Consumer Choice Center released its highly anticipated first-ever Worldwide Airport Index. This edition highlights the opportunities and accomplishments of airports worldwide in a year of record-breaking 9.5 billion passengers, 3.8% higher than pre-pandemic levels and a 9% increase over the 2023 period.
Regarding larger airports (over 35 million passengers a year), Tokyo Haneda dominates the podium, followed by Bangkok Suvarnabhumi in second place and Singapore’s Changi in third. By contrast, Toronto Pearson is in 20th place, held back by its inconvenient location (a considerable 26-kilometer or 16-mile distance from Toronto’s city center), and very high average delays of 25% of flights for more than an hour. What is more, Toronto Pearson has a stringent night-time curfew that sets an annual cap on the number of flights between 12:30 AM and 6:29 AM local time.
| Ranking | Airport | Airport Code | Points |
| 1 | Tokyo Haneda | HND | 170 |
| 2 | Bangkok Suvarnabhumi | BKK | 158.5 |
| 3 | Singapore Changi | SIN | 157.5 |
| 4 | Benito Juárez Mexico City | MEX | 155 |
| 4 | Barcelona El Prat | BCN | 155 |
| 6 | Los Angeles International | LAX | 152 |
| 7 | Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mumbai | BOM | 150 |
| 8 | Charles De Gaulle | CDG | 149 |
| 8 | London Heathrow | LHR | 149 |
| 10 | Dubai International Airport | DBX | 147.5 |
| 10 | Frankfurt Airport | FRA | 147.5 |
| 12 | King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) | JED | 145 |
| 13 | Roma Fiumicino | FCO | 144 |
| 14 | Madrid–Barajas | MAD | 142.5 |
| 14 | Antalya Airport | AYT | 142.5 |
| 16 | Shanghai Pudong | PVG | 142 |
| 17 | Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson | ATL | 137.5 |
| 17 | Amsterdam (Schiphol) | AMS | 137.5 |
| 17 | Seoul Incheon | ICN | 137.5 |
| 20 | São Paulo-Guarulhos | GRU | 136.5 |
| 20 | Toronto Pearson International | YYZ | 136.5 |
Jay Goldberg, the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center, commented on the implications of the index for Toronto Pearson: “The index shows that there are many issues like night-time restrictions and single airline dominance which affects the efficiency of an airport, but Pearson also makes poor decisions that make things worse by instituting severe flight restrictions that hurt consumers, and having a lack of preparation for usual winter weather conditions.”
Sabine Benoit, the CCC’s Canadian Policy Associate, added: “Airports cannot control winter storms like the one in February 2025 that disrupted services at Toronto Pearson. However, they can have policies to adapt to the problem and remove arbitrary obstacles like a night-time flight cap. Consumers like me who fly out of Pearson know exactly how hard it is to find an alternative flight when they are delayed or cancelled, and yet not much is being done to alleviate that. Toronto Pearson claims to be a world-class airport, but that’s impossible without the right policies in place that actually meet Canadian consumers’ needs.”
This first edition of the World Airports Index builds on the previous work of the European Airports Index by adding 20 new worldwide entries. Rankings are based on factors ranging from location and transportation options to the number of shops and restaurants. It uses various sources of information, including airport information, annual reports, online statistics, and research from the Consumer Choice Center. Passenger traffic figures come from the latest available information.
The entire Index can be found HERE.
