airport. Amazing.
But the reason it is such is that it is basically the one main entry for the whole nation.
That said, there are many countries with one main entry that do it badly.
Korea does it very well.
Kudos.
FOURTY MINUTES? In HKIA, it takes me an average of 10 minutes leaving HK, and 5 minutes coming into HK…
Moran is a flower (in Korean)
Not quite. Last April it took me around 1.5 hours from NRT to Shinagawa. But it’s indeed way too long. I normally fly into Haneda.
Or, if you’re like me lucky enough to live in Tung Chung, it’s like 5 minutes
Just arrived from PEK/T3. It’s OK. Much better than Terminal 1, which was used before for HK-CN flights. Food/Duty Free/etc are bland at best. Depending on where you arrive you might have to walk a long way, but it’s mostly efficient – a miracle for China.
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