Atlanta may boast the busiest airport in the world, but Hartsfield-Jackson trails other “megahubs” around the world in global connectivity, according to research firm OAG.
ATL ranks seventh in the world Megahubs International Index, which ranks the top 200 hubs based on the ratio of scheduled international connections and total number of destinations served.
Out of the U.S. airports in top 50 global rankings, Atlanta sits behind No. 3 Chicago O’Hare but far outpaces No. 18 John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, which has more international destinations and a higher proportion of global travelers but offers fewer connections than Atlanta — a transfer hub with direct reach to 150 cities in the U.S. that nonetheless connects travelers with more than 70 international hubs.
ATL has one of the highest proportions of flights offered by a single airline, as OAG calculates that Delta Air Lines takes 79 percent of the takeoffs and landings. That sits behind only the American Airlines strongholds of Dallas and Houston’s Intercontinental, where that airline occupies 85 and 81 percent of flights, respectively.
Globally, Atlanta trails some of the airports to which it has the best connections, often through Delta Air Lines joint ventures, from London’s top-ranked Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle (No. 6) and Amsterdam’s Schiphol (No. 4).
But ATL does far outrank some Asian and Middle Eastern hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, which may have more global travelers and exotic destinations but don’t offer the same breadth of connections as the world’s busiest airport, which sits in the top aviation market in the world — the United States.
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