Ask any veteran traveller and they will immediately rattle off their list of favourite airports for long layovers. However, the list can be a dynamic one as airports modernise and upgrade themselves from time to time.
Recently, Club Med, a globally popular French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, has published their top 25 favourite airports for layovers.
Delhi Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport) made the cut by clinching the 25th position with an index score of 55.1 out of 100.
The airports were judged based on several criteria, such as number of hotels, restaurants and shops, size, lounge, Wi-Fi speed, staff friendliness, and distance from the city.
Singapore Changi Airport (11 hotels, 250 shops and 153 restaurants), South Korea&rsquos Incheon International Airport (6 hotels, 23 shops and 268 restaurants), and Hong Kong International Airport (4 hotels, 129 shops and 57 restaurants) grabbed the top three positions in the Club Med survey by notching up index scores of 100, 97.4 and 86.6, respectively. Staff at Singapore&rsquos Changi airport have been scored 5 out of 5 for their friendliness, the report said.
With five hotels, 92 shops and 72 restaurants, Delhi Airport has proved it is one of those world class airports where you have lots of options to explore while on a long layover between flights.
In 2019, at the World Airport Awards, in the awards by region category, Delhi Airport had won the first place for the best airports in Central Asia and India, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Colombo airport.
In 2020, it was certified for its successful voluntary implementation of single-use plastic-free airport measures within IGI Airport's operations.