FLORIDA — Gone are the days of glamorous air travel. Instead, the process of arriving at an airport, clearing security and then squeezing into a cramped airplane next to annoyed and often angry passengers can add a lot of tension when traveling.
Now, Forbes Advisor says more than half of the tweets tagging an airport by its Twitter handle are from “angry” travelers. Forbes analyzed 37,000 tweets posted between March 2022 and March 2023.
Out of all the complaints during that period, Jacksonville International Airport (@JAXairport) came in a close second as the airport with the angriest travelers. The worst was John Wayne Airport (@JohnWayneAir) in Orange County, California – which happens to be the closest airport to Disneyland.
Of all the tweets calling out @JAXairport by name, 60 percent were negative, with passengers using words like “line,” “TSA,” “delays” and “employees.”
Another Florida airport came in fourth. More than 57 percent of angry tweets called out Tampa International Airport (@FlyTPA) using the keywords “bags,” “delayed,” “luggage,” “security” and “canceled”).
Other Florida airports with angry travelers:
No. 23: Southwest Florida International Airport (@RSWAirport), with terms like “hours,” “closed,” “mask,” “waiting” and “stuck.”
No. 26: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (@FLLFlyer), with the terms “delays,” “traffic,” “line,” “hours” and “delayed."”
No. 31: Orlando International Airport (@MCO) with keywords “security,” “hours,” “TSA,” “waiting” and “line.”
Are these airports really that bad? Probably not. According to J.D. Power’s 2022 survey of overall passenger satisfaction with airports, Southwest Florida International Airport tied with Jacksonville for the third highest ranking among medium airports. Tampa International was number one among large airports.
Why does everyone seem so angry? Disgruntled travelers may not be the majority, but they’re the most likely to tweet about their experience. Airline staff shortages and nationwide flight cancellations have been an issue the past year, including an FAA computer glitch which isn’t the airports’ fault.
