When you walk into Sky Harbor, you are bombarded with declarations that it's the country's "friendliest airport". Huh. What does this mean? User-friendly? Friendly in a "you'll always feel at home here" way? Didn't really know, but it seems extremely important to their PR group, since when you sign on for the wi-fi, you can't change pages until you rate how friendly the airport is from a drop down menu. 

It might be doing a disservice by proclaiming it as the superlative of congeniality. Expectations run high -- at least by me. I found the free wi-fi extremely friendly. Yeah!! Star for that. I found the den-like check in area (at least in Terminal 3), not so friendly as it left me feeling a little depressed. The TSA officer who confiscated my 4 oz (apparenly it's 3.4 oz in PHX) Neutrogena sun screen not so friendly...but not malicious, and I guess I wouldnt be so friendly if I were charged with monitoring tenths of ounces hour after hour. The spoke-security system I found to be not so friendly to both users and retail. I never like seeing a plethora of places to purchase items BEFORE security, leaving you with only a few outlets for you to browse in your little concourse. I hate wondering, what do gates 1-14 get to purchase? Is my concourse more vacant than the others? Just put security before ALL the retail and let us wander a bit. 

Overall, not a bad airport. at all. the friendliest? i don't know, but the free wi-fi certainly made me leave with a smile on my face!