Americans are now traveling at record numbers. Crowded terminals have no significant negative impact on travelers in North American airports. In fact, J.D. Power’s annual “North America Airport Satisfaction Study,” airline passengers are reported to be happier than they have been in several years when they travel through American airports.

Overall traveler satisfaction

This year’s score for “overall traveler satisfaction” rose to 761 on J.D. Power’s official 1,000-point scoring scale. The score has set an all-time high record for the famous poll. That is a 12-point increase over the prior record set last year. The company conducted their first poll on the airport with North American airports back in 2000.

Which North American airports rose above the rest?

The J.D. Power’s staff separated the airports into three different categories for this year’s ratings. The categories are Large, Medium, and “Mega” airports. The latter was noted to be airports that deal with over 32.5 million travelers each year. “Large” focuses on airports that handle between 10 and 32.4 million customers. “Medium” includes airports that handle from 3 million to 9.9 million people.

This year, 2018, the airport that received the highest overall score was John Wayne Airport in California. It is one of the greater Los Angeles area’s secondary airports and serves Orange County. J.D. Power gave the airport a score of 815 on their 1,000-point scale. The airport also climbed to the top of the “Large” airport category.

Slotting in at number two is the Buffalo/Niagara International Airport. Of all the airports included in this poll, this one garnered the second-highest overall score of 814. When it comes to the largest airports in the United States, the Las Vegas McCarran tied with last year’s champion Orlando International for number one in the official “Mega” category. They both earned a score of 781. In third place for overall score is Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst airports in North America were in the greater New York City metropolitan area. The second-lowest score given went to the Newark Liberty international airport which earned a 701. The lowest overall score went to New York’s own LaGuardia Airport which managed to earn only 678 on the survey.