Why U.S. airports are 'awful'

Travel+Leisure's 2013 list of best and worst airports in the United States rated Portland International Airport (pictured) in Oregon as the nation's best. Click through the gallery for a sampling of the beautiful and the damned.

Cincinnati's airport was the first U.S. airport to show up on a recent Skytrax list of world's top 100 airports -- at No. 27. It didn't crack the U.S. top 15 in Travel+Leisure's 2013 list.

No sad cough den here -- even the smoking area at the Tampa, Florida, airport has a certain panache. It placed second in the 2013 Travel+Leisure list of best U.S. airports.

Good barbecue and Tex-Mex food propelled the Austin, Texas, airport to number three on the Travel+Leisure list. "You're likely to be among the happy fliers here," the magazine reported.

"The hallmark of Nashville International is efficiency, with one of the lowest incidences of delays," wrote T+L, which ranked the airport eighth best in the U.S.

Ah, LaGuardia, whipping post of travelers to New York, including Vice President Joe Biden, who opined in February that the airport "feels like it's in some third world country." Travel+Leisure called it the second worst airport in the U.S., reserving the ignominy of being best at being worst for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas.

If you don't want to fly to New York via LaGuardia there's always Newark Liberty, which came in as fourth worst on the T+L poll. "Flight delays and lengthy lines at check-in are perennial gripes about Newark, as is the location," reported the magazine.

If you don't want to fly to New York via LaGuardia or Newark Liberty, there's always JFK. Hmm, we're sensing a trend here. Number six on the T+L ugly list.

LAX ranked seventh worst in the nation, though expansion and renovation of the Tom Bradley International Terminal in September 2013 should lessen the litany insults regularly hurled its way by defeated travelers.

Judged eighth worst in the U.S., Philly's airport got demerits for long lines and delays, but did get some love for the availability of decent cheesesteaks.

• The Economist says U.S. airports are beset by "soggy pizza, surly security staff and endless queues"


• Highest placement of U.S. airport in recent "top 100" list is no. 27


• Airports Council International North America president and CEO reacts to spate of negative press


• Public management of airports at root of many problems experienced by travelers

(CNN) -- Pity the poor U.S. airport -- its self-esteem has taken a beating in recent months.

In February, as reported by the New York Daily News, Vice President Joe Biden said New York's frequently lambasted LaGuardia Airport "feels like it's in some third world country."

"Why did we lead the world economically for so long?" Biden lamented. "We had the most modern infrastructure in the world."

In March, the UK-based Skytrax consultancy released its annual list of the world's top 100 airports.

The highest ranking any U.S. airport managed to muster was number 27, achieved by the relatively small Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Now The Economist has joined the dogpile.

After combing through data on more than a million flights in 2013, the venerable British magazine concludes in its current issue that U.S. airports are "awful," beset by "soggy pizza, surly security staff and endless queues."

The Economist article poses the million (or, rather, multi-million) dollar question: "Why are foreign airports better than America's?"

Perhaps indicative of the global traveling public's dismissal of the standards at U.S. airports, the online article doesn't bother to provide an answer.

MORE: Best eats at 20 busiest U.S. airports

Portland International Airport. Eclectic town, solid airport.

Hope for U.S. airports? Well ... maybe

"There's no question that U.S. airports suffer from an image problem globally, and the main culprit is our nation's lack of dedicated infrastructure investment, particularly in its aviation infrastructure," Airports Council International North America president and CEO Kevin M. Burke tells CNN.

"Many of our airports are operating well beyond the capacity for which they were originally intended several decades ago, and this is the reason why air travelers -- international and domestic -- experience crowded terminals and outdated facilities.

"The other source of harm to our global reputation has been the unacceptably long waiting times to process through customs at U.S. international airports."

Burke is optimistic about correcting the problems, pointing to a recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection announcement that it will add 2,000 new CBP officers, many assigned to airports.

"ACI-NA has been working with Congress for additional staffing and with international traffic on the rise, this increase could not have come at a more critical time for U.S. airports," says Burke.

MORE: Hong Kong airport glory days, breathtaking photos

Meager public funding bedevils performance, improvement

At the root of many problems experienced by travelers at U.S. airports is an atypical system of governance and finance.

Unlike many of their overseas counterparts, U.S. airports are predominantly owned and operated by city, county or state governments.

"This means that how they are funded is far more restricted than the rest of the world," says Burke. "For our large hub airports, their primary source of funding for capital improvement projects is the Passenger Facility Charge."

The PFC is a nominal user fee paid by passengers upon purchase of airline tickets in the United States, "virtually all of which," according to Burke, is returned to the airport for investment in infrastructure projects.

Newark Liberty International Airport: One of the New York area's much maligned threesome of airports.

MORE: 10 of the world's top airport lounges

The problem is the fee no longer amounts to as much as it once did.

"The PFC's ceiling of $4.50 hasn't been raised since 2000, and this has meant that its purchasing power has eroded by roughly half due to inflation over the past 14 years," says Burke.

Lack of PFC punch has hindered significant improvements and updates at many major U.S. airports.

Despite all this, Burke, and perhaps at least some of the millions of visitors who continue to pour into U.S. airports each year, remains bullish about the future of U.S. airports.

But can U.S. airports realistically improve vis-a-vis their international counterparts in, say, the next five to 10 years?

"Yes, but it's going to take an unwavering commitment to upgrading our infrastructure," answers Burke. "It's crucial that Congress and the American public recognize that infrastructure investment in airports is reinvestment in the communities they connect to rest of the world.

"And in an increasingly global marketplace, the U.S. will require world-leading airports to stay competitive."

Or, by now, simply to catch up to a field that has already, by many estimates, flown far ahead of them.

MORE: And the world's best airport is ...