The survey was conducted by AirHelp, a technology company that provides legal services to airline passengers and ranks airports according to quality of service, punctuality and passengers' experiences based on their reactions on Twitter.
Based on these categories, the highest ranking French airport at 85th place (out of 141) was Basel-Mulhouse Airport on the Swiss border which received an average score of 7.41 out of a possible 10 in terms of its punctuality and quality of service.
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Photo: Jeff Warren/Flickr
However even this top performing French airport had struggled to win over passengers… at least according to their reactions on social media for which it received a measly 4.65 out of 10.
Meanwhile, Toulouse airport was next on the list in 94th place followed by one of Paris's main airports Charles de Gaulle at 128th and Bordeaux at 133rd.
The other large airport in the French capital, Orly, came a lowly 138th followed by Lyon (139th) which managed to beat just Standstead Airport in the UK (140th) and Kuwait International Airport which came bottom of the list.
Topping the list were Hamad International Airport in Qatar, Athens International Airport in Greece and Haneda Airport in Japan.
“It is true that the classification acts as a warning signal and shows that passengers are not satisfied,” Hayat Boufeldja who is in charge of France at AirHelp told Le Figaro.
But why are passengers so unhappy?
Boufeldja puts it down to the lack of information and the lack of support when a flight is cancelled — a feeling that is likely to have been aggravated during the many strikes by air traffic controllers and flight and ground crews at Air France that have taken place since the beginning of the year.
Unions have carried out a series of industrial action in order to secure the 5.1 percent wage increase they're after.
But even though the strikes are likely to have something to do with the poor performance of French airports, this is far from the first time they've been shown up by international competitors.
Photo: AFP
In fact, in April 2017 The Local reported on a survey by consumer magazine UFC-Que Choisir that showed Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle ranked near the bottom of the pack for European airports.
That survey revealed that the two international Paris airports ranked at 29th and 31st respectively out of 32 airports, gaining scores of 13.9 and 13.7 out of 20 possible marks.
Complaints from passengers in that survey included the poor quality of the bars and restaurants, the lack of comfort in the waiting areas, and the lack of seats and electrical plugs.
On top of that in November 2017, The Local reported that a study had revealed Paris Beauvais as one of the worst ten airports in the world.
Beauvais airport was ranked the ninth worst airport in the world in a survey by travel site “Sleeping at Airports” just ahead of Tashkent International Airport in Uzbekistan, Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal and Caracas Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela.
Air France
AirHelp also ranked 72 airlines around the world, with France's highest scoring airline coming in 20th thanks to budget airline Transavia, which is run by Air France.
The airline scored 7.88 out of 10 while Air France came in 34th with a rating of 7.77.
“For these two French companies, we are seeing similar results to last year,” said Hayat Boufeldja. “The poor performance in terms of punctuality is probably related to recent strikes.”
By comparison, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa and Etihad topped the table, scoring 9.08, 8.57 and 8.43, respectively.
Meanwhile, Icelandic airline WOW Air scored the lowest with a total of 5.04.
The worst thing about the CDG airport is the huge lines and very long waiting times to get through passport control. It’s common to have only a few officers with many of the counters empty while the lines are packed with travelers. One wonders why during peak hours the counters aren’t fully staffed. Is it incompetence or arrogance?
I’e used CDG in Paris for two long haul flights with waiting up to 4 hours at the airport I’ve travelled many countries in the world and consider CDG the worst..no comfortable and lack of seating,food outlets,toilets,it really is the pits