Airports With the Longest Walks?
I’ve been wearing a pedometer since the first of the year to measure my steps each day. A travel day, sprinting through airports, almost always gets me a few thousand steps towards my 10,000 step goal. This got me wondering about which airports are most favorable to walkers?
Minneapolis (MSP) has got to be towards the top of the list. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking between two cities in this airport. (Maybe that’s why they called it Minneapolis / St. Paul because it’s the bridge between the two cities!)
Atlanta (ATL) is surely in the running, since their lack of moving walkways keeps us putting one foot in front of the other. And when you just get to gate B32, your gate may change to A1! That walk alone could get you 10,000 steps just for one flight!
Dallas? Chicago’s United terminal (or checking in at Continental’s terminal, then having a gate at the end of Terminal C)? London Heathrow? Amsterdam?
Usually the longer the walk, the more us travelers complain. But I’m trying to look at the ‘healthy’ side of things, so the distance can actually be a good thing!
Where do you think the airport walks are the longest?
I have thought of this a million times! what the heck? why are the walks soooooooooooo long? So the final verdict for USA? and international?
I don’t know about the longest, but certainly the most aggravating has to be at YYZ when flying in from YOW and out to SFO…you get off the YOW plane, rush rush rush to pick up any checked bags (a mistake I only made once), rush rush rush to clear security and US Customs, and then rush rush rush….back to the exact same gate…and yes even the same PLANE that you just got off of.
I make a point of connecting in Chicago now.
HNL from the United terminal to interisland.
I will concur with Michelle, it is a long walk from the UA gates to the inter island terminal. At DEN concourse B the concourse is insanely long, but there are moving walkways for probably 90% of it, but even with those it is still a solid 7-10 mins from one end to the other.
Miami has to be in the running….particularly the AA concourses. There’s a skytrain now but I always walk the walk. (Love Atlanta, too!)
Dulles:
it is a walk and belt but A1 UAL comuter (waiting for bags from CRJs) to C&D gates even with train is a long long walk. B
I nominate Phoenix.
DET – if you skip the train . . .
The UA and US gates at LHR have to be in the running (or long walking). Because of the construction there, you head out to gates in one direction, walk for close to 15 minutes, then double back on yourself and walk for close to 10 minutes, pretty well in the opposite direction. Out the window, it doesn’t look too far, but through the passageways it’s ridiculous.
Having said that, it’s good to stretch your legs immediately before or after a 10 hour flight.
Delhi’s terminal C is huge and amazingly long walks are there for planes parked at farther end of the terminal
A few of the long walks:
LHR T1 – from The Great British Lounge to the United Gates (Gate 38). About a 10 – 15 minute walk. On the plus side, you go via the Star Alliance lounge if you need a break
AMS – D23 to G5 – 15 minute walk EASILY.
IAD – Depends if you’re going between C gates and A Gates. It can turn from a walk into a nightmare if you’ve missed a shuttletrain…
ORD – Short walks everywhere
SFO (International Wing) – Short Walks again
HKG – Long walks if you want them, short ones if you take the train 😉
ICN – 20 minutes end to end of the Main Concourse.
Lots of room for a bit of exercise…
I would say SIN. Almost missed a flight because I walked wrong way and I had an hour between connections!
HKG, ICN, NRT are notorious for long walks, even if you taken the train in some cases….even LAX is quite long for int’l to domestic transfer
ORD and SFO is pretty bad if you have to go across the airport.
if you travel often, get a light laptop unless you seriously need the crunching power…
The airport in Frankfurt, Germany has an increbibly long and complex walk, since the Continental / United merger. The walk leads to stairs down(?!), which leads to a bus (?!!!), which drives you out to the plane, where you have to walk up more stairs into the plane (?????)! What year is this? It’s hard to believe that a major airline’s flight to a major destination can’t get an actual gate!