London Heathrow Airport (LHR) remains the most internationally connected airport in the world this year and retains first place, according to an analysis by global travel data provider OAG.
In a report released recently, OAG says that LHR has emerged as the 4th biggest airport in the world in terms of scheduled one way capacity in the year to August 2024. It says that British Airways remains the dominant airline at London Heathrow operating 50 pc of all flights.
According to the report, Kuala Lumpur (KUL) moves up to 2nd this year and is the most internationally-connected airport in Asia Pacific. KUL does not have the highest volume of connections by comparison to some of the biggest hubs in the index, but it does have a high ratio of connections to destinations served, which is what pushes it up the rankings from 12th place in 2019 and 4th place in 2023.
The report says that Asia’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC), Air Asia, is the dominant carrier at the airport, operating 35 pc of KUL’s flights in the year to August 2024.
Istanbul (IST) in Türkiye offers more destinations than any other megahub, however, based on the OAG connectivity methodology, it doesn’t offer as many potential connections as those megahubs ahead of it, hence its place at number eight. Only Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Germany joins IST in offering over 300 destinations in their network.
The top 20 global megahubs continue to see a slight shift towards Asia, highlighting the growing connectivity of Asian cities in the global network, with eight in Asia Pacific, namely KUL, Tokyo International Airport (HND), Incheon Airport (ICN) in Seoul, Bangkok International Airport (BKK), Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) in Manila, Narita International Airport (NRT) in Tokyo and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG).
Six airports in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) also feature in the list. At the top is LHR, followed by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Istanbul Airport (IST), Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and Dubai International Airport (DXB).
Five airports in North America make it to the list, namely John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ARL), Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) in Canada.
The report says that Asia Pacific is home to three of the top five megahubs, namely KUL, HND and ICN, providing reassurance that these markets are back in business and pursuing growth.
OAG says that Tokyo Narita (NRT) in Japan has seen significant improvement, entering the Top 50 this year as the Japan inbound market has made a strong comeback. NRT packs a punch in connecting terms, with a relatively small number of potential connections across just 117 destinations pushing it into 15th place.
The major European airport hubs, Amsterdam (AMS), Frankfurt (FRA) and Paris (CDG) remain in the Top 10. Other major European airports have experienced some reductions in services to Asia due to the continued impact of restrictions on flying over Russia and Ukraine.
In North America, New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) leads US airports ranking 6th in the Global Top 50 list.
Both Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Atlanta (ATL), the world’s busiest airport, move up the rankings this year, Chicago taking 9th position against Atlanta’s 11th spot, says OAG.
From India, Delhi Airport features on the 24th spot where the dominant carrier is IndiGo that operates about 39 pc of total flights, connecting 156 destinations.