US Metros by flight passengers

[ChiSoxRox]

The other day, I was startled to see Denver International make the top 5 busiest airports in the country even pre-COVID, which then got me musing on what US cities pull above (and below) their weight in air travel.

For methodology, I am using the 2020 Census population for Primary Statistical Areas (CSAs and stand-alone MSAs), and 2019 enplanements from the FAA (PDF source) to explicitly ignore COVID. I am using CSAs where possible as airports have a regional draw and that prevents divisions like splitting BWI from IAD/DCA or having ONT be separate from the other SoCal airports.

So the 37 PSAs over 2 million ranked by per-capita commercial air boardings:

City........Enplanements........PSA........Ratio
Las Vegas........24,890,213........2,317,052........10.742
Denver........33,592,945........3,623,560........9.271
Charlotte........24,379,675........2,822,352........8.638
Atlanta........53,505,795........6,930,423........7.720
Miami........43,345,189........6,868,652........6.311
Orlando........26,504,700........4,222,422........6.277
Dallas........43,859,079........8,121,108........5.401
Seattle........25,422,108........4,953,421........5.132
Chicago........50,953,004........9,986,960........5.102
Salt Lake City........12,967,284........2,701,129........4.801
Phoenix........23,315,407........4,899,104........4.759
Minneapolis........19,214,684........4,078,788........4.711
SF Bay Area........42,380,512........9,714,023........4.363
Nashville........8,935,654........2,118,233........4.218
Houston........28,974,923........7,312,270........3.963
San Diego........12,648,692........3,298,634........3.835
Tampa Bay........12,122,239........3,175,275........3.818
Austin........8,507,410........2,283,371........3.726
DC-Baltimore......36,793,363........9,973,383........3.689
Detroit........18,445,646........5,424,742........3.400
Raleigh........6,919,429........2,106,463........3.285
New York........72,016,532........23,582,649........3.054
Los Angeles........56,868,962........18,644,680........3.050
Portland, OR........9,797,408........3,280,736........2.986
Boston...........23,810,043........8,466,186........2.812
St. Louis........7,927,512........2,924,904........2.710
Sacramento........6,454,413........2,680,831........2.408
Kansas City........5,759,419........2,528,644........2.278
Philadelphia........16,536,162........7,379,700........2.241
San Juan........4,630,554........2,358,201........1.964
San Antonio........5,022,980........2,576,528........1.950
Cincinnati........4,413,457........2,316,022........1.906
Indianapolis........4,709,183........2,492,514........1.889
Pittsburgh........4,874,200........2,657,149........1.834
Columbus........4,325,917........2,544,048........1.700
Milwaukee........3,374,073........2,053,232........1.643
Cleveland........5,302,187........3,633,962........1.459

Below that cutoff, you get into 1M+ metros like Fresno and Chattanooga that have sub-1 ratios, but here are smaller metros that stay above a ratio of 2. (Cutoff is 300k to get Anchorage.)

City........Enplanements........PSA........Ratio
Honolulu........9,988,678........1,016,508........9.826
Anchorage........2,758,507........398,328........6.925
New Orleans........6,874,111........1,506,610........4.563
Fort Myers........5,044,024........1,176,193........4.288
Reno........2,162,250........657,958........3.286
Charleston, SC........2,375,868........799,636........2.971
Spokane........1,944,393........757,146........2.568
Savannah........1,461,360........597,465........2.446
Omaha........2,455,274........1,004,771........2.444
Boise........2,057,750........850,341........2.420
Albuquerque........2,784,224........1,162,523........2.395
Myrtle Beach........1,285,200........551,126........2.332
Hartford........3,323,614........1,482,086........2.243
Buffalo........2,581,264........1,243,944........2.075
Pensacola........1,098,889........546,662........2.010
Jacksonville........3,479,923........1,733,937........2.007

So in the main list the two main factors for high air ridership are in full display: be a tourist destination (especially in a far-off corner) like Las Vegas or Orlando, or be a key airline hub (Denver, Charlotte). Indeed, Denver nearly matches Honolulu for air travel per capita!

A neat coincidence is New York and Los Angeles (CSAs) having less than a 1% difference in their flights per-capita.

On the other extreme, Cleveland gets a perfect storm of losing hub status with the Continental/United merger, having a large CSA with Akron and Canton (CAK is included but has tiny ridership), being within reasonable driving distance of a huge chunk of the country's population (unlike Vegas or Florida), and it's not exactly a major tourist draw.

[LA21st]

Good for Denver, but those numbers in your link are really affected by covid.
Look at NYC and LA. 2020 and 2021 aren't a good reference. I used LAX in summer 2021 and it was dead compared to what it was.
2022? Very different.

Would Denver be top 5 when things get back to normal? I doubt it. Top 10 for sure.

[ChiSoxRox]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Good for Denver, but those numbers in your link are really affected by covid.
Look at NYC and LA. 2020 and 2021 aren't a good reference. I used LAX in summer 2021 and it was dead compared to what it was.
2022? Very different.

Would Denver be top 5 when things get back to normal? I doubt it. Top 10 for sure.

Which is why I used 2019 enplanements for the calculations. Even in 2017 through 2019, Denver was #5 in the country.

[Innsertnamehere]

LV is because of it's tourist industry, Denver because it's so isolated that leaving the city basically requires you fly, and it's central location in the country?

[Yuri]

Wikipedia has a nice article for passengers count: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...senger_traffic

2019
London -------- 181 million
New York ------ 144 million
Tokyo ---------- 129 million
Shanghai ------ 122 million
Los Angeles --- 114 million
Paris ----------- 112 million
Atlanta --------- 110 million
Beijing --------- 108 million
Bangkok ------- 107 million
Chicago -------- 106 million
Istanbul -------- 104 million
Moscow --------- 103 million
Dubai ----------- 102 million
Seoul ------------- 97 million
Dallas ------------- 92 million

2010
London -------- 127 million
New York ------ 108 million
Tokyo ----------- 98 million
Atlanta ---------- 89 million
Paris ------------- 86 million
Chicago --------- 84 million
Los Angeles ----- 80 million
Beijing ----------- 76 million
Shanghai -------- 72 million
Dallas ------------ 65 million
Miami ------------ 64 million
San Francisco --- 57 million
Frankfurt -------- 56 million
Dubai ------------ 53 million
Denver ----------- 52 million

Till fairly recently (2010), the US dominated the list. In 2019, lots of new names. I guess China with their massive high speed train system ready, will get flat as well.

[JManc]

The US has a highly developed air network so flights are more spread out among various airports where as most countries, there are one or two more airport entry points. The busiest US airports are airline hubs; Atlanta (Delta), Chicago (United), Dallas (American), San Francisco (United), LA and NYC (several airlines)

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by JManc

The US has a highly developed air network so flights are more spread out among various airports where as most countries, there are one or two more airport entry points. The busiest US airports are airline hubs; Atlanta (Delta), Chicago (United), Dallas (American), San Francisco (United), LA and NYC (several airlines)

Chicago is a hub for United, American (both O'Hare) and Southwest (Midway). Dallas is also a Southwest hub (at Love Field).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

City........Enplanements........PSA........Ratio

Charlotte........24,379,675........2,822,352........8.638

St. Louis........7,927,512........2,924,904........2.710

these two make for an interesting juxtaposition and really show the power of "hub" status.

they're nearly the same size markets, but have very different passenger load ratios because AA has built CLT up into one of its major southeast hubs, while STL got de-hubbed back when TWA was acquired by AA and they decided to leave ORD as their lone midwest hub.

[plinko]

Philadelphia seems oddly low?

[TempleGuy1000]

the location of PHL, to the south of Philadelphia, has always made it a difficult journey for many who live in Delaware Valley. I grew up in Bucks county, north of Philadelphia, but didn't fly out of PHL until I was an adult because EWR was always more convenient.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by plinko

Philadelphia seems oddly low?

That's accurate. Philadelphia has been de-emphasized as a hub since US Airways merged with American. Because of its very close proximity to the NYC airspace PHL doesn't make an attractive location for a major hub.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by plinko

Philadelphia seems oddly low?

American Airlines is continuing to cut flights at Philly.

https://simpleflying.com/philadelphi...-fall-flights/

As mentioned below, Newark isn't that far away and offers a lot more international destinations. BWI is also relatively close to Philly and the Southwest hub there offers cheaper flights for price-sensitive leisure passengers.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Chicago is a hub for United, American (both O'Hare) and Southwest (Midway). Dallas is also a Southwest hub (at Love Field).

Dallas is also, of course, a hub for American Airlines.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

That's accurate. Philadelphia has been de-emphasized as a hub since US Airways merged with American. Because of its very close proximity to the NYC airspace PHL doesn't make an attractive location for a major hub.

Couldn't Philadelphia benefit of New York airports overcrowding? Is there much room for expansion on their three airports?

If that's the case, PHL could capture connections from New York airports and could even become more attractive to those people in nothern sections of metro area that prefer Newark these days.

[Streamliner]

You could theoretically add 2.9 million passengers to San Diego's calculations, with a 4.714 ratio.

In 2019, the Cross Border Xpress (CBX) terminal at Tijuana International Airport served 2.9 million passengers. It is a terminal allowing US passengers to fly out of Tijuana via a pedestrian bridge. It's only accessible from the San Diego side of the border.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Couldn't Philadelphia benefit of New York airports overcrowding? Is there much room for expansion on their three airports?

If that's the case, PHL could capture connections from New York airports and could even become more attractive to those people in nothern sections of metro area that prefer Newark these days.

Not since the U.S. airline industry consolidated into mostly 3 large carriers. PHL is subject to the much of NYC's airspace congestion while not being a convenient airport for much of the New York market. If there were more U.S. airlines then I could see smaller ones focusing on PHL if they aren't able to get a gate at Newark or JFK.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Not since the U.S. airline industry consolidated into mostly 3 large carriers. PHL is subject to the much of NYC's airspace congestion while not being a convenient airport for much of the New York market. If there were more U.S. airlines then I could see smaller ones focusing on PHL if they aren't able to get a gate at Newark or JFK.

The two new start-up low-cost carriers, Breeze and Avelo, are serving White Plains, Hartford, and New Haven, rather than Philly. Additionally, Frontier offers several flights at Trenton-Mercer.

[TWAK]

Does it include transfers? I have done the most transfers in Denver or Vegas.

[ChiSoxRox]

Originally Posted by TWAK

Does it include transfers? I have done the most transfers in Denver or Vegas.

Yes, connections are included and that's a key component of how Denver pulls off that massive number. Iirc enplanements is simply tracking how many people boarded a (commercial) flight at each airport so a transfer will be counted (although only once).

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

The two new start-up low-cost carriers, Breeze and Avelo, are serving White Plains, Hartford, and New Haven, rather than Philly. Additionally, Frontier offers several flights at Trenton-Mercer.

And all of these except Hartford would count to the New York number being in the CSA. Hartford is its own CSA (so BDL and New Haven Tweed), but is likely pulling off that 2.2 ratio with a fair bit of north New York CSA traffic.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

The two new start-up low-cost carriers, Breeze and Avelo, are serving White Plains, Hartford, and New Haven, rather than Philly. Additionally, Frontier offers several flights at Trenton-Mercer.

Yeah, those all seem to be going after the NY market but are also too small to move the numbers much at PHL.

I was thinking PHL would benefit from a few more midsize carriers around the size of a JetBlue or Spirit. I think something else that could benefit PHL would be better HSR in the northeast corridor to free up some of the traffic around New York. A less congested airspace would make PHL less of a logistical burden for airlines, and they might be more inclined to want to tap into the local market.