The world’s leading ‘secondary’ large city airports – are there similarities & synergies? Part two
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. Primary hub airports tend to be regarded as glamorous, and 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 freight and passengers, 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 features the introduction and a look at Newark Liberty, Shanghai Hongqiao and London Gatwick airports; part two will look at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Tokyo Narita, Beijing Daxing, and Paris Orly airports; and part three 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 now looks at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Tokyo Narita, Beijing Daxing, and Paris Orly airports.
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) - little sister no more
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW), owned and operated by Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad, serves the city of Istanbul, Türkiye, and the airport is a member of the select 100 million annual air passengers club.
SAW is located 35km southeast of central Istanbul in the Asian, as opposed to the European, part of the city.
The airport was constructed in 2003 to ease the growing pressure on the then larger Atatürk Airport, located in the city's western part and one that closed to commercial flights in 2019 after Istanbul Airport, also in the western segment, opened in Oct-2018.
Globally, SAW is the 62nd largest airport by seat capacity, 72nd by frequencies, and 91st by cargo payload.
The airport broke its passenger record in 2023, and that achievement followed consistent growth almost since it opened until 2019, and then a rapid post-pandemic recovery.
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2009-2023
Its wider influence in Istanbul is growing.
It is, by definition, a short haul and low cost (72% of capacity)-oriented facility, and with 73% of its capacity unaligned, but interest from foreign full service carriers and from Asia could start to change that.
Right now SAW's route network is limited almost exclusively to Europe and the Middle East.
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
A recently opened second runway should help the airport stay ahead of the game in a wider region, including the Middle East, where there are many infrastructure improvements taking place, especially to terminal buildings.
SAW does actually need more infrastructure, though - mainly more terminal space, and the largest incumbent airline, Pegasus, is pursuing that as a matter of urgency.
That apart, there are no obvious impediments to SAW becoming one of the most significant 'second' city airports anywhere.
Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) - still the main international gateway
The three-terminal Narita International Airport is the main international gateway to the Greater Tokyo region of Japan.
It is the world's 57th largest by seat capacity, 75th by frequencies, and 15th by cargo payload.
The airport is the second largest serving the Tokyo metropolitan area, with the larger being the more central Haneda Airport. Haneda, however, has for a long time been limited to domestic and short haul services, with Narita handling all long haul services into the region.
While that position has now changed somewhat, Haneda's international capacity is still only 26% of the whole, whereas it is 81% at Narita. Both Haneda and Narita airports are undergoing changes in strategy that will see this pattern change though.
With a severe COVID-19 impact at the airport, which reduced passenger numbers from 44 million in 2019 to five million in 2021, the recovery rate was +194% and +112% in 2022 and 2023 respectively. It continued at +39% in Jan-2024.
Growth had settled at 4-5% per annum from 2015 to 2019, but before that it had been quite widely variable.
Tokyo Narita Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2009-2024YTD
There is no dominant airline at Narita.
The largest by seat capacity is Jetstar Japan (11%), and by movements it is ANA (14%). Over 60% of the capacity is recorded as being on 'other airlines' - which usually means 1%-2% each.
It is mainly a full service airport (57%), but the low cost component is perhaps higher than might be expected from an international long haul airport.
Alliances are well represented, in that there are seven of them present, but even so - 46% of capacity is on unaligned airlines.
Services are concentrated on Asia first, followed by North America, and then a small network in Europe.
There are no services, or next to no services, to Africa and Latin America.
Tokyo Narita Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
Narita is one of few major airports to have built a dedicated low cost terminal. The main construction project presently is an air cargo logistics centre, at a cost of USD2.7 billion.
Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) - a 'nine runway' Goliath that will eventually become the main airport
Beijing Daxing International serves the Chinese capital city.
Construction of the CNY80 billion (USD13.1 billion) airport, situated 50km south of the city centre, began in Dec-2014. It began commercial operations on 25-Sep-2019, making it the second most recently opened primary level airport anywhere, coming a year before Berlin Brandenburg in Germany.
Conceived in 2008, the airport was envisaged from the start not so much to be a reliever for the existing and capacity-constrained Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA, 25km northeast of the city centre) as one that would, with up to nine runways (currently there are four), replace it as the main air facility, with between 120 million and 200 million passengers annually, and become the world's busiest airport.
It has not come anywhere near those figures yet, although the effect of COVID must be taken into account.
With an increase of 238% over the previous year, a passenger total of 32,375,000 was achieved in the year to Nov-2023. This was more than half of the total at BCIA for the full year, and where the highest ever total was 101 million, in 2018, the only airport apart from Atlanta ever to exceed 100mppa.
Beijing Daxing International Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth, 2019-2023
Presently, Daxing is the 34th largest airport worldwide by capacity, 39th by frequencies, and 32nd by cargo payload. It is mainly a domestic facility, with only 8% of capacity in the international domain.
There are three major airlines - China Southern, China Eastern and China United, and almost all the capacity is on domestic airlines, which are mainly full service (77% of capacity). Approximately a third of capacity is on aligned airlines.
That profile bears some similarities with Tokyo Narita, except for there being a slightly greater emphasis on the full service model and the reversal of the domestic/international split.
Daxing's route map reveals intense activity within Eastern China, with little activity internationally, but with a small network of international destinations in the Asia Pacific region, in the Middle East and very selectively in Europe.
Beijing Daxing International Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2023
Daxing continues to be expanded with its huge passenger target in mind, and inclusive of that USD13.8 billion price ticket.
Only Phase 1 has been completed to date, and co-location of airline alliance members to Daxing was delayed by the COVID pandemic.
Paris Orly Airport (ORY) - focus on North African traffic
Paris-Orly is located 13km south of central Paris, and is the second largest airport serving France generally and the Paris metropolitan region specifically, after Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to the city's north east.
Orly, about twice as close to the city centre as CDG, was previously Paris' major international gateway, and is part of a four-airports system for the city-region, also including Le Bourget (which is now used for business and general aviation), and the distant Paris Beauvais airport to the north.
All but Beauvais are owned and operated by Groupe ADP.
Paris Vatry Airport, even more distant to the east, mainly handles freight
Orly might perhaps be considered more of a bridesmaid than is its counterpart in London, Gatwick Airport. Even so, it retains some significance.
It ranks 75th for capacity, 92nd for frequencies, and 144th for cargo payload.
There was slow but consistent traffic development from 2010 to 2018. Pandemic recovery was swift, and passenger numbers in 2023 were not far short of those of 2018 (there having been a small fall in 2019).
Paris Orly Airport: annual traffic, passenger numbers/growth from 2009 to 2024YTD
It is how Orly's supply and demand is constructed that is of the greatest interest.
It is an international airport (80% of capacity), and with an equal split between French and foreign airlines. The largest airline by capacity and movements is the LCC Transavia France, which fills a similar role to that of easyJet at London Gatwick. LCCs account for almost 60% of the capacity and unaligned airlines over 75%, which make the airport's profile very similar to that of Gatwick's.
After Western Europe, North Africa has the highest level of capacity, at about 50% of the Western Europe level. And the route map shows the concentration on that region, one where there are numerous ex-French-colonial territories.
Paris Orly Airport: network map for the week commencing 04-Mar-2024
Orly does have a fairly comprehensive long haul network though, again like Gatwick, in that it is operated extensively by low cost airlines. It is also a secondary Paris base for Air France.
Orly is presently undergoing a general refurbishment and modernisation at a cost of over USD600 million. A new metro station will open in Jun-2024, which will connect to central Paris in 15 minutes.