Travelers will have the best airport experience this summer in Athens, according to research into some of the top travel destinations for Britons.

Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in the Greek capital leads the way, taking first place in the ranking – scoring highly for punctuality and shopping.

At the bottom of the table is Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport, which scored the worst of the 23 sites included in the study.

Research, conducted by airline compensation consultants AirAdvisor, punctuality rating, Google rating after reviewing more than 735,000, distance from city, store rating and transfer cost. The ratings from each category are then combined to create an overall score.

After Athens, which opened two decades ago, is Palma de Mallorca in second, followed by Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in third.

Eight of the top 10 airports are in Europe, with only Los Angeles International Airport (5th) and Orlando International Airport (7th) from outside the continent.

The UK’s most premium airport – Edinburgh – comes in at a middling spot in 11th place; however, the Scottish airport took first place (with Faro) in terms of transportation costs. London Heathrow came in at 15th and Gatwick came in at 18th.

Stansted, at the lowly 21-year-old^st location, receiving the lowest ranking in the distance from city category. Top performers include Los Angeles for punctuality, Athens for Google reviews, Madrid Barajas for shopping experiences and Venice Marco Polo and Nice Cote d’Azur Airport for distance from the city – both both are less than 30 minutes from the main axis.

On the other hand, with only 14 stores, Tenerife South (Tenerife Sur) has the worst shopping experience. Paris Charles De Gaulle was identified as the least punctual airport. Venice has the most expensive airport shuttle and Bordeaux Merignac has the worst reviews on Google.

Anton Radchenko, chief executive officer of AirAdvisor, said: “Most of us just see choosing an airport as a point of convenience – choosing the closest departure point to home. And airports are rarely considered when choosing a vacation destination. But airports can significantly affect your vacation experience. Especially if flights are delayed or luggage is lost.

A recent report found that operators lost bags last summer at the highest rate in a decade, with a total of 26 million bags lost by 2022.

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