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Date Published: 10/07/2025

The surprising airport voted best in Spain and second in Europe

The ranking is based on punctuality, customer feedback and the quality of the restaurants and shops

AirHelp, the company that fights for passenger rights, has just revealed its 2025 AirHelp Score rankings, which rate the best airports across the globe. And there are some real surprises in there, especially for Spain. They've looked at 250 airports from 68 countries around the world to see which ones are actually doing things right.

Now, you'd probably guess that Spain's biggest airports like Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat or Palma de Mallorca would top the national list. But you'd be wrong, as the results tell a completely different story.

The ranking evaluates three factors: punctuality (60%), customer feedback (20%) and the quality of food and beverage spaces (20%). The data comes primarily from AirHelp's analytics platform, which monitors more than 4,000 airports worldwide, as well as recent passenger experiences collected between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025.

The best Spanish airports

You might be surprised to learn that Bilbao Airport is taking the crown this year. Not only is it Spain's number one, but it's also sitting pretty at 16th place globally and second best in all of Europe.

Bilbao scored 8.16 out of 10 overall, with great marks for being on time (8.3), happy passengers (8.0) and decent food and shopping options (7.7).

Seville Airport came in second for Spain and 68th worldwide. This is only their second year on the list, but they've absolutely smashed it by jumping up 30 spots from last year. They pulled off a solid 7.78 score with 7.9 for punctuality, 8.1 for passenger satisfaction and 7.2 for services.

Madrid-Barajas rounds out the top three, but it's been sliding downhill. The capital's main airport dropped a whopping 26 places to 76th globally. Still, they managed a decent 7.75 overall score with 7.7 for punctuality, 7.6 for passenger reviews and 7.9 for what they offer inside the terminal.

Valencia, Fuerteventura, Tenerife North, Malaga, Alicante, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Lanzarote, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca are also among the top 250 airports in the world.

The world top 10

European airports are really struggling to keep up globally. Only one European airport made it into the top ten worldwide. That's actually better than last year, but it's still pretty disappointing when you see how Middle Eastern, South African and North American airports are absolutely dominating the rankings.

Cape Town Airport (South Africa) – 8.57
Hamad Airport, Doha (Qatar) – 8.52
King Khalid Airport, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) – 8.47
Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek Airport, Brasilia (Brazil) – 8.47
Muscat Airport (Oman) – 8.47
Tocumen Airport, Panama City (Panama) – 8.42
King Shaka Airport, Durban (South Africa) – 8.40
Salt Lake City Airport (United States) – 8.29
Bergen Flesland Airport (Norway) – 8.27
King Fahd Airport, Dammam (Saudi Arabia) – 8.26

Also of interest: Goodbye plastic bags and tiny toiletries: UK airports starting to scrap the 100ml liquid rule

Image: Aena

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