OAG Travel News

The number of nonstop destinations is a key measure of an airport’s strength, especially from an economic-development perspective.  The higher the number, the easier it is to do business in your city.

This week I was interested in determining the airport with the most nonstop destinations in the world.  I started my analysis with the top 100 airports in terms of flight departures and analyzed all of their destinations.  Four airports enjoy service to more than 200 nonstop destinations, and nearly 50 airports have service to over 100 nonstop destinations.  On the other end of the spectrum, seven airports included in the top 100 have service to less than 50 nonstop destinations.  Following are unique aspects of the 10 airports with the most nonstop destinations in the world.

Top 10 Airports (as ranked by nonstop destinations)

1.       Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) – 254 nonstop destinations
The only region of the world not served nonstop from Frankfurt is Australia/Oceania.  And Frankfurt is the only airport in the top 10 to have nonstop service to Kabul, Afghanistan (KBL).

2.       Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) – 243 nonstop destinations
Of the top 100 airports, Paris/CDG has more service to Africa than any other airport.  And CDG ranks as the airport with the most airlines (110).

3.       Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) – 230 nonstop destinations
Atlanta ranks as the busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and has more nonstop flights to points in North America than any other airport.  But only 18 airlines provide this service, nearly 100 less airlines than serve Paris/CDG.

4.       Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) – 222 nonstop destinations
Of the top 10 airports, Amsterdam is the only one with nonstop service to the African capital cities of Abuja, Nigeria (ABV) and Khartoum, Sudan (KRT).

5.       Munich International Airport (MUC) – 196 nonstop destinations
Munich is the only one of the top 10 airports with service to Klagenfurt (KLU), a picturesque city in southern Austria where I spent a summer studying German.

6.       New Bangkok International Airport/ Suvarnabhumi (BKK) – 188 nonstop destinations
Not surprisingly, of the top 10 airports, Bangkok has more service to the Middle East, Far East and Australia/Oceania than any other airport.  Unique airlines serving Bangkok include Biman Bangladesh, Royal Brunei Airlines, JetStar Asia and Kampuchea Airlines.

7.       London Gatwick Airport (LGW) – 186 nonstop destinations
Passengers can reach more nonstop destinations from Gatwick than from London’s much busier Heathrow Airport.

8.       Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) – 181 nonstop destinations
20 U.S. destinations – mostly smaller cities in the Midwest – one Canadian (Winnipeg/YWG) and one Mexican (Zacatecas/ZCL) destination are served nonstop from O’Hare and are not served from the other top 10 airports.

9.       Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) – 168 nonstop destinations
Houston enjoys more than triple the number of nonstop flights to Mexico and Central America than any of the other top 10 airports.

10.     New York/JFK International Airport (JFK) – 167 nonstop destinations
Of the top 10 airports, New York/JFK is the only one to offer service to Georgetown, Guyana (GEO) and Port au Prince, Haiti (PAP).  JFK is also the only airport in the top 10 with service by Avianca, Cayman Airways, Caribbean Airlines and LanEcuador.

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) for May 2009, unless otherwise noted.

Original article by Laura Jackson