In a new list ranking the airports that offer the best travel experiences around the world, Toronto Pearson International Airport tops the list for North America. Rome Fiumicino leads for Europe. And Mumbai Airport leads hubs in Asia-Pacific.

Airports Council International World announced the winners of its annual Airport Service Quality Awards for 2017, honouring airports that offer the best customer service.

Winners are based on passenger surveys which ask respondents to evaluate airports across 34 performance indicators, including airport access, check-in, security screening, restrooms, stores, restaurants, additionally capturing passenger comments of their best and worst experience at the airport.

In the category of large airports (defined as serving 40 million passengers or more), for North America, Toronto Pearson emerged the leader. The win marks a first for Canada's biggest airport, which is currently redeveloping Terminal 3 to improve its shopping and dining options and improve passenger flow.

In the category of best large airport Europe, Rome Fiumicino takes the top spot, also for the first time.

 

Overall, this year's ranking featured a total of 16 first-time winners for different categories.

For Asia-Pacific, Mumbai International was named the best large airport, a perhaps surprising win given that Singapore Changi Airport regularly outperforms the competition not only within Asia, but at world-level.

The Airport Service Quality network delivers 600,000 surveys a year and served 343 airports in 2017.

Here are some of the big winners by size and category:

Over 40 million passengers per year

  • 1. Tie: Delhi (DEL); Mumbai (BOM)
  • 2. Tie: Beijing (PEK); Shanghai Pudong (PVG)
  • 3. Taipei Taoyuan (TPE)

Best airport by size and region

Asia-Pacific

  • 2-5 million passengers per year: Lucknow (LKO)
  • 5-15 million passengers per year: Hyderabad (HYD)
  • 15-25 million passengers per year: Denpasar (DPS)
  • 25-40 million passengers per year: Chongqing (CKG)
  • Over 40 million passengers per year: Mumbai (BOM)

Europe

  • 2-5 million passengers per year: Newcastle (NCL)
  • 5-15 million passengers per year: Sochi (AER)
  • 15-25 million passengers per year: Athens (ATH)
  • 25-40 million passengers per year: Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO)
  • Over 40 million passengers per year: Rome Fiumicino (FCO)

Latin America-Caribbean

  • 2-5 million passengers per year: Guayaquil (GYE)
  • 5-15 million passengers per year: Punta Cana (PUJ)

Middle East

  • 5-15 million passengers per year: Medina (MED)

North America

  • 2-5 million passengers per year: Ottawa (YOW)
  • 5-15 million passengers per year: Indianapolis (IND)
  • 15-25 million passengers per year: Tampa (TPA)
  • 25-40 million passengers per year: Minneapolis (MSP)
  • Over 40 million passengers per year: Toronto Pearson (YYZ)