The latest air connectivity ranking from IATA shows how China’s large domestic airline market has boosted its fortunes versus other regions.
Using a composite measure that considers the number of seats flown from a country’s major airports and the economic importance of destinations, IATA’s data ranks Chinese cities in the top four positions globally, based on September figures.
“The dramatic shift in the connectivity rankings demonstrates the scale at which the world’s connectivity has been re-ordered over the last months,” says Sebastian Mikosz, IATA’s senior vice-president for member external relations. “There are no winners, just some players that suffered fewer injuries… The message we must take from this study is the urgent need to re-build the global air transport network.”
| Ranking | Sep-19 | Sep-20 |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
London |
Shanghai |
|
2 |
Shanghai |
Beijing |
|
3 |
New York |
Guangzhou |
|
4 |
Beijing |
Chengdu |
|
5 |
Tokyo |
Chicago |
|
6 |
Los Angeles |
Shenzhen |
|
7 |
Bangkok |
Los Angeles |
|
8 |
Hong Kong |
London |
|
9 |
Seoul |
Dallas |
|
10 |
Chicago |
Atlanta |
Compared with September 2019’s ranking, London has fallen from top spot, replaced by Shanghai, while New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul have dropped out of the top 10.
The shift in the rankings is unsurprising, given the well-documented recovery of China’s huge domestic market – which accounted for around 14% of all global airline traffic in 2019 – amid depressed volumes elsewhere.
Large hub airports that rely on international long-haul flights for the majority of their business are suffering because of cross-border travel restrictions and a resurgence of Covid-19 in many regions.
At the same time, very few airlines have the option to redeploy international capacity into a huge captive domestic market, such as that in China.
A key theme of this year’s IATA AGM has been an urgent call for governments to safely re-open borders using systematic testing.
