Long Island MacArthur Airport is the best small airport in America. Not one of the best, not a finalist: first place, No. 1 of 10, in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards results published October 14.

For anyone who has followed the Ronkonkoma airport's pursuit of this ranking, the final standings hold a detail almost too neat to believe. Last year MacArthur finished second behind Gerald R. Ford International in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This year the two airports swapped places exactly: MacArthur first, Ford second. Rhode Island's T.F. Green International, which took third a year ago, landed fourth this time behind Northwest Arkansas National.

A climb that took four tries

The 10Best contest runs in two stages. A panel of travel editors and industry experts nominates 20 small airports, and readers decide the order, one vote per person per day, across roughly a month of balloting. This year's voting closed at noon on October 5, and the results went up nine days later with the airport beside the Ronkonkoma LIRR station at the top of the list.

MacArthur's finishes in this contest read like a staircase. It placed fifth in an early nomination, climbed to third in 2024, took second in 2025 and now holds first. When this year's ballot opened in September, MacArthur was the only nominee in the New York metropolitan area and was starting from the highest finish it had ever posted. The voters finished the climb.

The award defines its category honestly: these are airports that move a fraction of the passengers JFK or LaGuardia do, judged on the things that actually shape a trip, the flight options, the ease of getting in and out, and the amenities while you wait.

What the country was voting on

The award's own write-up pitches MacArthur as the antidote to the big New York airports: about 50 miles from Manhattan, close to the Hamptons, Fire Island and Long Island wine country, with close-in parking that needs no shuttle bus, rental cars on the property, a modern ground transportation center and a new baggage claim area. It also gives a nod to Point/Blue Pub and Provisions, the pre-flight spot pouring Long Island craft beer.

Six airlines now fly from Ronkonkoma: Avelo, Breeze, Cape Air, Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest. That roster is the quiet story underneath the trophy. For years MacArthur fought the perception that it was a one-carrier field, and the current route map looks nothing like that. Breeze made Tampa its tenth nonstop from the airport in July, and JetBlue added new nonstops of its own last December.

And there is the train. The Ronkonkoma LIRR station sits next to the terminal, which means a one-seat ride connects the nation's best small airport to Grand Central and Penn Station. Almost no small airport in the country can say anything like that.

Why this is worth more than bragging rights

Small airports live and die on whether airlines believe the local market will show up. A national No. 1 voted by readers, not bought as advertising, is exactly the kind of signal route planners weigh when they decide where the next city pair goes. The Town of Islip, which owns and operates the airport, has spent recent years arguing that Long Island will fill planes if the flights exist. This ranking is that argument, endorsed by the whole country.

The rest of this year's top ten runs from Grand Rapids and Northwest Arkansas through T.F. Green, Huntsville, Fresno, El Paso, Colorado Springs, Rochester and Greensboro. Long Island sits above all of them.

For the readers who tapped a vote every day for a month, and for everybody who simply kept choosing the easy airport over the two-hour crawl to a city runway, the practical meaning is simple. The airport you picked because the parking lot touches the terminal is now, officially, the airport the rest of the country wishes it had.