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Best airport in north america
| March 29th, 2014 at 6:10:34 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
No, I didn't use operations. The Fedex and UPS hubs would show up prominently, as would Van Nuys airport. I used passengers taking off from the airport (which is what the Faa uses). Usually when an airport counts they count once for a takeoff and once for a landing, and once for passenger who stays on the plane. While takeoffs and landings are about equal, counting the people who ride through give a slight push towards the largest airports. The first group of 29 airports down to TPA consists of airports that individually have 1% or more of the total number of air passengers in the USA. They are, by definition, designated as LARGE hubs. PDX is the biggest of the MEDIUM hubs and OMA is the smallest. Less than 20 years ago, PIT was the large hub airport in Pennsylvania, and PHL was the medium hub. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St Louis, and CVG were all near the center of population of the USA. As changing planes for purely domestic routes became less and less important, those airports were abandoned. Now all hubs invariably are places where you primarily change to international routes. The fact that you might change for domestic flights is of secondary importance, since most of the schedule is designed to minimize the layover to international routes. Of the major hubs, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, Reagan National, La Guardia and Tampa are the ones with the largest share of origin and destination passengers. Atlanta has now passed combined O'Hara and Midway, but it still lags behind the combined JFK, EWR, LGA. |
| March 29th, 2014 at 9:53:35 PM permalink | |
| Mosca Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 22 Posts: 730 | Aside from the destination, you really should fly into/see AVP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre "International" Airport, the terminal built by corruption. It is really beautiful. You can park in a covered long term garage and walk a couple dozen steps to an escalator that deposits you right at the check-in counter, then walk another couple dozen steps or so that take you to another escalator that leaves you right at the gate. In between escalators and counters and gates are marble mosaic inlays and designer lighting. Bob Cordaro, Lackawanna County Commissioner, went to prison over the project cost and overruns (and missing funds). But it is beautiful, and convenient as hell, probably the best airport to serve such a small number of take offs and landings. We used to drive to Philly to avoid the higher cost of AVP, but now it is so damn fast and easy to get around in that it's worth the extra $$ and connecting flight. |
| March 30th, 2014 at 1:54:58 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
AVP and ABE (50 air miles apart) now have nearly identical flights, except ABE only has a bus to EWR, and ABE has less than daily flights to St Petersburg, Punta Gorda, and Myrtle Beach (Allegiant will probably start this service to AVP before long). NONSTOP, LOW-COST FLIGHTS TO/FROM ORLANDO-SANFORD DAILY NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO/FROM DELTA'S HUBS IN ATLANTA & DETROIT DAILY NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO/FROM UNITED'S HUBS IN CHICAGO & NEWARK DAILY NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO/FROM US AIRWAYS' HUBS IN CHARLOTTE & PHILADELPHIA As for corruption and Northeast Pennsylvania, people will remember the 1957 Mafia Summit a century from now, and that scene from the Godfather.  |
| March 30th, 2014 at 6:25:09 AM permalink | |
| Fleastiff Member since: Oct 27, 2012 Threads: 62 Posts: 7831 | Maybe there are certain parallels. When Vegas was mob ruled, the player got a square deal and a good chance to win. Cheaters got promptly back roomed and so problems were taken care of. Good Entertainment, Good Gambling.... Good Times. You walked into the Horseshoe and Benny nodded to you or even greeted you by name. You were somebody. If you asked for a marker, you got one. Of course you made good on it. No one had to use rough stuff to collect on it. The fact that your marker was good was something you were proud of, nobody ever had to speak to you about it. When airports were constructed by the mob, they cost an arm and a leg, but they got built and they got built promptly. They were works of beauty and they functioned and functioned well. You paid for that airport three times over, but you got one you were proud of. There is a lot to be said for efficiency in the market place. And so what if that efficiency is brought to you by No-Neck Louis from Cleveland and his Baseball Bat. You got a problem at the airport, just step up to the airport bootblack and let him know. |
| March 30th, 2014 at 1:11:30 PM permalink | |
| SOOPOO Member since: Feb 19, 2014 Threads: 22 Posts: 4175 | My home airport, BUF, got graded near the bottom. To me it is a great airport. 1. Easy to get in and out of, low traffic area. Convenient to major roads in area. 2. Free parking if you want to park and pick someone up. 3. Security usually takes less than 10 minutes to get through. 4. Good competition between low cost carriers, resulting in reasonable fares. 5. To get to the farthest gate from security will take less than 3 minutes if you are in a hurry. 6. With Southwest now more direct flights to Vegas, Florida...... I'm not sure what else is important to me in an airport.... |
| March 30th, 2014 at 1:22:21 PM permalink | |
| boymimbo Member since: Mar 25, 2013 Threads: 5 Posts: 732 | BUF is one of my home airports as well, and I really like it: 1. No on-airport customs, and is 38 minutes from my house. 2. Parking very close to the terminal, even in long term. 3. Anchor bar, home of the buffalo wing. 4. Usually short security lines. 5. Fares have crept up quite a bit over the last couple of years to the point where it is sometimes more economical to fly out of YYZ, which was NEVER the case 3-4 years ago. For example, I'm flying out to PBI (west palm beach) in a week and the best fare out of BUF was $600+, while the fare out of YYZ was $468. 6. A little more then 3 minutes, actually, if you're on SouthWest. I guess you could run it in two. 7. Southwest is the only carrier that goes far. Every other carrier takes you to a hub and mostly in a commuter craft (Jetblue, US Airways to Charlotte are the two exceptions I can think of). Restaurant choices are fairly limited, but is adequate given the passenger counts. And the US airways club is pretty dinky. |
| March 30th, 2014 at 1:59:25 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
The MEDIUM size airports (by Fcc definition is takeoffs are 0.25% to 1.00% of nations passengers) are in some way a better choice for smaller crowds. I guess some of them have international service PDX Portland 0.98% (Amsterdam,Tokyo-Narita,Vancouver Seasonal: Calgary) STL St. Louis 0.85% (Toronto-Pearson, Seasonal: Cancun, Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, Montego Bay) HOU Houston 0.69% domestic OAK Oakland 0.67% (Stockholm-Arlanda (begins May 3, 2014) Guadalajara | Seasonal: Mexico City, Azores) MCI Kansas City 0.67% (Toronto–Pearson,Seasonal: Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, San José del Cabo) BNA Nashville 0.66% (Toronto–Pearson, Seasonal: Cancún, Montego Bay, Punta Cana ) AUS Austin 0.63% (London-Heathrow, Mexico City, Cancún, Seasonal: San José del Cabo) RDU Raleigh 0.61% SNA Santa Ana 0.60% SMF Sacramento 0.60% CLE Cleveland 0.59% MSY Metairie 0.59% SJU San Juan 0.58% SJC San Jose 0.56% SAT San Antonio 0.55% DAL Dallas 0.53% PIT Pittsburgh 0.53% MKE Milwaukee 0.51% RSW Fort Myers 0.50% IND Indianapolis 0.49% MEM Memphis 0.46% CMH Columbus 0.42% CVG Greater Cincinnati 0.40% OGG Kahului 0.39% PBI West Palm Beach 0.38% BDL Windsor Locks 0.36% ABQ Albuquerque 0.36% BUF Buffalo 0.35% JAX Jacksonville 0.35% ANC Anchorage 0.31% ONT Ontario 0.29% BUR Burbank 0.28% OMA Omaha 0.28% |
| March 30th, 2014 at 2:15:54 PM permalink | |
| Evenbob Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 146 Posts: 25011 |
I'm 10 out of 10, never been to any of these and got no plans. I dislike traveling intensely. It's one inconvenience after another and then you go home. Bah Humbug. If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose. |
| April 1st, 2014 at 1:28:30 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | The overall rank of world's busiest airports isn't changing much , except for Dubai which has bounded into the top 10. Consider that London Heathrow is now only 9% larger than Dubai, and Dubai grew 15% last year. 2011 rank 1 ATLANTA GA, US (ATL) 92 389 023 2 BEIJING, CN (PEK) 78 675 058 3 LONDON, GB (LHR) 69 433 565 4 CHICAGO IL, US (ORD) 66 701 241 5 TOKYO, JP (HND) 62 584 826 6 LOS ANGELES CA, US (LAX) 7 PARIS, FR (CDG)60 970 551 8 DALLAS/FORT WORTH TX, US (DFW) 57 832 495 9 FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) 56 436 255 10 HONG KONG, HK (HKG) 53 328 613 ... 13 DUBAI, AE (DXB) 50 977 960  |
| April 1st, 2014 at 4:52:57 AM permalink | |
| SOOPOO Member since: Feb 19, 2014 Threads: 22 Posts: 4175 |
I've been to 7 of these. I like seeing things that remind me of past travels. |