A flight expert shared his favourite – and least favourite – airports for early morning flights. The best airports for early flights are well-located and have hotels and good food. The worst have limited hotel and food options – if any – and are far from tourist hotspots.
No one wants to wake up before the sun comes up to get to the airport, but taking the first flight out has its perks, says Gilbert Ott, a travel expert who flies roughly 200,000 miles a year. Ott, who shares his insights on air travel on his blog God Save the Points, said that in his experience, the earliest flights are the least likely to be delayed. “If it’s one of the first flights of the day, most of those planes are parked overnight at that gate.
They’re not arriving that early and getting cleaned and changed,” he said. Ott said some airports can make an early flight a breeze, and others are more likely to make your morning flight feel like a drag. Based on his experiences, he shared the best and worst airports to fly out of first thing in the morning.
One of the most important aspects of an airport for an early flight is its location, Ott said. “In so many cities, the airport is so far from where things are happening,” he said. “If you get a 6am flight, the idea of an hour-plus car journey sucks.
So, Ott prefers to fly out of airports like Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It’s only 20 minutes from downtown Dallas by car. Ott also said he appreciates that it has four hote.