Doha and Riyadh home to world’s best-performing airports

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Doha's Hamad International Airport

Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar and Riyadh King Khaled Airport in Saudi Arabia have been named in the top three airports worldwide for performance.

That’s according to the annual rankings from travel tech company AirHelp, which ranked 250 airports from 68 countries in 2025 based on punctuality, customer opinions (including airport staff, cleanliness, and queue times) and food and retail offerings.

Cape Town Airport in South Africa was named the world’s leading airport with an overall score of 8.57, putting it just ahead of last year’s winner, Doha’s Hamad International Airport with 8.52 points.

Riyadh King Khaled Airport rose an impressive 33 places to take third spot with 8.47 points. Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek Airport in Brazil was fourth and Muscat International Airport in Oman was fifth.

Riyadh King Khaled Airport took third spot

Interestingly, Cape Town scored less than both Doha and Riyadh in two of the three criteria but its on-time performance saw it take overall top spot.

For small airports handling less than 65,000 flights, Medina Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Saudi Arabia was second globally, and in 12th place in the full rankings, as well as being top scorer for customer opinions worldwide, with 9.2 points out of 10.

For the world’s biggest airports, handling more than 250,000 flights a year, the top three are all from the Middle East, with Doha top, Riyadh second and third place also going to a Saudi airport – Jeddah King Abdulaziz Airport.

A stellar showing from Saudi airports was confirmed with Dammam King Fahd Airport ranking 10th, putting four airports from the kingdom in the global top 12.

Dubai International Airport in the UAE ranked 18th on the AirHelp list, just one place ahead of neighbour Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi. However, Dubai ranked best in the world for food and shops, with a score of 9.1 out of 10.

Dubai International Airport has once again been named the world’s busiest international airport for 2024, according to Airports Council International, welcoming a record 92.3 million passengers

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Elsewhere from the Middle East in the rankings, Bahrain International Airport ranked 53rd and Sharjah International Airport in the UAE 161st.

London Heathrow, a popular destination from the region, was a lowly 178th in the rankings, and London Gatwick 235th.

Hamad International Airport also came in second place for World’s Best Airport 2025 in the World Airport Awards by Skytrax, beaten to top spot by Singapore Changi Airport.

The AirHelp Score is calculated by combining scores for punctuality, given a weighting of 60%, and 20% for the other factors. Data was collected from 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025 with passengers asked about their most recent airport experience.

For more information, visit www.airhelp.com