London Heathrow Airport remains the most internationally connected airport in the world this year, according to the OAG Megahubs report, now in its 10th year ranking the connectivity of the world’s leading international airport hubs. The rankings are generated by comparing the number of scheduled connections to and from international flights with the number of destinations served from the airport.
Using its network of airline schedules and global flight connections, OAG Megahubs 2024 provides insights into how flight connectivity changes, develops and grows across the world’s largest airports.
Among other highlights of the report:
- Kuala Lumpur moved up to second this year and is the most connected airport in Asia- Pacific. The airport does not have the highest volume of connections in 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 twelfth place in 2019 and fourth place in 2023.
- Istanbul 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, resulting in its ranking at No 8. Only Frankfurt joins Istanbul in offering over 300 destinations in their network.
- The Top 20 Global Megahubs continues to see a slight shift towards Asia – highlighting the growing connectivity of Asian cities in the global network – with the following distribution: eight in Asia-Pacific, six in Europe/Middle East/Africa, five in North America and one in South Americfa.
- The major European airport hubs – Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris — 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 leads US airports, ranking sixth on the Global Top 50 list.
- Both Chicago O’Hare and Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport, moved up the rankings this year, Chicago taking ninth position against Atlanta’s eleventh spot.
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