Hong Kong voted world's top airport, Auckland best in ANZ

Hong Kong has taken out triple gold in the 2011 World Airport Awards overnight, selected not only as the world's best airport but best airport dining, while the adjacent Regal Hotel winning chosen as the world's best airport hotel.

Asia's airports continue their winning streak, with Singapore Changi (Skytrax' 2010 winner) sitting at second place and South Korea's Seoul Incheon ranked third.

Auckland International Airport was voted by passengers as the best airport in the Australia/Pacific region, thanks no doubt to a concerted year-long 'Vote for us!' campaign run by the airport; Gold Coast and Brisbane came in second and third, respectively, leaving Australia's major hubs Sydney and Melbourne sitting on the sideline.

Sydney did however win the gong for Asia/Pacific's best airport hotel with the Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport Hotel.

Auckland (above) was voted the best airport in Australia-Pacific region, with Sydney and Melbourne not even making it into the top three

The best airport in North America once again turns out to be Vancouver, while frequent flyer favourite Amsterdam Schiphol leads London Heathrow and London City as the best airport in Western Europe

Heathrow topped the poll for best airport shopping, followed by Changi (which more than once has been called a shopping mall with runways) and Dubai.

Heathrow's extensive array of shops – here's a sampling from the new Terminal 5 - makes it best in the world for spending before you fly

And if you've lain awake at night wondering which airport has the very best toilets, ponder no more: the answer, according to Skytrax, is Beijing.

The World Airport Awards are based on over 11 million survey questionnaires completed by over 100 different nationalities of airline passengers in 2010/2011, covering more than 240 airports worldwide.

For the complete and quite extensive list of winners – which drills down to specifics such as best baggage delivery, best immigration service and best security processing – click to worldairportawards.com.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.