The world’s leading ‘secondary’ large city airports – are there similarities & synergies? Part three
It is the world's primary hub airports which catch the attention and the imagination. They are the ones that are recognised as the 'gateway' to and from a country as if others did not exist, tend to be regarded as glamorous and which have TV programmes made about them.
But in the background are many examples of 'second' city airports, some of which carry very significant amounts of passengers and freight but which go unrecognised.
This three-part report lists the Top 10 as far as can be ascertained by passenger numbers in 2023, with a short portrait of each one. The report also briefly touches on the similarities between them and asks if any synergies can be identified and used, by way of research, to improve the passenger experience.
Part one featured the introduction and looked at Newark Liberty, Shanghai Hongqiao, and London Gatwick airports; part two looked at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Tokyo Narita, Beijing Daxing, and Paris Orly airports.
Part three now will look at Bangkok Don Mueang, Seoul Gimpo, and São Paulo Congonhas airports, as well as sharing some concluding views.
- The world's 'second' city airports count among the most used by passengers, with up to 50mppa, but in the wider scheme of things they still lag behind the principal hub airports.
- Leading the pack are New York, London, Paris, London, and the Chinese airports at Shanghai and Beijing.
- Their number will be augmented within a few years by new ones in India, the Philippines and Australia, among other countries.
- There are discernible similarities between them, positive and negative, especially where budget travel is concerned, both short and long haul.
- Consequently, there are opportunities for synergies to be found and enhanced, even for direct co-operation between them.
- That would be simpler where they are independently owned and operated, separate from the principal airport - and quite a few are.
How important are secondary airports serving big cities in the overall scheme of things?
The objective of this report is to look at a grouping of the top 'second airports' worldwide and to analyse the role they play within their own domain.
Are there any commonalities, or synergies? Would any degree of co-operation between them be beneficial?
Part one of this report featured the introduction and looked at Newark Liberty, Shanghai Hongqiao and London Gatwick airports; part two looked at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Tokyo Narita, Beijing Daxing and Paris Orly airports.
Part three now will look at Bangkok Don Mueang, Seoul Gimpo, and São Paulo Congonhas airports, as well as sharing some concluding views.
Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) - back to life, back to reality
Don Mueang International Airport is operated by Airports of Thailand.
It was, before the 2006 opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport, the principal airport serving Bangkok, at which stage it was downgraded as a commercial facility and continued to be a military base and maintenance facility - before being reinstated first as a domestic airport and then for international services when Suvarnabhumi was overwhelmed by demand.
Don Mueang is the 77th largest airport globally by seat capacity, 87th by frequencies, and 126th for cargo payload.
As the chart below shows, passenger traffic then multiplied dramatically from 2013, when it tripled compared to the previous year. It rose from 2.5 million in 2009 to 41.3 million in 2019, or +1650%, which is possibly the biggest increase ever recorded by an airport over a decade.
Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2009-2024
Don Mueang is still mainly a domestic airport (60% of capacity); 95% of its capacity is on budget airlines, and 85% is on unaligned airlines. It presents itself as a self-contained low cost facility, with more in common with Stansted Airport (the third one serving London) than with Gatwick.
The route map for Don Mueang shows its international focus on Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The subcontinent is the source of much of Thailand's tourist trade, which is recovering from a severe COVID-19 pandemic-related downturn.
Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
While most construction is at, or scheduled for, the Suvarnabhumi airport, a new Terminal 3 at Don Mueang should be completed by 2029. It will raise capacity to 40mppa.
An airport that once appeared to have no commercial future at all is now the eighth busiest second city airport in the world, which carries a message for any airport authority considering closing down this sort of facility.
Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP) - competing with rail on domestic services
Although Seoul's secondary airport carries the cachet of being 'international', only 21% of its capacity is on international routes.
Gimpo is the 139th ranking airport by seat capacity, 161st for frequencies, and 102nd by cargo payload.
As with Don Mueang in Bangkok, Gimpo was the former national gateway before the opening of Incheon Airport in 2001. In Gimpo's case it was retained as a commercial facility with a domestic focus, and it has justified that decision.
It is located close to, and to the west of, downtown Seoul. Incheon Airport is 25km further west, and it is operated by Korea Airports Corporation (KAC), so it is in competition with Incheon.
KAC operates 14 airports in Korea.
Gimpo has a great degree of equilibrium between airlines in terms of capacity and movements, with Asiana Airlines and Korean Air being the two largest airlines by capacity.
At Gimpo 56% of capacity is on full service carriers and 44% on LCCs, but only 20% is on unaligned airlines, with five alliances represented there.
There was consistent traffic growth throughout the decade 2009-2019, apart from a very small decline in 2018 and only a small decline experienced (-31%) in 2020, which was retrieved in 2021.
Then the 2018 level was achieved again in 2022. There was then a small decline (-4.5%) in 2023, which began to be recovered in 2024.
So, something of a staccato growth position in recent years, but before that the growth level was stable.
Seoul Gimpo International Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2009-2024
The route map for the airport below demonstrates the limitations of the network at present.
Efficient rail services in a physically small country remove the need for a high degree of domestic air connectivity, but Gimpo is directly connected internationally to four major cities - Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei - and in the Chinese cases plus Taipei, to the second airports there (Daxing, Hongqiao, and Taipei Shonsan).
Seoul Gimpo International Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
These are primary business routes, and business travellers will always opt for airports closer to the city centre.
A new terminal, aimed primarily at low cost passengers, is scheduled to be completed in 2025, part of a package of measures costing over USD850 million.
São Paulo Congonhas Airport (CGH) - local convenience vs. capacity crunch
Like its counterpart, the Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro, Congonhas is a domestic-only airport, serving the largest city in Brazil and in Latin America.
The airport lost its international operating licence in 2008, a year after a fatal accident involving a TAM Airlines flight.
The airport is located 8km (5 miles) from São Paulo's Central Business District and again is favoured for regional business traffic over the larger (but more distant) Guarulhos Airport.
The difference between the two is that, at long last, in Oct-2023, Congonhas was formally privatised by way of one of the last concession tranches in Brazil. The first of these was way back in 2012, with Spain's AENA becoming the concessionaire for 30 years and taking over from the state operator Infraero. (Santos Dumont awaits its turn after the change of government and the return of President 'Lula' da Silva, and stays - for now at least - with Infraero).
There is also a third airport in the scene in the vast São Paulo region - namely Campinas Viracopos to the north - but it is undeniably Congonhas that counts as the 'second' one, as close to the centre as it is possible to get and surrounded by residential and commercial properties.
Congonhas is the world's 99th largest airport by seat capacity, 91st by frequencies, and 151st by cargo payload.
Congonhas is capacity-constrained, but continues to grow slowly, recording its highest-ever passenger traffic total: just over 22 million in 2023, and after Brazil had taken a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2009-2024
As might be expected, all three of the major airlines operating in Brazil - GOL, LATAM and Azul - service Congonhas, but together with the much smaller Voepass, they are the only ones.
So low cost carriers predominate - but only just (56% capacity share), and there are no aligned airlines at all.
Again, this presents a picture of a highly focused airport for such a huge city, and the route map below confirms that.
Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
International management by the operator with the world's largest network does not appear to have influenced any changes so far in the last few months, at least, but Congonhas is limited by: having two runways of less than 2,000m and 1,500m respectively; slot restrictions; operating time restrictions; and, as mentioned earlier, a very small envelope of land to play with.
The last renovations were made in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. AENA Brasil announced in Oct-2023 that it would invest BRL2 billion (USD401.1 million) at Congonhas Airport over its 30-year concession term. Planned works include construction of a new passenger terminal and apron expansion.
There are more secondary city airports to come soon, and in major cities
Other second city airports that did not quite make the cut into this list include Moscow Domodedovo, which has a private ownership element; Chicago Midway Airport, heavily influenced by Southwest Airlines, and the subject of two privatisation attempts in 2009 and 2013; and the aforementioned Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont Airport, just about the final remaining major asset for Infraero, and one that is being downgraded by the government in its route development in favour of the international, more prestigious but actually smaller, Galeão-Antonio Carlos Jobim airport.
There are more of these airports to come.
Between 2024 and 2026 such secondary city airports should open in Delhi and Mumbai in India, and in Sydney, with another to follow later in Poland - although in that case the existing Warsaw airport may close.
In Manila in the Philippines in time there will be another two of them, making three in total, all privately owned or managed (and four if Clark International is included), which will cloud the picture to say the least.
What similarities and synergies exist?
So, are there any similarities between these airports; any synergies which might even lead to cooperation between them?
In many cases there is the lack of a dominant airline. National 'flag carriers' tend to congregate services at the primary one, and even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic, where the objective was to contain costs - but those airlines have not yet always resumed normal service at the second airport.
That apart, there tends to be at least a predominance of short haul low cost capacity and increasingly, of long haul low cost too.
That suggests that these airports are able to serve as test beds for cutting-edge transit arrangements for those passenger who increasingly 'self-connect'.
In a similar manner, they can act as test beds for the arrival point-to-gate (or gate-to-exit point) development of biometric technology, because the type of journey through this kind of airport can be different from that of the designated international 'hub' airport - which is usually the primary one.
These secondary airports also seem to be less accessible in some cases by public transport. That has been the case at Paris Orly for example, also at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, and arguably at New York Newark.
In contrast, Don Mueang is part of a scheme to connect it, the Suvarnabhumi airport, the downtown Bangkok main rail station and the U-Tapao-Rayong-Pattaya International Airport about 100km to the south, all with a high-speed rail line.
This short report has only touched briefly on the issues affecting secondary large city airports, and a more in-depth one is called for.