These are the world’s top 10 cleanest airports - only one is in Europe

The world’s top 10 cleanest airports have been announced - and only one hub in Europe features on the list.

In fact, the ranking is almost exclusively made up of airports in Asia, with the exception of Zurich in Switzerland, which comes in tenth place.

The research was undertaken by airline rating organisation Skytrax as part of its World Airport Awards.

Here are the cleanest airports worldwide - and what qualified them for that accolade.

Japan snags four out of the 10 top spots on Skytrax’s list

Tokyo’s Haneda Airport came in first place as the world's cleanest airport.

Skytrax praised the cleanliness of the floors, seating, public areas and toilet facilities. In a post-COVID world, that’s extremely important, the organisation says.

“Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the standards of airport cleanliness have become much more important to customers," Skytrax says. "Airports maintaining these highest standards are well featured in the best airport cleanliness results.”

Haneda very much led the way, not just globally but in Japan too.

In fact, the Asian nation boasts four top spots on the list, with Centrair Nagoya in fifth place, Tokyo Narita in sixth and Kansai in seventh.

Outside of Japan, but still firmly within Asia, Seoul Incheon in South Korea took the second spot and Singapore Changi claimed third.

Doha Hamad snagged fourth place, while Hong Kong and Taiwan Taoyuan took eighth and ninth place respectively.

Rounding out the list was only non-Asian airport, Switzerland’s Zurich.

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What are the cleanest airports by region?

Skytrax’s awards also named the top cleanest airport in each region, with Zurich naturally coming out on top in all of Europe.

Tokyo Haneda won for Asia and Doha Hamad took the prize for the Middle East.

In the Americas, the top North American terminal was Vancouver in Canada, South America’s was Quito in Ecuador and the cleanest Central American and Caribbean airport was awarded to Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría.

In Africa, Cape Town took the top spot, Brisbane won for the Australia/Pacific region and Shanghai Hongqiao took the win for China.

Azerbaijan’s Baku won in Central Asia and Bangalore was Skytrax’s pick for India and South Asia.

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the flagship awards, which are based on customer satisfaction surveys for more than 570 airports across the globe.

Despite a renewed push for sustainable travel, flying is still enormously popular, with more than 8.5 billion passengers flying a year. A clean airport can only ease the often stressful experience.