Why Are American Airports So Awful?

It’s the one opinion that Donald Trump and his opponents seem to share: America’s airports are so bad, it’s like “they’re from a third world country,” as Trump said in the first debate. Vice President Joe Biden used the same phrase to describe New York’s LaGuardia two years ago. Much of the flying public seems to roughly agree.

The sentiment is understandable if you’ve recently transited through a gleaming airport in Singapore, Dubai or Kuala Lumpur. Where LaGuardia has low-end souvenir shops, grim food courts and cramped concourses, these airports have butterfly gardens, jungle trails and sound-proofed, WiFi-enabled snooze cubes. It’s enough to drive a frequent flier to distraction. And it makes you wonder why the world's biggest economy can’t keep pace.