AirHelp unveils the best and worst airports in the 2025 AirHelp Score
250 airports across 68 countries evaluated to help passengers make smarter airport choices
Europe’s top airports are found in Norway, Spain, and Iceland
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is the UK’s top performer, soaring 108 places
8 July 2025 – AirHelp, the leading travel tech company supporting passengers with flight disruptions, has today released the first half of the 2025 AirHelp Score.
Since 2015, the AirHelp Score has helped passengers make more informed decisions by ranking the performance of airlines and airports worldwide. Similarly to last year, and to better serve passengers ahead of the busy summer months, airport and airline rankings will be published separately, ensuring passengers have timely access to the latest airport performance data.
This year’s ranking includes 250 airports from across 68 countries – an increase of 11 airports compared to 2024. Each airport was assessed in three key categories of Punctuality, Customer Opinions, and Food & Shops. The data reveals another disappointing year for European airports, with only nine airports making it into the top 50 and Liverpool John Lennon Airport emerging as the first British airport, in 35th place.
Cape Town Airport comes out on top
The global ranking for 2025 reveals Cape Town Airport in South Africa as the world’s leading airport, scoring 8.57 points overall. It overtakes Doha Hamad Airport in Qatar, last year’s number one, which now holds second place with a strong score of 8.52 points. Riyadh King Khaled Airport has risen through the ranks from 33rd place in 2024, to third place this year with 8.47 points.
Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek Airport in Brazil takes fourth place, having moved up one position from last year. It achieved an overall score of 8.47, bolstered by an impressive 8.6 for punctuality. Finally, Muscat Airport makes the top five global airports, scoring 8.47 points overall.
Highs and lows for British airports
Among UK airports, Leeds Bradford Airport experienced a sharp decline, falling 63 places from 69th to 132nd, due in part to a low restaurant score of just 6.9. London Gatwick continues to rank as the worst-performing UK airport, coming in at 235th overall. Meanwhile, the country’s busiest hub, Heathrow Airport, saw modest progress, climbing 22 places from 200th to 178th in the global rankings.
In contrast, Liverpool John Lennon Airport made the most significant improvement, soaring 108 places to rank 35th globally with a score of 7.99. The second-best performing UK airport is London City Airport, which rose 26 spots, moving from 82nd to 56th with a score of 7.87.
Europe's best airports
Airports in Nordic countries performed especially well in this year’s score, with four of the top five European airports being Scandinavian. Scoring an impressive 8.27 points overall, Norway’s Bergen Flesland Airport has soared to 9th place globally, climbing from 25th last year and earning the title of Europe's best airport in 2025. Close behind is Bilbao Airport in Spain, with a score of 8.16 points and making an impressive leap from 29th to 16th place, securing its spot as the continent’s second-highest ranked airport.
Bodø Airport in Norway is in third place having improved its overall rank from 27th to 23rd place this year, with a score of 8.07 points. In fourth place is Oslo Gardermoen Airport, also in Norway, which achieved 8.04 points and ranks 28th overall. Rounding out the top five is Reykjavik Keflavik Airport in Iceland, placing 30th globally with a score of 8.02 points.
Ranking by airport size
Building on last year’s success, AirHelp has once again included size categories in the 2025 rankings, enabling passengers to compare airports of the same size. The airports have been categorised by the number of flights they handled in the year. Among those with fewer than 65,000 flights, Durban King Shaka Airport in South Africa emerged as the top performer, ranking 7th globally with a score of 8.40. The second-best small airport was Medina Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Saudi Arabia, in 12th place, followed by Belém Val-de-Cans Airport in Brazil, which claimed 13th place with 8.21 points.
When looking at the world’s busiest airports - those handling over 250,000 flights in 2025 - the top three are all based in the Middle East. Doha Hamad International Airport in Qatar (second place), along with Riyadh King Khaled (third place) and Jeddah King Abdulaziz Airports in Saudi Arabia (11th place), lead the large-airport category. They are followed by Mexico City Benito Juárez Airport and Dubai International Airport, which rank 14th and 18th respectively.
Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp commented: "At AirHelp, we believe passengers should be able to make decisions about air travel based on more than just the price of a flight. Our goal is to equip them with an insight into flight performance using other factors that matter. Through the AirHelp Score, we can help passengers better predict what their experience will look like at different airports and inform them regarding what they can do if their flight gets delayed, cancelled or overbooked.”
Find out more about AirHelp’s Best Airport Rankings Worldwide here.
About the AirHelp Score
The AirHelp Score is a ranking of the best and worst airlines and airports in the world. AirHelp has been publishing the AirHelp Score since 2015 (with a break during the pandemic) to help passengers better plan their flights. The Score allows passengers to see what treatment they can expect from airlines and airports based on data. To calculate the AirHelp Score, multiple data sources and factors are combined to give passengers a comprehensive picture of how an airline or airport is performing. The rating of airports is based on three factors: punctuality, customer opinions, and food and business. Punctuality is the biggest factor at 60% with both other measurements ranking equally at 20%. To determine the results, data from 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 was analysed and passengers were asked about their most recently used airports.
About AirHelp
AirHelp is a travel tech company tackling flight disruptions. Since 2013, it has won compensation for over 2.7 million passengers with a flight delay or cancellation. 10 million passengers have protected their flights with AirHelp+, and countless millions more benefit from the expert information freely available on airhelp.com.
AirHelp is also investing in a greener future - it has pledged to plant 1 tree for every 100 flight disruptions and so far, it has planted 123,874 trees. As air passenger rights advocates, AirHelp cares about people, and caring about people also means caring about the planet.
#1 source for flight compensation worldwide
With innovative artificial intelligence and a dedicated team of over 400 AirHelpers, AirHelp makes it easy for any traveller in the EU, UK and beyond to receive up to €600 for flight delays and cancellations. For more information about AirHelp, visit: www.airhelp.com.