The Top 20 Airports For Internationally Flying Right Now Show How Travel Has Changed

by Gary Leff

OAG data shows the airports operating the most seats to international destinations this week and how they compare to last week and to last year.

  • The busiest international airports by seat capacity in the world right now are all in the Mideast: Dubai, followed by Doha and then Istanbul.

  • The top 20 international airport whose international seat capacity has dropped the least year-over-year is Cancun. North America close-in leisure travel to warm weather destinations has fared relatively best during the pandemic.

  • All of the world’s top international airports have seen an increase in seats offered this week compared to last week.

  • The airports seeing the greatest reduction in service compared to last year are Singapore followed by London Heathrow. Singapore has mostly blocked itself out from the world as it has worked to contain the virus, while the U.K. has shut down most travel as it battles widespread infection.

  • Atlanta’s dropoff has been surprisingly modest year-over-year, but it’s predominantly a domestic hubs.

Here’s the data:

Jan 2020 Feb 15 Week / Down Vs.
Airport Seat Capacity Seat Capacity Week Jan 2020
Dubai              1,064,228           405,444 0.7% 61.9%
Doha                 536,149           284,270 1.3% 47.0%
Istanbul                 601,908           240,063 1.3% 60.1%
Amsterdam                 698,158           207,473 3.2% 70.3%
Paris CDG                 675,224           191,603 2.3% 71.6%
Seoul Incheon                 873,567           178,884 6.6% 79.5%
Frankfurt                 637,786           161,817 0.7% 74.6%
New York JFK                 363,639           149,657 1.1% 58.8%
Miami                 263,493           149,500 7.4% 43.3%
Cancun                 192,930           144,986 4.2% 24.9%
London Heathrow                 841,221           144,750 0.3% 82.8%
Cairo                 236,994           112,352 3.9% 52.6%
Singapore                 866,338           110,058 2.8% 87.3%
Los Angeles                 257,746           102,379 4.2% 60.3%
Mexico City                 194,193           100,588 0.6% 48.2%
Madrid                 455,345             98,982 1.0% 78.3%
Abu Dhabi                 258,240             98,254 0.4% 62.0%
Addis Ababa                 159,866             94,261 0.6% 41.0%
San Juan                 121,417             89,135 6.6% 26.6%
Atlanta                 140,016             88,600 0.3% 36.7%

Meanwhile the airport with the most international seat growth this week is Miami.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Interesting that San Juan would appear on the list…seems like flights to CONUS must be counted as international to get that volume.

  2. And looking at seat capacity overstates how many people are actually transiting the airport. Dropped my daughter off at Changi T3 last month to go off to college in the US- she was the only person at the check-in counter, other than the staff. She reported that there were less than 30 people on her flight to NYC… Terminal 3 and Terminal 4 are shuttered.

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