It has some of the oldest airports in the world as well... they were some of the first airports to be build. La Guardia, the posterchild of airport decay, is just recently being renovated, it was built between 1929 - 1939. Almost 90 years ago, and with a completely different volume in mid (even though it has had enhancements in the 50s, and 60s).

Same reason the NYC subway looks so shaggy, it was built in 1909.

Most of the glitzy airports in the asian, and arab nations, were built recently in the last 20-30 years.

If you have been in the Berlin aiport (the one in the east side), looks like crap too, as it was built in the 50s, and kinda just merely renovated. it has a very communist nostalgic and brutalist feeling though. It kinda reminded me Albania's old airport.

That's a lousy excuse.

Paris Orly opened in 1932, and it wasn't glamorous but looked a lot better than La Guardia, even before the ( ongoing ) renovations there ( at Orly). CDG opened in 1974, and is pretty brutalist because apparently that was liked then as a style.

The Paris metro and London underground both predate the NYC subway, and are both cleaner ( the Paris one is slightly dependent on the station) and look and feel better maintained. Heck, the Paris metro has two fully automatic lines, with another one being converted and 3 new ones being built.

Having old infrastructure doesn't mean it should be left to rot. It should be refreshed and upgraded, or replaced.

Don’t come telling me about shaggy subways. Tokyo’s rails are nearly as old and they’re fine. More than fine, I’d argue.

Nearly as old is quite a fuzzy statement. The reality is that Tokyo only had a single line (Ginza) until the mid sixties and started operating in the end 1920s, period during which NYC subway grew several lines. Additionally, the first subway line in NYC still in operation today is the BMT Jamaica Line, with first trains running in 1885.

So actually, NYC rail is much older than Tokyo's. Could it be cleaner? definitely.

American airports pretty universally use jet bridges to board planes, which puts them well ahead of most major European airports, where you're gonna end up being packed in a bus half the time.

Unless you're somehow stuck in an airport for 6+ hours, I really only care about how much misery is added to the basic experience, and the US does pretty well overall, aside from the hostile security/border people.

The biggest issue with U.S. airports is the seating. No matter what airport you go to, its the same shitty chairs. You see people sleeping on the concrete floor where millions of people walk just because that is better than trying to rest your neck contorting on those chairs.

I was blown away in Europe. Entire sections with basically beach chairs. You could even pay money to sleep in a sound proof pod.

The jet bridge is more expensive (they take up more space, where you could park two planes).

The lowest cost European airlines avoid this expense.

However, I've hardly ever seen them at a major airport, with the exception of the huge airports almost exclusively used by budget airlines (Stansted etc).

Yeah actually driving to airport, parking and checking in is good. Mostly Europe wins on public transport to the airport.

I have been through a lot of airports around the world and the US ones are mostly pretty nice and diverse in character. Definitely no worse than Europe on average in my experience, and I’d argue a bit nicer. The major airports in Asia are consistently relatively nice, though the drop-off to second-tier airports can be a bit extreme.

I’m not sure how you could come to the conclusion that the US has terrible airports. LaGuardia, the subject of the article, is famously among the worst airports in the US. It stands out because it is so notoriously awful, and travelers avoid it for that reason. It is also really, really old.

There’s lots of law/finance reasons, but there are some more basic ones.

Airports in USA are like bus depots. Flying is such a mundane and normal activity like taking a long distance bus or train somewhere else in the world. They just don’t bother making them special.

I get that you must be one of the people compelled to shit on the US at every chance, but "worst airports in the world" is a stretch.

I give you one reason why US airports really are the worst airports in the world. At least when you want to use them to transit to a third country.

For example: Flying to Latin America from Europe it would make a lot of sense to connect in the US. Miami, Atlanta or even New York would be convenient airports to connect on a flight between, say, Zurich and Lima.

The problem is that the concept of transit is completely foreign in American airports.

I need to get my luggage, actually pass customs and immigration, recheck my luggage, probably change terminals to something which is kilometers away with potentially bad transportation options between them. Dealing - yet again - with the friendly folks of the TSA. And all this to finally connect to my flight to Lima.

Instead of a 90 minute connection time (maybe 120 minutes on bigger airports) I have to calculate a minimum of 4 hours. Potentially more, because a lot of those variables are beyond my control and for no good reason whatsoever. I don't want to set foot on American soil, but just connect to a flight to a third country.

You don't need some spiffy Asian or European airport. Just about any developing world dump of an airport figured the concept of transit out decades ago.

I check my bags in to the final destination. I don't need to deal with potentially horrid immigration experiences, don't have to pass through security again (granted, that's dependent on the airport. But almost certainly less of a hassle then anyway in America)

Maybe transit is just not important in America with the lion share of flights being domestic. But for international travelers wanting to connect to a third country they really are at the bottom of the barrel.

Most mediocre would probably be fair, I think.

US airports generally don’t get the level of national funding that many international airports do. There are way too many airports for the US federal government to support them the way that their international peers are, and states and cities don’t have the budget to pick up the slack.

Any reason to think American airports are bad or even below average? I’m not a super big world traveler, but having been in maybe 20 US airports and 10+ abroad, I think us is middle of the pack at worst.

Probably because most of this infrastructure is paid for and built by the State and city governments. It isn’t Federal jurisdiction.