Want to connect? Then London Heathrow, Frankfurt or Amsterdam are the places to be in 2017.
The latest Megahubs International Index from airline scheduling expert OAG has the European airports as the world’s most internationally connected hubs.
But if you’re looking for a cheap ticket with plenty of connections, AirAsia’s home base of Kuala Lumpur tops the megahubs list. It is followed by Indonesia’s Jakarta, Singapore, Dehli and Los Angeles.
The report noted the fact that the top low-cost megahubs were based in Asia demonstrated the success of budget carriers in meeting international travel needs in the region.
Heathrow won its spot by a clear margin with more than 72,000 possible international connections between arriving and departing flights within a six-hour window during a single day In July.
The latest report marks a big change from 2015 when US airports dominated the top 10 and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport headed the list.
The latest overall rankings saw Chicago O’Hare come in at fourth — followed by Toronto, Singapore and Jakarta —and Atlanta relegated to eighth position.
A notable first-timer was Puerto Rico, whose debut at 46 marked the first time a Caribbean airport had entered the index.
The big Chinese airports — Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — all made the top 50 but only Shanghai was in the top 25. It edged out Sydney to come in at 23.
Chicago topped the megahub list in North America with Toronto, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Miami coming next. LAX was the highest ranked US airport for low-cost connectivity.
Singapore’s Changi topped the list in the Asia-Pacific with 35,000 connections a day, followed by Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Mexico City ranked highest for connectivity in Latin America and Dubai, which ranked 20 overall, took out the honours in the Middle East.
The report noted that although Dubai served more destinations than Heathrow, it had just over half the international connections at 39,700.
OAG’s analysis uses the busiest day for global aviation for the 12 months leading to July and includes domestic to international, international to domestic and international to international connections.
The maximum connection window is six hours.
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