South Korea’s Incheon airport – winner of World’s Best Airport 2009 Award by UK’s consulting firm Skytrax; the 3.2 km long, $3.5 billion dragon-shaped Terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport – the winner of World’s Best Airport Award 2009 by Condé Nast Traveler magazine; Hong Kong International Airport featuring ‘billowing roofs’; Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan which is described as a ‘thing of wonder’; and Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia, have found place in the list. Five of the 13 most beautiful airports are in Asia, three are in Europe, two are in the US, two in South America and one in Africa.
Denver International Airport in Colorado – the largest international airport in the US – and TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York used as a portal to the JetBlue terminal, are the only USA facilities to make the list.
Other airports which have found place in the list are Terminal 4, Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain; Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay; Sondika Airport, Bilbao, Spain; Marrakech Menara Airport, Morocco; Tempelhof International Airport, Berlin, Germany; Malvinas Argentinas Airport’ and Malvinas Argentinas Airport, Ushuaia, Argentina.
The magazine says that Denver’s Teflon-coated tensile-fabric roof evokes a village of giant white tents. The Eero Saarinen-designed landmark TWA Terminal calls to mind a period when air travel was a glamorous, exciting experience for a relatively small number of people, according to the magazine.
