Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) has done it again. The airport scored 684 out of 1,000 in the 2026 J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study, ranking first among North America’s Mega airports for the third consecutive year and fourth time in five years. Even more impressively, MSP finished first in all seven individual dimensions measured by the study. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) was second with a score of 663, followed by Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) at 642.

There is also an airline story buried in those rankings. Minneapolis and Detroit are both major Delta Air Lines hubs, while several other important Delta gateways also score strongly. By matching J.D. Power’s 2026 airport scores to the US hubs of Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines, and then weighting each airport by the amount of flying the carrier operates there, Delta’s hub portfolio produces a substantially higher result than either rival’s.

Minneapolis–St. Paul Makes It Three In A Row

Credit: Jacob Boomsma | Shutterstock

Minneapolis’ result is particularly notable given its scale. The airport handled approximately 36 million passengers in 2025, and Delta operates its second-largest hub there (by seat count). J.D. Power’s latest results are also more decisive than the overall ranking suggests: Minneapolis beat second-place Detroit by 21 points, and exceeded the overall Mega-airport average by 67 points.

The airport also swept every one of the seven measured categories used to make up the score: ease of travel through the airport; level of trust with the airport; terminal facilities; airport staff; departure experience; arrival experience; and food, beverage and retail. Brian Ryks, CEO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates MSP, was understandably delighted with the results:

“This is an unprecedented achievement, especially given the consistently strong performance of airports across our size category. Our repeat No. 1 ranking is a testament to the appreciation travelers have for the service, hospitality and amenities that make trips through MSP easy and memorable.”

The rankings carry substantial methodological weight. J.D. Power collected 24,710 surveys between July 2025 and July 2026 from travelers who had recently used the airports they rated. Passengers assess the seven parameters of the journey, and these are then rolled into a 1,000-point satisfaction index. Airports are further separated into three groups of Mega, Large and Medium, allowing for comparisons between broadly similar facilities rather than treating a huge connecting hub as equivalent to a smaller airport.

The data shows that broadly speaking, average passenger satisfaction increases as the size of the airport diminishes. This makes sense, as the primary selling point of an airport like Ontario International Airport (ONT) is being the more convenient and easier alternative to a neighboring megahub. Looking across all three categories, it is Tampa International Airport (TPA) that can ultimately claim the highest satisfaction scores of all US airports of any size.

The contrast at either end of each category is also striking. Mega-airport satisfaction rose by 14 points overall this year, yet MSP sits far above that improving benchmark, while two of United’s most important hubs — Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) — share last place. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer noted how Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), one of American’s hubs, finished last among large airports for a sixth consecutive year, despite improving by 26 points to 596.

Delta Leads The Big 3 Hub Comparison

Credit: Robin Guess I Shutterstock

The data gets fascinating when you extrapolate it out to the hubs of the “Big Three” US airlines. To do this, we assigned each American, Delta and United hub its 2026 J.D. Power score, and then weighted it according to the volume of departures that each carrier has there. This prevents, for example, Delta’s enormous Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) operation from counting the same as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

The resulting figures are our analysis of J.D. Power data, rather than rankings produced by J.D. Power itself, but show a clear divide between the three airlines.

The final column is arguably the most important. Large airports average scores of 657 points, compared with 617 for Mega airports, so simply averaging every hub together would favor an airline with a greater number of smaller facilities. Once each airport is weighted by actual flying (using daily departure data), we find that Delta’s hubs have average satisfaction scores that are 19 points above the category average, and 22 points and 34 points ahead of American and United respectively.

Delta’s relative lead is in spite of Atlanta actually being a drag on its overall score. The Georgia airport scores just 606, 11 points below the Mega average, and actually drags Delta’s score by virtue of being by far Delta’s largest hub. But Minneapolis at 684, Detroit at 663, Salt Lake City at 682 and LaGuardia at 638 provide substantial counterweights. American, meanwhile, has huge operations at middling or weak performers, including Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), while United is especially exposed to two of the worst performers in the category.

This will be increasingly concerning for United as it attempts to close Delta’s premium lead. United has increased premium-seat capacity by 46% since 2019, unveiled its new premium-heavy Boeing 787-9 with Polaris Studio suites, and reported premium revenue growing 16% year-over-year in the second quarter. In other words, its aircraft product has moved increasingly close to parity with Delta’s (some might even say surpassed), but the airport experience surrounding many of those flights is not.

The qualification is important: J.D. Power rated airports, not United. But a flight-weighted hub score roughly 33 points below Delta’s exposes a potential weak link in an otherwise increasingly premium end-to-end proposition.

Why Delta’s Hub Portfolio Performs So Well

Credit: Avi Johnson | Shutterstock

Not coincidentally, Minneapolis provides a clear example of how an airline can influence the passenger experience before anyone sets foot on the aircraft. Delta and the Metropolitan Airports Commission recently completed a $242 million airport modernization program, which refreshed six concourses in Terminal 1, including providing more than 75 Delta gate areas with new seating, flooring, lighting, signage, flight-information displays and power access. The work also coincided with a separate long-term overhaul of MSP’s pre-security passenger areas.

LaGuardia Airport (LGA) offers an even more dramatic example. Delta’s $4 billion Terminal C redevelopment created a 1.3-million-square-foot complex with 37 gates, centralized passenger processing, expanded concessions and a major Sky Club. Once routinely cited as one of America’s least appealing airports, LGA now sits fourth among Mega airports in the J.D. Power study. The turnaround has been dramatic enough that the airport’s transformation itself has become a case study in changing passenger perceptions.

Elsewhere, Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) is nearing the end of a $5.1 billion airport rebuild, while Delta opened a nearly 34,000-square-foot, 600-seat Sky Club in the expanded Concourse B last year. Detroit’s McNamara Terminal has not required the same wholesale rebuild, but Delta continues layering premium passenger technology and services onto the hub, including dedicated Delta One Check-In. Both airports therefore add two very different examples of where the airline’s ground product extends well beyond the gate itself.

And yet the most interesting part is that Atlanta shows that Delta cannot simply manufacture a high customer satisfaction score through branding, with its home hub remaining below the Mega average. Yet investment there is accelerating too, including the $1.4 billion widening of Concourse D and new lounge facilities, as Delta continues building ATL beyond one million weekly seats.

The lesson from all of this? Well, airlines don’t control every element of the airport journey, and these rankings can’t prove causation — that Delta’s investment of billions of dollars into its hubs has caused them to perform better. The data does, however, show a very strong correlation between that investment and passenger satisfaction. Which underlines a broader lesson for these carriers as they chase premium customers: the passenger experience begins long before the aircraft door, and investing in the airport can matter just as much as investing in the seat.