The UK’s Exeter airport has been rated the happiest airport in the world, according to a new report by customer feedback service HappyOrNot.

The accolade is based on the results of 158 million datapoints from HappyOrNot “smiley terminals” in 160 airports across 36 countries, with happiness scores corresponding to the percentage of travellers touching the dark green or light green “happy” button on the terminals.

The report details the top eight rated airports worldwide, with Exeter first with a score of 88.66 per cent, followed by Cork and Rome Fiumicino (both scoring 88.45 per cent), Dallas Fort Worth (87.35 per cent), Newcastle, UK (87.05 per cent), Southend (86.79 per cent), Cardiff, (86.57 per cent) and Iceland’s Keflavik airport (86.35 per cent).

The scores are based on feedback data collected between November 2016 and November 2017, from airports which received over 120,000 feedbacks over the period across more than two points of experience (check-in, security, washrooms, arrivals, etc).

The report also analysed anonymised data across all airports, to reveal experience indicators such as the happiest time of the day for air travellers (0900), the happiest day of the week (Tuesday), the happiest month of the year (October and November tied), and the happiest part of the air travel experience (security, somewhat incredibly).

Commenting on the accolade Exeter Airport’s managing director, Matt Roach said:

“The HappyOrNot units around the airport have proven to be a very effective and simple way to evaluate passengers’ experiences.

“We know that the procedures at an airport can be stressful, but our staff do their best to ease the journey for the travelers and this shows in the consistently high positive ratings. I am very proud of the performance reflected in the responses, and the magnificent achievement of being in the top spot.”

happy-or-not.com, exeter-airport.co.uk