We collected Google Maps ratings for all 20 of the busiest UK airports by annual passenger volume, based on CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) traffic data.
For the initial rating scan, we used the Google Maps search API via Apify to pull the overall star rating and total review count for each airport. This data was collected on April 13, 2026.
We then identified 10 airports with an all-time Google Maps rating of 3.6 stars or below. For these 10 airports, we scraped the newest reviews posted since January 1, 2025, pulling up to 5,000 reviews per airport. This produced a total dataset of 21,908 reviews across a 15-month window (January 2025 – April 2026).
For each review with text content (as opposed to star-only reviews), we categorized complaints into 10 topic buckets using keyword matching: Navigation/Layout, Security/Border Control, Cleanliness, Staff/Service, Food/Dining, Construction, Parking/Transport, Crowding, Delays/Cancellations, and Wifi/Charging. A review mentioning “queue,” “checkpoint,” or “passport control” would be tagged under Security/Border, for example. A single review can be tagged in multiple categories, which is why complaint percentages for any given airport sum to more than 100%.
Sentiment scoring was also keyword-based – reviews containing clusters of negative keywords (e.g., “terrible,” “worst,” “avoid,” “nightmare,” “shambles”) were flagged as negative sentiment. This is a simpler approach than machine-learning-based NLP sentiment analysis, but it’s transparent and reproducible.
The final ranking is based on the average star rating from 2025-2026 reviews only, not the all-time Google Maps rating. This means an airport with a low all-time rating but improving recent reviews (like Manchester or Luton) can move down the list, while an airport with a slightly better all-time rating but deteriorating recent reviews (like Stansted) can rise.
The full dataset, including all 21,908 reviews and the structured analysis, is available upon request.