A stressful airport experience isn't the ideal way to start a holiday. And it turns out some Aussies have it worse than others when it comes to their local airport experience. Travel experts at StressFreeCarRental.
com have released their 2024 Stressful Airport Index which analyses different anxiety-inducing factors to reveal the best and worst airports to travel from. Airports were ranked based on passenger numbers, driving distance from the city centre, number of destinations that can be flown to, the cost of parking and overall satisfaction score. Here are the top 10 most stressful in the country right now.
Sitting in 10th place means Canberra is one of the best airports to fly to and from in the country. It also had a satisfaction score of 85 on FlightRadar, the highest out of all of the airports. When it comes to passenger movement, Canberra is one of the least busiest with 2,711,821 annual passengers.
This could be due to planes flying from the airport only travelling to 12 destinations in total. In ninth place is Adelaide Airport. With 30 destinations to fly to, parking is cheap at only $96 per week.
The passenger count sits at 7,522,215, and the airport has a FlightRadar score of 83. Townsville Airport in Far North Queensland has the lowest passenger numbers in the top 10 (1,649,059) but will still charge travellers $160 for parking for a week. In seventh place is Hobart Airport in Tasmania.
It also has a low number in terms of passenger movement, at 2,532,369, and only offers travel to eight destinations in total, the lowest of any major airports in the country. The hub of tropical North Queensland, Cairns sits in sixth place for stress levels. Despite having less passenger movement throughout the year (4,196,503) parking is up there with the most expensive at $141 a week.
Australia's busiest airport is Sydney Airport. With 97 destinations to choose from and 35,585,080 annual passengers, it is the main gateway for people in and out of the country. Despite this, Sydney sits in fifth spot overall and had one of the cheapest parking options available at $115 for one week.
Just escaping the top three, Perth Airport is considered the fourth most stressful airport in Australia. Parking costs average $130 per week, and 11,202,820 passengers move through annually. Melbourne Airport has been named as the third most stressful airport in the country.
It is the second busiest airport with 30,651,495 annual passengers and is also a bit of a distance to drive from the CBD. Gold Coast Airport in Queensland ranked as the second most stressful airport despite only flying to 15 destinations. This airport is also a 27 kilometre drive from the city centre, the furthest out of all the airports in the index.
When it comes to the cost of parking, Gold Coast Airport ranked as the second most expensive, setting travellers back $165. The study found Brisbane to be the most stressful airport due to having the third highest number of annual passengers (19,793,118) and over 70 destinations to fly to. Brisbane Airport was also the most expensive for parking, costing travellers $214 for one week.
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