Detroit Metro Airport ranks No. 2 for passenger satisfaction among North America's busiest airports

Detroit's biggest airport just landed near the top of a national ranking.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport ranked second among mega airports in the 2026 J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study, released September 16. DTW scored 663 on the study's 1,000-point scale, trailing only Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport at 684.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport finished third with 642. That leaves DTW sitting 21 points behind first-place Minneapolis and 21 points ahead of Phoenix, right in the middle of a tight top three.

J.D. Power reserves the "mega" label for the busiest airports on the continent, those serving 33 million or more passengers a year. The firm splits the field into three tiers by traffic: mega airports at 33 million passengers or more, large airports from 10 million to 32.9 million, and medium airports from 4.5 million to 9.9 million.

The study scored those airports on seven measures: ease of travel through the airport, level of trust with the airport, terminal facilities, airport staff, the departure/to airport experience, food, beverage and retail, and the arrival/from airport experience. J.D. Power analyzed 24,710 completed surveys from U.S. and Canadian residents who traveled through a U.S. or Canadian airport, collected from July 2025 through July 2026.

This was a good year to be near the top. Satisfaction among mega airports climbed 14 points from 2025, a jump the firm ties to years of building.

Happier fliers also spend more. Passengers who called their airport experience "perfect" spent an average of $47.60 in the terminal, according to the study.

For Detroit, the finish is a quiet point of pride. Holding second among North America's busiest airports says the front door is working.

Travelers can read the full study, including all mega, large and medium airport rankings, on J.D. Power's site.