These are the best and worst airports in the UK – with regional airport coming in no.1

THE best and worst airports in the UK have been revealed – and the best isn’t in London.

Which? surveyed almost 6,000 passengers over the last year, asking about their airport experience and formulated a league table rating UK airports based on the customer reviews.

Exeter Airport topped the table with a customer score of 80 per cent[/caption]

The lowest scoring airport was Manchester Airport Terminal 3[/caption]

Passengers rated the airports across 10 categories including customer service, wait time for baggage, security queues and availability of seating as well as the range of shops and food outlets. 

In first place was Exeter Airport in Devon which got an overall customer score of 80 per cent.

It got five stars in five of the categories, its lowest score being three stars for range and quality of shops and food outlets.

Talking to Which?, one passenger said: “Exeter offers a relaxed and stress-free travel experience, a welcome change from larger airports”.

Exeter Airport is one of the smaller ones in the UK, annually it sees around 500,000 passengers a year – in comparison, London Heathrow serves 84 million.

Smaller airports dominate the top of the league table, Exeter Airport was followed by Liverpool John Lennon Airport which handles over 5 million passengers a year.

Next was London City, followed by the airports in Bournemouth, Newcastle and Norwich.

At the very bottom of the table was Manchester Airport Terminal 3 which received a customer score of 43 per cent.

For queuing, seating and prices of goods in the shops, and quality of shops and food outlets, it received just one star.

Some passengers complained that the terminal was not set up for the number of passengers, who cannot get something to eat or sit down because of how busy it is.

All London airports received low scores for available seating[/caption]

London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 came in 13th place[/caption]

Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said: “I am proud that Manchester Airport is serving more passengers than ever before, connecting 31m people a year to more than 200 destinations – dozens of which you cannot fly to from anywhere else outside London.”

He added: “Through our historic £1.3bn transformation programme, we have created a world-class and award-winning Terminal 2. We have also announced plans to invest significantly in Terminal 3 – starting this year.

“I am also proud to say customer satisfaction has increased significantly over the past four years.”

Out of London’s airports, the one with the lowest scores was London Luton which got 51 per cent.

The airport received its lowest scores for seating and prices of goods in shops and food outlets. Its highest score was three stars for baggage queues.

The highest scoring London airport was London Heathrow Terminal 5 with a customer score of 59 per cent.

Its lowest scoring categories were security queues, wait time for baggage, seating and prices in shops and food outlets.

In fact all of the other terminals at London Heathrow, as well as London Stansted and Gatwick North and South scored lowly when it came to customer service and lack of seating.

Here more about Manchester Airport Terminal 3’s development plans with a 500-seat bar, shops, and a new dining hall.

And these are the three regional airports across the UK to get new airlines and holiday destinations.

Which? has revealed the best and worst airports in the UK[/caption]