If you’ve ever wondered just how far it is from where you are to your gate, you know the answer is usually “Too long.” Personally, I used to suspect that airports were laid out to extend your walk to the max no matter how ‘as the crow flies’ close you were to your goal.
But now we have some data for the longest (and the shortest) distances from front door to furthest gate for a number of the world’s airports, collected by, you won’t be surprised to know, a company that makes and sells active footwear. Kuru’s researchers analyzed airport maps and Google Maps to determine the walking distance in each terminal to the nearest and farthest gates.
A clear pattern can be seen: Major airports have longer walks, especially those that handle increases in traffic by just adding more gates at the end of already long concourses. Short walks are for airports that don’t do that much business.
The longest…
- Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas – 2.16 miles
- Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia – 1.62 miles
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas – 1.52 miles
- Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado – 1.45 miles
- John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York – 1.38 miles
And, the shortest…
- Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky – 0.11 miles
- Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York – 0.12 miles
- Harrisburg International Airport in Middleton, Pennsylvania – 0.13 miles
- Lihue Airport in Kauai, Hawaii – 0.18 miles
- Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California – 0.20 miles
The researchers did report that while large numbers of people surveyed were quite annoyed at the walking distances, the main factor when they had a choice of airport was distance from home.
Image: Vladimir Haltakov/Unsplash
