Friendliest Airports in the UK Revealed by Analyzing Google Reviews

Strategic Insights -

Airport Parking and Hotels conducted research to identify the friendliest airports in the UK by analyzing Google reviews from 23 of the busiest airports. They utilized natural language processing (NLP) to analyze the meaning and tone of each review, giving a more accurate measure of sentiment than just counting positive or negative keywords. The reviews were dated from May 20, 2025, onwards and only compared reviews written in the English language. The analysis revealed Southampton Airport as the friendliest in the UK, followed closely by Cornwall Airport Newquay and London City Airport.

Key Takeaways:

  • Southampton Airport was ranked the best for friendliness from staff in the UK, with 70.9% of its reviews relating to staff reporting a positive experience.
  • Cornwall Airport Newquay ranked first overall, with 73.3% of its reviews relating to staff reporting a positive experience.
  • London City Airport had 66.6% of positive reviews for their customer service.
  • Exeter Airport had 66.1% of positive reviews, while Humberside Airport had 65.4% positive reviews.
  • The top 5 airports in terms of friendliness were Cornwall Airport Newquay, Southampton, London City, Exeter, and Humberside.
  • London Heathrow, the busiest airport in the UK, had a 63.8% positive review rating for the politeness of their staff.
  • Glasgow Airport received a percentage of 62.9% for the politeness of their staff.
  • The analysis used natural language processing (NLP) to analyze the meaning and tone of each review.
  • False positives and negatives were filtered out, and reviews written in languages other than English were excluded.
  • The study only included reviews from the 23 busiest airports in the UK.

Statistics:

  • 73.3% of reviews at Cornwall Airport Newquay were positive, ranking it the friendliest airport overall.
  • 70.9% of reviews at Southampton Airport were positive.
  • 66.6% of reviews at London City Airport were positive.
  • 66.1% of reviews at Exeter Airport were positive.
  • 65.4% of reviews at Humberside Airport were positive.
  • 63.8% of reviews at London Heathrow were positive.
  • 62.9% of reviews at Glasgow Airport were positive.

Sources:

  • Airport Parking and Hotels
  • Google reviews from 23 of the busiest airports in the UK
  • Scotsman.com (https://www.scotsman.com/topic/airports)
  • Wikipedia: Southamton Airport, Cornwall Airport Newquay, London City Airport, Exeter Airport, Humberside Airport, London Heathrow, Glasgow Airport, and Newcastle International Airport.