There's good news and bad news for Southland air travelers.
The good news: Hollywood Burbank Airport was named the best airport in the country in an inaugural ranking by Fodor's Travel Guide.
The bad news: Los Angeles International Airport was ranked worst in the world. "Burbank is an airport free of most of the hassles that take the fun out of travel plans," according to the guide. "It's an agreeable airport in a perfect location, which is why it's at the top of our list of airports to love."
The guide hailed the airport for affordable parking, easy shuttle access, navigable terminals and walking-distance Metrolink station -- as well as the "great food."
In contrast, LAX was demonized by the publication primarily for the lack of easy access, forcing travelers "to endure the purgatorial nightmare of traffic that leads to and from each of LAX's nine terminals -- as many terminals as Dante's hell has circles."
"Thanks to the improbably stupid design of its catastrophic horseshoe motor-loop, it regularly requires 30 minutes to travel the short mile from the outskirts of the airport to most of its terminals. And because Los Angeles was built as a city beholden to the automobile, there is no other way to arrive or depart from this maddening complex of suffering but through the interminable traffic."
The publication notes that help is on the way, thanks to the much-anticipated people-mover that will ultimately shuttle passengers via train through the terminal area and connect to local rail.
