Danielle McCarthy
Travel Tips

This airport was named best in the world for 2017

To see which airports made the top 10, scroll through the gallery above.

The world's best airports have been named in the annual Skytrax World Airport Awards and Singapore's Changi Airport has come in at first place for the fifth year in a row..

It's the eighth time Changi has taken out the award since they were first introduced in 2000.

Changi Airport was praised for its vast array of leisure and entertainment facilities and it continues to improve – last year the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport was upgraded and expanded with a 10-storey extension adding 243 rooms, bringing the total room count to 563.

The Crowne Plaza was also named the world's best airport hotel in this year's awards.

Changi is also currently working on its "Project Jewel", which includes the construction of a five-storey structure that will feature a grand indoor garden area with 'green walls' to offset carbon emissions from planes flying overhead, as well as a cascading waterfall, a range of retail shops, leisure attractions and a central communal facility. A multi-storey basement car park will help clear more space for the arrival hall, baggage claim and taxi areas.

Despite a record 58.7 million passenger passing through Changi in the past year, it is not one of the top 10 busiest airports – that title goes to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which serves a whopping 104 million passengers a year.

When domestic passengers are excluded, Dubai Airport is number one with 83 million passengers per year passing through the UAE hub.

Announced at the Passenger Terminal EXPO in Amsterdam, the World Airport Awards are based on 13.82 million airport survey questionnaires completed by 105 different nationalities between July 2016 to February this year. More than 500 airports are covered worldwide and evaluated on traveller experiences, including service and products.

Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, said the airport winning five times in a row was a "remarkable achievement for Changi Airport, and underlines the airport's popularity with international air travellers".

Despite being ranked number one overall, Changi was only rated the number six cleanest airport in the world. That honour went to Tokyo Haneda in Japan.

Asian airports dominated the list, though Europe scored four entries in the top 10, led by Munich Airport at number four.

To see which airports made the top 10, scroll through the gallery above!

Written by Craig Platt. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz

Tags:
travel, Airports, World, best, Changi Airport