Istanbul Airport has been named the world’s “most connected airport”, with 309 destinations offered from the Turkish hub – most of which are served by Turkish Airlines – according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The survey, which compared how many airports each hub serves in the first half of 2024, found that Frankfurt Airport (296 destinations) and Charles de Gaulle, Paris (282 destinations) ranked second and third, while Shciphol Airport, Amsterdam, and Chicago O’Hare, the best connected US airport, tied for fourth place with (270 destinations each).
Dubai, which was named the busiest airport for international departures from Heathrow, is ranked sixth with 269 destinations.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Shanghai Pudong and Atlanta are seventh, eighth and ninth in the table, respectively.
Another European airport in the top ten is Rome’s Fiumicino, which ranks 10th with 234 destinations on its departure screens.
Of the first 20 airports, half were European airports and four each in China and the US.
According to the new figures, London’s Heathrow, the UK’s largest hub, has dropped from the top 10 of the world’s best-connected airports and now ranks 12th in terms of the number of destinations it serves, down from eighth in 2023.
Heathrow Airport handles more passengers than any of its European competitors. In terms of destinations, however, it has fallen to 12th place – behind Denver and ahead of Jeddah. Heathrow served 221 other airports in the first half of the year.
The west London hub did, however, perform better than its pre-pandemic global ranking of 18th.
London Gatwick handles around half as many passengers as Heathrow. However, Sussex airport was only two places – and three destinations – behind its biggest rival. Gatwick ranks 14th in the rankings, well ahead of any other “secondary” airport. It shares the position with Madrid, which also serves 218 destinations.
The busiest day for departures from UK airports
Friday, 6 September, was the busiest day in terms of departures at UK airports since October 2019.
A total of 3,261 flights were scheduled to depart, representing more than half a million seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The number of departures was almost 4% higher than the same day in 2023, with scheduled departures reaching 91% of 2019 levels.
Heathrow Airport had the highest number of departures, followed by Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Edinburgh Airport.
The most popular international destinations for UK departures were Amsterdam, Dublin, Alicante, Paris and Faro, while easyJet was the busiest airline over the weekend, followed by British Airways and Ryanair.
