Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport has the world's best airport WiFi, according to the results of a new survey based on travellers' experiences, with zippy speeds that left European airports in the dust. WiFi speed and quality have been tested in 185 airports worldwide. The United States was second in the 2015 survey of airports with the best airport WiFi, and the honor went to Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.
Thailand’s Don Mueang International Airport has the world’s best airport WiFi, according to the results of a new survey based on travellers’ experiences, with zippy speeds that left European airports in the dust. WiFi speed and quality have been tested in 185 airports worldwide.
The annual survey by tech watchdog Rotten WiFi found that the Bangkok international airport – one of two serving the Thai capital – offers two hours of free WiFi to people around the building, and recorded an average download speed of 42.22 Mbps (upload was slightly higher, at 42.28 Mbps). First campaign’s winner was also in Thailand – Bangkok’s other international airport, Suvarnabhumi, whose average download speed was 41.45 Mbps.
Travellers expect and appreciate free WiFi when they’re at airports, allowing them to pass the time waiting for flights by reading the news, messaging or browsing social media, but not all airports provide such a service, and when they do, connections can be frustratingly slow and patchy.
|
No. |
Airport |
Country |
Avg. download speed, Mbps |
Avg. upload speed, Mbps |
Avg. clients’ satisfaction rank (1-10) |
|
1 |
Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) |
Thailand |
42.22 |
42.28 |
8 |
|
2 |
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT) |
USA |
36.23 |
24.01 |
8.5 |
|
3 |
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) |
Malaysia |
34.54 |
4.05 |
6 |
|
4 |
Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) |
USA |
34.19 |
32.72 |
8 |
|
5 |
Chiang Mai International Airport |
Thailand |
32.80 |
7.59 |
7 |
|
6 |
Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) |
USA |
32.70 |
13.39 |
6.67 |
|
7 |
Hat Yai International Airport (HDY) |
Thailand |
32.08 |
27.18 |
8 |
|
8 |
Chiang Rai International Airport (CEI) |
Thailand |
29.05 |
13.64 |
7 |
|
9 |
Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) |
Thailand |
27.11 |
16.37 |
6.43 |
|
10 |
Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL) |
Estonia |
23.96 |
18.77 |
8 |
|
11 |
Phuket International Airport (HKT) |
Thailand |
20.11 |
13.87 |
7 |
|
12 |
Samui International Airport (USM) |
Thailand |
18.87 |
5.44 |
7 |
|
13 |
Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN) |
Singapore |
18.30 |
21.95 |
10 |
|
14 |
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) |
USA |
17.96 |
6.44 |
6 |
|
15 |
Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) |
Indonesia |
16.01 |
18.50 |
6 |
|
16 |
Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH) |
Taiwan |
15.55 |
3.99 |
6 |
|
17 |
Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC) |
USA |
15.11 |
5.18 |
7 |
|
18 |
Munich Airport (MUC) |
Germany |
14.08 |
11.62 |
6.5 |
|
19 |
Frankfurt Airport (FRA) |
Germany |
13.75 |
30.40 |
6.75 |
|
20 |
Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) |
Taiwan |
13.18 |
9.17 |
6 |
The United States was second in the 2015 survey of airports with the best airport WiFi, and the honor went to Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in their hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. This small airport, which bills itself as having “the nation’s fastest, free airport WiFi,” came in with 36.23 Mbps in download speed and was followed in third place by Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the Malaysian capital, which had an average download speed of 34.54 Mbps.
Four other Thai airports made the top 10 in best airport WiFi in the world: Chiang Mai International (5th), Hat Yai International (7th), Chiang Rai International (8th) and Suvarnabhumi Airport, down from its top spot to ninth place. The only European airports in the top 20 with the best WiFi were Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Estonia (23.96 Mbps avg. download), Munich and Frankfurt airports in Germany, with a paltry average download speed of 14.08 and 13.75 Mbps respectively.
Broken down by region, and the airport in Europe with the best WiFi as reported by travellers were before mentioned Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Estonia, Munich Airport and Frankfurt Airport. No UK airports made the regional top 10. Kuala Lumpur International and Chiang Mai International were in second and third place, respectively, in Asia, after leader Don Mueang, while in North America, Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (34.19) and Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (32.70) followed Clinton National.
The best of South America were El Plumerillo Airport in Argentina, with just 6.38 Mbps download speed on average; Jorge Chavez International Airport in Peru, at 3.82; and Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro–Galeao International Airport, with 2.99 Mbps.
A Rotten WiFi co-founder Arturas Jonkus said Asian airports were consistently leading the way with WiFi services.
“Our survey, based on the experiences of people travelling though airports around the world, shows that airports in some developed countries have a long way to go to catch up with that’s happening with WiFi elsewhere,” he said.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
