Photo courtesy of Tourism Richmond

The 2016 Skytrax World Airport Awards were given out on March 16 in Cologne, Germany, and Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, came out looking pretty darn good. Vancouver International Airport (YVR) was voted as the top airport in North America, and The Fairmont Vancouver Airport was named best airport hotel in the region.

Vancouver’s airport, located in Richmond, ranked No. 14 in the world rankings, widely referred to as the Passenger’s Choice Awards. Considered the most prestigious accolades for the airport industry, results are determined by airline customers taking part in the annual survey that is based on 13.25 million questionnaires from 550 airports around the world.

The top U.S. airport was Denver International Airport (DEN), which ranked No. 28 in the survey. Denver’s airport made a dramatic rise in the awards, moving up from No. 33. Other U.S. airports cracking the top 50 were Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) at No. 32, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at No. 37 and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) at No. 43.

The top airport hotels in the world included two North American properties. The Fairmont Vancouver Airport ranked No. 9 and Grand Hyatt DWF came in at No. 10.

Fairmont Vancouver Airport is located 90 steps from the U.S. Departures level of the airport. The hotel offers 392 soundproof guest rooms and more than 8,000 sq. ft. of event space.

To learn more about Western Canada, see the November issue of Smart Meetings.

World Airport Awards

 Current Rankings 2015 Rankings
1 Singapore Changi 1
2 Incheon Intl Airport 2
3 Munich Airport 3
4 Tokyo Intl Haneda 5
5 Hong Kong Intl Airport 4
6 Centrair Airport 7
7 Zurich Airport 6
8 London Heathrow 8
9 Kansai Intl Airport 12
10 Doha Hamad Airport 22
11 Narita Intl Airport 14
12 Frankfurt Airport 13
13 Amsterdam Schiphol 9
14 Vancouver Airport 11
15 Helsinki Airport 18
16 Beijing Capital Airport 10
17 Brisbane Airport 20
18 Copenhagen Airport 16
19 Cologne/Bonn Airport 23
20 Taiwan Taoyuan Airport 17
21 Auckland Airport 15
22 Cape Town Airport 26
23 Sydney Airport 21
24 Kuala Lumpur Airport 19
25 Melbourne Airport 25
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