On Saturday, April 25, 2020, without much fanfare, Anchorage Airport became the world’s busiest air hub, surpassing such usual leaders as Atlanta, Beijing, Dubai, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Of course, its spot at the top of the chart is temporary; once full-time airline operations resume, Anchorage will once again take its spot much closer to the end of the line. For now, however, its meteoric rise will last a while because while the bulk of Anchorage’s business is air freight, which is booming not only for emergency shipments of medical supplies but also because factories in Asia are resuming production.
Anchorage is a perfect midpoint between Asia and North America. In normal times it is the fifth-busiest cargo airport in the world and the second-busiest in the U.S. It is a major hub for both UPS and FedEx.
