What's driving the world's busiest airports? A new series from CAPA
CAPA recently presented the latest world airport rankings as posted by Airports Council International (ACI). There were some big changes at the top - Beijing is now second biggest behind Atlanta, while London Heathrow has fallen to fourth place. The rankings also showed the continued rise of airport like Dubai, Jakarta, Shanghai Pudong and Istanbul.
- Beijing has become the second biggest airport in the world, surpassing London Heathrow which has fallen to fourth place.
- Dubai, Jakarta, Shanghai Pudong, and Istanbul are among the airports that have seen a significant rise in rankings.
- The size of an airport is not the only factor that matters; the variety of destinations, airline presence, and the impact of low-cost carriers on pricing are also important considerations.
- CAPA provides tools and information through its website to analyze various aspects of aviation, including airport profiles and data.
- CAPA will be collating information on the top 30 ranked airports of 2010, focusing on airline dominance, domestic vs international services, global traffic flows, fare trends, and low-cost carrier shares.
- The first airport to be analyzed in detail will be Atlanta, the largest airport in the world.
But there is more to an airport than just its size. What about the variety of destinations available to customers? How concentrated is the presence of a given airline or alliance? Have Low Cost carriers achieved enough of a presence to effect pricing? These are the real things that matter to passengers and to the airlines that serve (or may wish to serve) them - and the community of analysts at airports, airlines, suppliers, governments and other industry stakeholders.
The CAPA website now provides the tools and information necessary to answer these and many other questions for both the industry and travelers. By consulting our "CAPA Profiles" search tool on our home page and profile pages, readers have access to vast amounts of information and data on all aspects of aviation.
Your window to the world! Search for airport names in the Red Profiles boxes on the CAPA site
Making Data Useful
In the next few weeks, we will begin to collate that information with regards to the Top 30 ranked airports of 2010. In each case study, we will look at the airline/alliance dominance, the split between domestic and international services, global traffic flows by region, fare trends and LCC shares.
We will look at each airport independently and add its results to a chart that will allow readers to see similarities and differences between the world's busiest airports. Like people, airports differ.
And first up will be the biggest of them all: Atlanta.