Crane Index™ Research › AI Readability 2026 › UK Airports
Crane Index™ · Annual edition
UK UK Airports AI Readability 2026
As of 1 October 2026, the median UK uk airports site scored 47 out of 100 on the Crane Index™, the measure of how readably a site presents itself to AI engines. Across the 22 sites a machine could read, scores ran from 23 to 68, a 45-point gap between the strongest and the weakest.
The 2027 edition is scheduled. UK AI Readability 2027 is pinned to the scan scheduled for 1 January 2027. The figures on this page stay fixed to 1 October 2026.
What this measures. The score reads how readably a site presents itself to AI engines: entity markup, structured data and machine resolvability. It is not a measure of design, brand or quality. A site can look excellent to a person and still be hard for a machine to read, and a low score is a readability finding, never a judgement on the business.
The field in 2026
The field was led by Cornwall Airport Newquay at 68, with Norwich Airport next at 62. Not one site cleared 70 out of 100, and 9 scored below 40.
At the foot of the field sat Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 23, Humberside Airport at 23, Sumburgh Airport at 36. Each is a site a machine struggled to read, not a business doing anything other than well at what it does.
The full 2026 ranking
Composite out of 100, with the three reads behind it: AI Search Readiness (retrieval), Agent Readiness (execution) and Brand Representation.
| Rank | Organisation | Crane Index | Search | Agent | Brand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cornwall Airport Newquaycornwallairportnewquay.com | 68 | 80 | 76 | 47 |
| 2 | Norwich Airportnorwichairport.co.uk | 62 | 65 | 79 | 43 |
| 3= | East Midlands Airporteastmidlandsairport.com | 56 | 60 | 63 | 46 |
| 3= | Heathrow Airportheathrow.com | 56 | 58 | 69 | 41 |
| 3= | Leeds Bradford Airportleedsbradfordairport.co.uk | 56 | 64 | 62 | 41 |
| 3= | London Southend Airportlondonsouthendairport.com | 56 | 72 | 87 | 8 |
| 7= | London Gatwick Airportgatwickairport.com | 55 | 56 | 62 | 46 |
| 7= | London Stansted Airportstanstedairport.com | 55 | 60 | 63 | 43 |
| 9 | Manchester Airportmanchesterairport.co.uk | 54 | 55 | 63 | 43 |
| 10 | Glasgow Prestwick Airportglasgowprestwick.com | 51 | 57 | 85 | 10 |
| 11 | Exeter Airportexeter-airport.co.uk | 48 | 57 | 79 | 8 |
| 12 | Teesside International Airportteessideinternational.com | 46 | 53 | 77 | 8 |
| 13 | London Luton Airportlondon-luton.co.uk | 41 | 48 | 68 | 8 |
| 14 | Edinburgh Airportedinburghairport.com | 39 | 46 | 62 | 8 |
| 15 | Aberdeen International Airportaberdeenairport.com | 38 | 44 | 59 | 10 |
| 16= | Inverness Airporthial.co.uk/inverness-airport | 37 | 45 | 56 | 10 |
| 16= | Southampton Airportsouthamptonairport.com | 37 | 44 | 53 | 13 |
| 18= | Kirkwall Airporthial.co.uk/kirkwall-airport | 36 | 45 | 56 | 8 |
| 18= | Stornoway Airporthial.co.uk/homepage/9/stornoway-airport | 36 | 44 | 56 | 8 |
| 18= | Sumburgh Airporthial.co.uk/sumburgh-airport | 36 | 45 | 56 | 8 |
| 21= | Humberside Airporthumbersideairport.com | 23 | 21 | 34 | 15 |
| 21= | Liverpool John Lennon Airportliverpoolairport.com | 23 | 21 | 34 | 15 |
Download this edition: the full field as a spreadsheet (CSV), or the same run as JSON. Licensed CC BY 4.0, so it is yours to publish and build on with attribution. Every unreadable site carries empty score cells, never a zero.
This is the fixed 2026 edition, pinned to the scan measured 1 October 2026, so the figures on it do not change. The live field, re-run on the first of each month, is on the current UK Airports benchmark. For how the score is built, see the methodology.
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Cite as: The Crane Index™, UK UK Airports AI readability 2026, The Crane Consultancy, measured 1 October 2026. https://thecraneconsultancy.com/research/uk-airports-ai-readability-2026/