The 10 Worst Airports in the World in 2026, Ranked

The worst airport in the world in 2026 is Tunis-Carthage in Tunisia. It finished 279th of 279 airports in the 2026 AirHelp Score, published on June 9, 2026, with a score of 5.50 out of 10 and only 53% of flights arriving on time.

Lahore in Pakistan and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam take second and third worst. Vietnam and Pakistan each place more than one airport in the bottom ten, and no US airport makes it: the lowest-ranked American airport, Reagan Washington National, sits 260th.

Below are the ten worst airports under that measure, what goes wrong at each one, and the famous hubs that came close.

That 60% weighting matters. This is mostly a punctuality ranking, so an airport with a pleasant terminal can still land near the bottom if the flights out of it run late, and several on this list do exactly that.

1. Tunis-Carthage Airport (TUN), Tunisia

Tunis-Carthage International Airport is the worst airport in the world in 2026 by a wide margin. Its score of 5.50 is 0.90 points below second-worst Lahore, a bigger gap than the one separating Lahore from Manchester, 269th.

Only 53% of its flights arrived on time, the lowest on-time rate of any airport AirHelp measured. AirHelp says it is the third year running that Tunis has finished last.

The national airline is part of the story. Tunisair has struggled to keep its jets flying: Tunisia’s transport minister told parliament on April 20, 2026 that 12 of its jets were operational, with a target of 18 by the end of 2026.

The airport is also full. It handled 7.25 million passengers in 2024, and the government has outlined a 3 billion dinar plan to lift capacity to 18 million a year. As of October 2025 that project was still under technical review, so relief is years away.

2. Lahore Allama Iqbal International Airport (LHE), Pakistan

Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport scored 6.40 and ranks 278th. Only 61% of its flights arrived on time, the fourth-lowest rate of all 279 airports.

Winter fog makes it worse. On December 31, 2025 the airport suspended flights for eight hours, diverting five arrivals to Islamabad and canceling departures to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Karachi.

Traffic has outgrown the building. Lahore handled about 6 million passengers in the year to June 2025, and the Pakistan Airports Authority has said a terminal expansion was due for completion by September 2026.

3. Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat Airport (SGN), Vietnam

Tan Son Nhat International Airport is the busiest airport on this list and the third-worst in the world. Just 57% of its flights arrived on time, the second-lowest rate AirHelp recorded, behind only Tunis.

Passengers do not hate the place. Its passenger rating of 8.0 out of 10 is higher than London Heathrow’s 7.9. What sinks it is a city airport carrying around 40 million passengers a year, 39.9 million in 2024, with long queues at passport control.

Help is coming in two steps. A new Terminal 3 opened in April 2025, and the new Long Thanh International Airport east of the city is targeting its first commercial flights on December 1, 2026, a date that has already moved once.

4. Hurghada International Airport (HRG), Egypt

Hurghada International Airport on Egypt’s Red Sea coast scored 6.51, 276th of 279. It is a leisure airport, and AirHelp’s verdict is that its holiday traffic exceeds comfortable capacity in high season.

The numbers back that up. Hurghada handled 9.6 million passengers in 2024, and on October 25, 2025 it set a single-day record of 53,169 passengers on 335 flights. AirHelp calls delays a consistent issue there, especially on European routes.

5. Islamabad International Airport (ISB), Pakistan

Islamabad International Airport is barely eight years old. It took its first commercial flights in May 2018, after a project planned for five years took twelve, and AirHelp describes the terminal as spacious and clean.

It still scored 6.55, 275th, because its on-time rate is just 62%. It was Pakistan’s busiest airport in the year to June 2025, with 6.8 million passengers through an airport designed for about 9 million a year.

Change is coming at the management level. In July 2026 the government said it would outsource the airport’s operations while keeping ownership, with the Asian Development Bank appointed to run the transaction.

6. Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), Portugal

Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport is the lowest-ranked European airport in the 2026 AirHelp Score, 274th of 279 with a score of 6.58. AirHelp describes its staff as professional, but 63% of flights on time and long queues drag it down.

The problem is a runway system with no room to grow. Lisbon handled 36.1 million passengers in 2025, and its declared capacity is 38 aircraft movements an hour. The operator, ANA, filed an environmental study in June 2026 to raise that to 40.

The border is a second bottleneck. Waits at passport control ran past an hour in May 2026, during the rollout of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System for non-EU travelers.

The real fix is a new airport. Portugal chose the Alcochete site for Luís de Camões Airport on May 14, 2024, but the opening date is still disputed: the government has pointed to 2034 to 2035, while the operator’s proposal ran to 2037.

7. Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport (HAN), Vietnam

Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport scored 6.66 and ranks 273rd, with 62% of flights on time. AirHelp’s summary is blunt: delays are outpacing the upgrades, and the terminals are stretched at busy times.

The international terminal shows why. Terminal 2 was designed for 10 million passengers a year and handled nearly 13 million in the first 11 months of 2025 alone. An expansion lifting it to 15 million was due to open on December 19, 2025, partway through the period AirHelp measured.

8. Da Nang International Airport (DAD), Vietnam

Da Nang International Airport is the clearest case of a good terminal with bad timekeeping. Passengers rate it 7.9 out of 10, but only 60% of its flights arrived on time, the third-lowest rate in the world after Tunis and Ho Chi Minh City.

Peak demand is now close to the airport’s capacity of roughly 11 to 12 million passengers a year. A US$379 million project announced in August 2026 will expand and renovate Terminal 1, with the new section due to open in January 2029.

9. Rhodes Diagoras Airport (RHO), Greece

Rhodes Diagoras Airport scored 6.67, 271st, with 65% of flights on time. AirHelp’s complaints are about summer: slow check-in and crowded halls, in an airport that is compact and easy to get around once you are through.

Rhodes handled more than 7 million passengers in 2025. Its operator, Fraport Greece, enlarged the check-in area and added security lanes and baggage belts in a rebuild of 14 Greek regional airports it finished in January 2021.

10. Barbados Grantley Adams International Airport (BGI), Barbados

Grantley Adams International Airport is the odd one out. Its on-time rate of 67% is the best in the bottom ten, and AirHelp calls its staff friendly and the terminal clean and easy to navigate.

What drops it to 270th is passenger opinion. Its passenger rating of 6.9 out of 10 is the third-lowest of all 279 airports, ahead of only Tunis and Tirana in Albania.

The airport set a record of more than 2.4 million passengers in 2025, and it is short of room on the ground. Barbados’s tourism and transport minister, Ian Gooding-Edghill, said in May 2026 that the airport was “almost juggling for space” on busy weekends, and work to grow the apron from 23 to 26 aircraft parking positions was due to start in June.

The big hubs that nearly made the bottom ten

The bottom ten are mostly mid-sized and leisure airports. Just above them sits a group of famous hubs that millions of travelers use every year, and several of them would make most people’s own list of the worst airports in the world.

Manchester Airport is the worst-ranked airport in the UK, 269th. It handled a record 32.1 million passengers in 2025, and in early 2026 it closed its Terminal 1, opened in 1962, moving most airlines into a rebuilt Terminal 2.

Toronto Pearson, which handled 47.3 million passengers in 2025, is the lowest-ranked airport in Canada at 263rd. Montréal-Trudeau is not far ahead at 254th.

The two lowest American airports are Reagan Washington National at 260th and Newark at 255th. AirHelp’s study covers only 43 US airports, so for a fuller picture our ranking of the worst airports in the United States uses federal on-time data and the J.D. Power satisfaction study instead.

What about Manila, Lukla and the old “world’s worst” airports?

Older lists of the worst airports in the world came from reader polls on the Sleeping in Airports website. Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 was voted the world’s worst in 2011 and again in 2013, for crowding, dirty restrooms, unfriendly staff and scams.

Manila has climbed a long way since. In the 2026 AirHelp Score, Ninoy Aquino International Airport ranks 147th of 279, with 79% of flights on time, comfortably mid-table.

Islamabad has the opposite story. Its old Benazir Bhutto International Airport topped the same poll in 2014, and the new airport that replaced it in 2018 still finishes fifth from bottom in 2026.

If that is the list you were after, our guide to the most dangerous airports in the world ranks airports by the risk of the approach and landing, and Lukla Airport has a full explainer of its own.

At the other end of the scale, our ranking of the best airports in the world follows the Skytrax awards, which only name winners.