Is this the worldâ€™s worst airport?

Catching a flight at Dulles is more chore than adventure. Picture: Mike Procarlo Source: Flickr

If you're taking to the skies over the Christmas holidays, there's one airport you'd better brace yourself for.

A bad location, long lines and confusing layout are factors that have landed Washington's Dulles Airport in several lists of the world's worst over recent years, striking dread into the hearts of many travellers.

Just last week, Dulles popped up on Bloomberg's Airport Frustration Index. The rankings are based on how long it takes to get to the airport, ease of passing through security, on time performance of flights and the quality of the terminals.

Dulles was voted the third worst airport.

"It probably took — I'm exaggerating — as long to get home (driving) from Dulles as it did to fly home from Heathrow," Mike Finnegan of Kensington said of a recent trip to London from Dulles.

It's not a favourite among travellers. Source: AP

And it's far from the only time that Dulles has landed on a list of dud airports. In 2012 Travel+Leisure.com issued this description of the airport: "Flying into the nation's capital? Well, Dulles is disparaged for its location and baggage handling. Flying out of Dulles? Expect long lines at check-in and security and staff who won't exactly jump to attention. The cleanliness and design of Dulles won't lift your spirits either. Our survey suggests it's worth considering routing your D.C. plans through Baltimore instead."

Meanwhile, it has a rating of just 3.9 out of 10 on travel rating and reviews website SkyTrax.

One review said: "This airport is in need of a series overhaul. First TSA kept giving me the run around prior to even getting on the line (go here go their etc). Once I finally made it through, I began the walk of a lifetime to get to my gate. First a train, then I walked and walked for about 20 minutes up and down escalators (a tricky thing to do with luggage). My return to Dulles was about the same hassle with tonnes of walking to get to my parked car. I will definitely avoid this airport in the future."

Another traveller agreed: "Arriving and going through immigration was a nightmare — 2 hours waiting in line, another hour going through security, less than 3.5 hours to do a transfer would be unwise. From all the countries I have visited arriving at Dulles International is by far the worst. I would surely never by a ticket through Dulles again."

Travel website BoardingArea.com has called it a "very bad airport", due to its limited public transportation options, saying it "still sucks" despite the $US4.1 ($4.8) billion spent on improvements since 2000.

The sentiment on Twitter? You guessed it — it sucks!

Flying into Dulles Airport. Picture: Doc Searls Source: Flickr

A search on Google for "Dulles Airport sucks' shows the many articles out there that detail how disappointing Dulles is.