When booking flights and deciding which airports to fly in or out of here’s something you probably did not take into consideration — the distance from check-in to your gate. According to USA Today, some airport terminals are more than a mile long. That means you could be facing a 20-minute walk, adding even more stress to your travel day.
Knowing how annoying this can be, especially if you are connecting between terminals often resulting in a mad dash through the airport, KURU Footwear commissioned a study of the largest and smallest airports in the U.S. Using airport maps and Google Maps, they figured out the walking distance in each terminal from the nearest to the farthest gates.
The airports with the longest walks are 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); and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York (1.38 miles).
Conversely, the airports with the shortest walking distances are 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); and Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California (0.20 miles).
It should come as no surprise to frequent flyers that the nation’s busiest airports, known as major connecting hubs, have the longest walking distances for travelers. Fortunately, if you are flying from one of these airports there are often concourse trains and moving walkways to help move you along. For anyone who cannot walk, AARP reports that airlines are required to provide a wheelchair or motorized cart.
Does size matter when choosing an airport? Message The Seniors Trust on Facebook or Twitter and let us know if you try to avoid large airports with mile-long terminals.
