The World’s Most Internationally Connected Airports

by Adelaida Salikha

Published September 19, 2018 - 13:15 Jkt

London’s Heathrow Airport has retained its position as the world’s most internationally connected airport, offering some 66,000 possible international connections between inbound and outbound flights within a six-hour window on its busiest day in 2018.

The results are based on air travel intelligence company OAG’s Megahubs International Index 2018, which is determined by comparing the number of scheduled connections to and from international flights with the number of destinations served from the world’s 200 largest airports.

Heathrow Airport was followed by Chicago O’Hare in second, Frankfurt Airport in third, Amsterdam’s Schiphol in fourth and Toronto Pearson in fifth.

While no airports in Asia-Pacific cracked the top five, a total of six made it into the top 20. Four of these are located in South East Asia – Singapore Changi (8th), Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International (10th), Kuala Lumpur International (12th), and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (14th) – while Hong Kong International (13th) and Seoul Incheon (15th) comprised the other two.

“Robust demand for international air travel is making Asia-Pacific a pivotal region for connecting flights, and the continued year-round growth of Chinese outbound travel is a decisive factor,” said Mayur Patel, regional sales director of JAPAC for OAG.

“Asia’s dominance is clear to see, but we are likely to see some interesting movements when the new Beijing [Daxing] airport opens. With China driving air travel growth, we expect hub connectivity to Hong Kong, currently undergoing unprecedented growth, driven by mainline operators (Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon) will undoubtedly see further evolution.”

Other notable airports in Asia-Pacific include Tokyo Haneda (21st), Shanghai Pudong (24th), Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (25th), and Sydney Airport (29th).

Rank	Airport	Country	Connectivity Index	Dominant Carrier	Share of Flights at Hub (%)
1	London Heathrow (LHR)	United Kingdom	333	British Airways	52
2	Chicago O’Hare (ORD)	USA	306	United Airlines	48
3	Frankfurt Airport (FRA)	Germany	302	Lufhansa	63
4	Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)	Netherlands	286	KLM	51
5	Toronto Pearson (YYZ)	Canada	271	Air Canada	60
6	Los Angeles International (LAX)	USA	257	American Airlines	21
7	Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL)	USA	256	Delta Air Lines	79
8	Singapore Changi (SIN)	Singapore	253	Singapore Airlines	23
9	Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG)	France	250	Air France	51
10	Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta (CGK)	Indonesia	249	Garuda Indonesia	28
11	Munich Airport (MUC)	Germany	237	Lufthansa	59
12	Kuala Lumpur International (KUL)	Malaysia	233	AirAsia	30
13	Hong Kong International (HKG)	Hong Kong (SAR), China	230	Cathay Pacific	26
14	Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK)	Thailand	230	Thai Airways	21
15	Seoul Incheon (ICN)	South Korea	216	Korean Air	23
16	New York John F Kennedy (JFK)	USA	207	Delta Air Lines	34
17	Istanbul Ataturk (IST)	Turkey	205	Turkish Airlines	80
18	Dubai International (DXB)	UAE	194	Emirates	45
19	Miami International (MIA)	USA	192	American Airlines	75
20	Mexico City International (MEX)	Mexico	181	Aeromexico	46

OAG’s rankings offer a noticeably different picture compared to the world’s busiest airports as determined by Airports Council International, which take into account total annual passenger traffic.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson remains the busiest in the world, welcoming just under 104 million passengers in 2017, followed by Beijing Capital airport and Dubai International.

Asia-Pacific notably also accounts for eight of the 10 busiest international routes in the world, according to OAG’s Punctuality League published earlier this year. As previously reported by Business Traveller, Kuala Lumpur-Singapore took the top spot from Hong Kong-Taipei for the period of March 2017 to February 2018.

Source : Business Traveller