Copenhagen Airport is the largest and busiest airport among all Nordic countries. The airport is located on Amager Island, less than 10kms south of Copenhagen proper. Copenhagen Airport services over 60,000 passengers each day, which averages to over 20 million people annually. It is commonly referred to as Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, after the town it lies in.
9. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), was launched on the 27th of June 1998. KLIA airport is built in the jungle with features that allow flexibility for future expansion. KLIA has a futuristic look. Everything is very spacious and serene. Sometimes you think you're walking in a space station. A lot of glass (windows), white colors and shiny floors. All very clean, sterile. Actually the airport has two locations, which are connected by a monorail.
8. Auckland International Airport, New Zealand
Auckland Airport is one of New Zealand’s most important infrastructure assets, providing thousands of jobs for the region, and is the country’s second largest cargo 'port' by value, contributing around $14 billion to the economy, and catering for over four million visitors each year, resulting in a 70% share of New Zealand's international travellers
7. Zurich Airport, Zurich, Switzerland
OK, so maybe not everyone loves Switzerland’s largest airport when they’re getting squeezed onto the Skymetro to Terminal E, grilled by a hair-splitting security officer, or paying through the teeth for a puny sandwich.
But it’s a speedy train ride, security’s just doing its job and you could eat your lunch off the floor here.
Zurich continues to offer the sort of spotless, well-run, no-nonsense flying experience that passengers realize they love when they’re having a much worse time at another airport.
6. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Netherlands
Schiphol is an important European airport, ranking as Europe’s 4th busiest and the world's 12th busiest by total passenger traffic. It also ranks as the world’s 6th busiest by international passenger traffic[5] and the world’s 17th largest for cargo tonnage.
5. Beijing Capital International Airport, China
Beijing Capital International Airport is the main hub for Air China, the flag carrier of the People's Republic of China, which flies to around 120 destinations (excluding cargo) from Beijing. Hainan and China Southern Airlines also use the airport as their hub.
4. Munich Airport, Munich, Germany
Now that Lufthansa’s second base (after bigger, busier, far less loved Frankfurt) has swiftly grown into a major international airport facing its own capacity issues and contentious third runway plans, it could easily succumb to the stress-inducing foibles of other award-winning European hubs -- like Amsterdam (nice leather sofas, but what’s with the lines?) and Copenhagen (is this an airport or a shopping mall with a sauna?).
3. Seoul Incheon, Seoul, Korea
At 10 years young, South Korea’s pin-up airport continues to wow passengers with its bright and airy arrival halls, its futuristic connecting train terminal, its Pine Tree and Wildflower gardens and its boggling array of amenities that include private sleeping rooms, free showers, round-the-clock spa facilities, ubiquitous Internet lounges, a golf course and an ice skating rink.
And all this without forgetting why most people actually come to airports: not so much to work on their double axels or putting, but to get somewhere else as quickly and painlessly as possible.
2. Singapore Changi, Singapore
Is there a bigger compliment to an airport than travelers routinely scheduling more time here just to have fun and relieve stress?
Spotless, flawlessly organized and stocked with conveniences that continue to lock Singapore for the gold, silver or (in an off-year marred by constructing more improvements) bronze in every serious annual airport poll, here’s the place that re-invented what airports can be.
That is -- places with pools, whirlpool baths and massage tables, prayer rooms and rooftop bars, LAN gaming areas and free movie theaters, koi ponds and butterfly gardens.
1. Hong Kong International, Hong Kong
Now that its place as one of the great land reclamation projects of the 20th century is, well, 20th-century, HKIA is onto newer benchmarks -- including entering the world’s 50 million annual passenger club (shared with only 10 other airports) and becoming the busiest freight airport on earth.
This kind of pressure might sink a less inspired or prepared facility (the airport currently has a multi-phase Master Plan 2030 in the works which will see it through the next couple decades), but Hong Kong keeps looking better and more five-star functional with everything thrown at it.
