DXB is well connected in OAG's mega hub list

DXB came in 39th in the index which reflects the top 50 airports with the highest ratio of possible scheduled connections to the number of destinations served with both online and interline connections being included across all types of scheduled airlines from legacy to low cost. DXB came in with a connectivity rating of 424 compared to Atlanta, which took the top slot with a connectivity rating of 2503.

The ranking, which includes airports from 19 countries across the Americas, UK, Europe, Australasia, the Far East and Asia, was dominated by American airports which took 22 of the places, including the top six.

Dubai was ranked the Middle East’s Mega Hub with a connectivity index based on its busiest day this year of 424 – more than double its 2010 rating of 205. Hamed International in Doha came in second regionally with a connectivity index of 167; Abu Dhabi International was third with a rating of 111; fourth was Riyadh’s King Khalid International with Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International coming in fifth.

The report says effective hub airports benefit from a combination of a large number of inbound and outbound flights along with well-timed airline schedules and admits that while many of the Megahubs are in the USA they could increasingly face competition.

“There are a number of airports around the globe which are growing rapidly, especially in terms of the number of flights to and from those airports. These may well be an indication of the Megahubs of the future,” says the report which tips Istanbul as a contender for a Top Ten place,

“Istanbul Ataturk Airport stands out as the airport which has risen most rapidly based on the Megahub Index. Now ranked 29th, the number of connections possible on the busiest day in 2015 is four times greater, or over 100,000 more, than five years ago,” says the report. “While substantially smaller than IST, Istanbul’s other airport, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen has also seen a significant increase in connectivity with 25,000 more connections in 2015 than in 2010. With construction underway of a third airport at Istanbul, which is planned to be the biggest in the world and ultimately replace IST, the prospect for Istanbul to enter the Top 10 Megahubs Index seems not far off.”