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In a recent global survey, Cincinnati International was named America’s best airport. So here’s a question: how well did it do in the overall global rankings? The answer will not surprise serious globetrotters: America’s best came in a mediocre 30th, behind Abu Dhabi and Doha's Hamad, as well as no less than three South African airports (Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban). Meanwhile only three other American airports – Denver, San Francisco International, and Atlanta – made it into the global top 50.
America’s once world-beating airports have been falling behind for generations. It is a point that Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been making hay with. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, for instance, he contrasted New York’s LaGuardia airport with Singapore’s Changi airport. “I travel all over the world,” he said, “I see airports like cathedrals — Singapore [for instance]. Then you land at LaGuardia and you have potholes on the runway. The place is falling apart.”
Political point scoring apart, Trump’s “Make America Great Again!” message is clearly a welcome initiative in American history. Establishment Republicans and Democrats have for too long colluded in sweeping under the rug what a joint shambles they have made of America’s transportation infrastructure. As far back as 2011, the American Society of Civil Engineers calculated that infrastructure deficiencies already added $97 billion a year to the cost of operating vehicles and resulted in travel delays costing $32 billion. The society predicted that, if not decisively and quickly addressed, the problems would grow exponentially. In the intervening period, Washington has done nothing except apply a few Band-Aids.
So what makes a great airport? Take a trip to East Asia, where, according to the latest survey by the Skytrax consulting firm, four of the world’s top five airports are located. Besides Singapore Changi, which consistently ranks number 1, the East Asian superstars recently included Seoul Incheon in South Korea, Hong Kong International, and Tokyo Haneda. The only non-Asian airport to make the top five was Munich. As for the rest of the top ten, Central Japan International ranked seventh (making Japan the only nation with two top-ten airports). Meanwhile Beijing Capital ranked tenth and the remaining positions were bagged by Zurich (sixth), London Heathrow (eighth), and Amsterdam Schipol (ninth).
Top Asian airports are, of course, noted for above-average efficiency in basic things such as check-in, security, baggage handling, and on-time departures. They also tend to score notably high in cleanliness. Then there are their excellent ground transportation systems, which typically include fast, superclean downtown rail links. Crucially such links can be accessed via rail stations right in airport terminals. Singapore Changi moreover is noted for several decent, inexpensive hotels conveniently located among the airport’s concourses. For ultra long-distance travelers – say someone transiting on a journey from Los Angeles to Sydney Australia – this is a particularly valued amenity and it may be something that caught Trump’s hotel-keeper’s eye. (Amsterdam Schipol is also famed for its in-airport hotels.)
How much could a future President Donald J. Trump really do to improve America’s airports? It is hard to know. But one thing that almost all the world’s best airports share is direction from strong, far-sighted government-appointed commissioners. The trick, of course, is to include an element of competition. Such competition clearly helps explain the success of such an avowedly government-run airport as Singapore Changi. After all in pitching for crucial transit business, Changi necessarily must compete not only with airports on its own doorstep such as Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta but with far more distant ones such as Bangkok, Manila, and even Hong Kong.
Kevin Kearns, president of the U.S. Business & Industry Council, thinks Trump might be what America's infrastructure problem needs. He comments:“Congress has mishandled investment in infrastructure for decades. America’s infrastructure is in desperate need of rebuilding and expansion. Trump, a builder by trade, might well be uniquely qualified to take up this challenge, which is as formidable as any facing the next president.”
For the first article in this series, click Why Trump Is Winning/Article 1 Of A Series: The Strange Case Of America's Russian-Made Rockets.
Eamonn Fingleton is the author of In the Jaws of the Dragon: America's Fate in the Coming Era of Chinese Hegemony. He can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org.