LaGuardia Was Just Named the Best Airport in the U.S.

Earlier this year, we established that LaGuardia Airport in New York City was having its “It Girl” moment after it received top marks following a survey of more than 4,000 travelers. Famously, that hasn’t always been the case. For decades LaGuardia was consistently called the “worst airport in the US.” It was entirely common to read Daily News headlines like “LaGuardia lands in last place again,” every single year. But, it turns out the airport’s glow up isn’t some flash in the pan: LaGuardia really went from worst to best this year, with no plans of falling back down the rankings.

The latest evidence of LaGuardia’s changed lot in life comes from the inaugural Forbes’ Travel Guide luxury air travel awards. LaGuardia was named the best US airport, which Forbes attributed to its recent $8 billion renovation.

This designation from FTG is an even higher accolade than the survey naming it a top airport earlier this year. The process to select each category’s winner for Forbes was a bit more arduous than simply polling consumers. The process includes an invitation only survey of 5,000 of the most well-traveled people across the hospitality industry and an evaluation based on a 66-year-old rating system. Essentially, this list was determined by experts, not the average joes.

Here are some of the other awards given by FTG:

Most of these awardees align with what other major rankings and awards have determined in the last year. Delta’s JFK lounge is frequently touted as one of the best. Emirates is consistently ranked among the top 10 airlines in the world—it came in third this year behind Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, according to Skytrax. To no one’s surprise, it is pretty much universally agreed that Singapore Changi airport is the best in the world.