August 01, 2015
Move over, LaGuardia. Philadelphia International Airport may take your place as one of the worst places to fly out of in the country.
That's according to an article from USA Today published Tuesday. The piece was written because the New York City airport's reputation among many as the worst in the United States may soon change.
LaGuardia is set to undergo a renovation backed by a $3.6 billion public-private partnership, a move praised by Vice President Joe Biden a year after he compared the airport to that of a "third world country."
In anticipation of the overhaul, USA Today put together a panel of flying bloggers, professors and travel experts to try and determine which airports would fill LaGuardia's void once the upgrades are made. Among the seven most frequently cited by the panel, which included mostly large cities' airports like Los Angeles and Chicago, was PHL:
Just like the New York City airports, the Philadelphia airport is especially prone to weather and congestion delays. Even mild weather events can – and often do – lead to long delays. Other flier complaints include potentially long distances for passengers between far-flung terminals. A makeover has updated some – but not all – formerly shabby gate areas.
PHL's travel time is, in fact, pretty bad, according to FiveThirtyEight. The statistically driven news site says that flying out of the airport typically adds 17 minutes to your travel time, ranking as the 287th fastest among 313 origin airports.
If nothing else, PHL is cheap. A recent report from CheapFlights.com ranked the airport as the sixth most affordable in the country to fly out of.
