World’s Best-Connected Airports

The world’s busiest airports are not necessarily the best-connected, with flights to the most destinations. In fact, the airport with the most passengers (Atlanta) only makes #12 on the best-connected list, and #2 Beijing doesn’t appear at all.

The heavy-weight connection champions are all big airports, though: Frankfurt, Istanbul and Paris top the list, followed by Amsterdam and Chicago O’Hare. Each of the top three serves over 300 destinations.

In another measure of connections, Istanbul and Paris CDG are the only two airports in the world to offer flights to over 100 countries.

Here’s the top twenty list:

1. Frankfurt
2. Istanbul
3. Paris Charles de Gaulle
4. Amsterdam
5. Chicago O’Hare
6. Dallas-Fort Worth
7. Dubai
8. London Heathrow
9. Rome Fiumicino
10. Denver
11. Vienna
12. Atlanta
13. Munich
14. Madrid
15. London Gatwick
16. Houston George Bush
17. Barcelona
18. Manchester
19. London Stansted
20. Zurich

Image: Frankfurt Airport from Lufthansa