BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, OAG, the global leader in flight information, released its Megahubs U.S. Index 2018, revealing the top 25 most connected airports in the U.S. for domestic services. Complimenting the Megahubs International Index 2018, the U.S. edition takes account of the unique nature of the U.S. aviation market, focusing on domestic connectivity.
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) is once again the most connected airport in domestic connectivity, topping the second-place finisher – Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) – by 83 points. Despite finishing first in 2017, O’Hare continued to add destinations in 2018, and increased its Connectivity Index (CI) by 24 points this year.
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL; CI: 396) finished second in the U.S. and seventh in International Connectivity. Atlanta finished with a domestic Connectivity Index of 396, six points higher than last year. Charlotte Douglas (CLT) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) rank third and fourth with a Connectivity Index of 236 and 228.
While location is an important characteristic for airport connectivity, the presence of strong domestic carriers is also vital. American Airlines controls market share at five of the top 10 U.S. megahubs, including a 90 percent share of flights at Charlotte Douglas (CLT; CI:236). Among low-cost carriers (LCCs), Southwest Airlines continued to increase its presence in the top 25, and now controls 93 percent of market share at Chicago Midway (MDW, ranked 17th), 89 percent at Dallas Love Field (DAL, ranked 19th) and 64 percent at Baltimore Washington (BWI, ranked 25th).
“Legacy carriers – American, Delta and United – dominated market share at the top 10 U.S. megahubs this year,” said John Grant, senior analyst of OAG. “Looking for every competitive advantage possible, airlines continue to push the boundaries on connectivity for their customers – and today, that requires a strong megahub presence.”
Additional findings from OAG’s U.S. Megahub Index include:
- Los Angeles Airport (LAX) ranks seventh in U.S. connectivity, increasing its number of potential flight connections within a three-hour window by 20 percent over 2018. United Airlines and American Airlines were the primary drivers of domestic growth at LAX, both adding frequency to existing routes.
- Two airports made significant jumps in OAG’s 2018 index: Philadelphia Airport (PHL) improved from 14th to 10th and New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) jumped from 24th to 14th.
- The smallest airport in the top 25 list this year is Hawaii’s Kahului Airport (OGG). The airport manages a high ratio of potential connections to its domestic destinations.
Globally, London Heathrow (LHR) ranks as the most internationally connected airport with a Connectivity Index of 333 points, followed by Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Frankfurt (FRA) and Amsterdam (AMS).
“Megahubs are incredibly important for the global travel ecosystem. They increase efficiency, competition and choice, and most importantly, create a boundary-less world for travelers,” said Grant.
The connectivity data measured by OAG goes beyond the size of an airport’s route network and measures the number of connections possible within a specific time frame and the relative attractiveness of each airport as a connecting point for scheduled domestic air passengers.
The megahubs indices harness the world’s most comprehensive schedules database to dynamically build connections through a dedicated analytics platform, Connections Analyser, and is further enhanced by OAG’s Minimum Connection Time Exceptions Table. OAG has calculated the total number of all possible domestic connections between inbound and outbound flights within a six-hour window, on the busiest day for global aviation for the 12 months through July 2018.
For more insights from the Megahubs U.S. Index or the Megahubs International Index, download the full reports.
About OAG
OAG is the leading provider of digital flight information and their customers span the entire global travel ecosystem from airlines, airports, government agencies and aircraft manufacturers to travel technology leaders and service providers.
At the forefront of the travel market for years, they have the world’s largest network of air travel data including the definitive schedules database of more than 980 airlines and the most extensive flight status information database in the market, tracking 96 percent of commercial flights.
OAG helps their customers solve strategic, commercial and operational problems through wide variety of solutions from data APIs, dynamic multi-frequency data feeds to delivery of high value business insight through their analytics platform.
Today, OAG’s customer network includes the world’s largest airlines and airports, online travel agents (OTAs), the largest booking engine in Europe and the top travel, technology and ecommerce leaders across China, India, Indonesia, Latin America and North America.
Headquartered in the UK, OAG has global operations in the USA, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China.
For more information, visit: www.oag.com and follow us on Twitter @OAG Aviation.
