A new survey released last week by Klook revealed Asia’s fastest — and slowest — airport-to-city journeys. The travel services booking platform looked at 20 major cities across the region, then timed each route in-person on a Friday evening during rush hour. The company also evaluated the fastest method of transit in each destination, from taxis and private cars to trains and buses.
Here’s an interesting question: which city in Asia has the least efficient way of getting from the airport to the city? The answer may surprise you.
A new survey released last week by Klook revealed Asia’s fastest — and slowest — airport-to-city journeys. The travel services booking platform looked at 20 major cities across the region, then timed each route in-person on a Friday evening during rush hour. The company also evaluated the fastest method of transit in each destination, from taxis and private cars to trains and buses.
The results are surprising to say the least. Ranking first is Cambodia’s Siem Reap, with just 26 minutes spent along the 8.7 kilometre route between the airport and the city. Coming in second is Kuala Lumpur via the KLIA Ekspres, which took just 30 minutes along the 57-kilometre route.
Siem Reap’s position can be attributed to a few factors, including the fact that the airport is relatively close to the downtown core, and the city completed the widening of National Road 6 this past July.
Perhaps even more interesting are the countries that ended up at the bottom of the efficiency list. Despite being world-renowned for its public transit system, Tokyo ranked dead last on the list. It took surveyors 100 minutes to travel from Narita Airport to the city — a total of 75 kilometres — via the subway or NEX, the airport’s express train.
When considering efficiency, Klook found Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Hong Kong to provide the fastest transit experiences overall, averaging just one minute per kilometre travelled. Meanwhile, Bali, Bangkok, Cebu and Manila saw the slowest rates, with five minutes per kilometre travelled. Ho Chi Minh City’s airport transfer was the slowest of the slow, requiring almost 10 minutes per kilometre traveled.