16 Busiest International Airport-Pairs in the US, 2019
 

2020's data is going to be a bloodbath of catastrophic proportions, but let us review last year's data, if only to remember what normal life was like...

There were 16 airport-to-airport routes between US and foreign airports that had 1 millon+ passengers in 2019. Here they are:

Rank/ Airport-Pair/ 2019 Total Passengers/2018-2019 Growth Rate
1 JFK-LHR 3,025,847 +6%

2 JFK-CDG 1,613,180 +4%

3 LAX-LHR 1,603,307 No Change

4 LGA-YYZ 1,593,621 +3%

5 HNL-NRT 1,560,278 -4%

6 ORD-LHR 1,180,085 +12%

7 SFO-HKG 1,129,521 +17%

8 LAX-MEX 1,104,857 -12%

9 LAX-ICN 1,102,279 -9%

10 LAX-HKG 1,081,951 +17%

11 SFO-LHR 1,055,482 +7%

12 JFK-MEX 1,055,159 +9%

13 EWR-LHR 1,038,547 +3%

14 ORD-YYZ 1,026,639 -1%

15 MIA-LHR 1,025,343 +6%

16 SFO-TPE 1,015,148 +4%

In addition, there were 15 US Airports that had 5 million+ international passengers in 2019:

Rank/Airport/International Passengers, 2019/2018-2019 Growth Rate
1 JFK 33,706,053 +3%
2 LAX 25,568,711 +1%
3 MIA 20,655,107 +3%
4 SFO 14,351,815 +7%
5 EWR 13,983,039 +6%
6 ORD 13,614,149 +3%
7 ATL 12,223,120 +1%
8 IAH 10,635,124 +5%
9 DFW 8,636,688 +5%
10 FFL 8,631,134 +11%
11 IAD 8,017,828 +5%
12 BOS 7,338,633 +6%
13 MCO 6,776,379 +13%
14 SEA 5,303,138 +5%
15 HNL 5,278,681 -2%




Source: US Dept of Transportation

Seeing Taiwan at #16 is a little suprising. Also seeing Heathrow is Miami's #1 international route rather than somewhere in Latin America.

Yeah, agree on both of these. But especially the point about Miami.

Yeah, would have never guessed LHR-MIA is a top route, and the #1 Miami route.

Sao Paulo was Miami's #1 international route but traffic declined by 11% last year while traffic to/from Heathrow increased enough to surpass it.

Here are Miami's routes in the Top 50 US Airport-Pairs and Annual Growth:
MIA-LHR 1,025,343 +6%(London)
MIA-GRU 927,068 -11%(Sao Paulo)
MIA-PTY 800,718 +6%(Panama City)
MIA-EZE 795,060 -14%(Buenos Aires)
MIA BOG 760,709 +13%(Bogota)



The last page of this pdf:
http://www.transportation.gov/sites/...une%202019.pdf

Seeing that FLL also is in the top ten with an 11% growth rate, maybe enough Latin American traffic is switching to FLL? I'd have to do some digging on Routes Online to see if FLL-Latin America routing has stepped up.

Also the two Toronto routes are ripe for HSR if these countries ever get their rail infrastructure into this century.

I could be wrong, but I feel like Latin America lacks a massive hub, and all of the smaller airports are close enough to Miami to make dedicated routes feasible. Like Medellin, Cali, Cartagena, Barranquilla and Bogota (and that's just Colombia) all have direct flights to Miami, whereas Heathrow acts as the primary North American gateway for Europe and beyond. If everyone in South America had to funnel through Mexico City I'm sure that route would dominate.

^I've been to Europe about 30 times in the past 15 years and I never once passed through Heathrow (even when I flew to Edinburgh last year). But in terms of transit airports, I have been through Frankfurt, Munich, Schiphol, and Charles de Gaulle (awful) many times.

Bigger airports have lots of connections to Europe, but there's a tier that might have London and Amsterdam but nothing else.

Flight Connections is a good tool for this. The link is using LHR as an example.

London does have the most US destinations.

Edit:

30 for London (Tampa is Gatwick-only)
27 for Frankfurt
18 for Paris
17 for Amsterdam
14 for Dublin and Zurich each

Yeah, going directly from Canada to Europe, if you're not on British Airways you would never go through Heathrow because Air Canada is in a different alliance. Coming from the U.S. it's more likely that you'll go through Heathrow if you live in a city where American has a hub.

Hmmm,

So, by # of appearances in the pair side of the list.

London, by far, with 6
Toronto, Mexico, Hong Kong 2 each
Paris, Taiwan, Seoul, Tokyo 1 each

n/m