Airport Industry Connectivity Report 2018

ACI EUROPE – in partnership with SEO Amsterdam Economics – released its fifth Airport Industry Connectivity Report. The report provides a comprehensive measurement and analysis of the way Europe’s air connectivity has evolved over the past 10 years.

Using the SEO NetScan connectivity model, the report provides indexes for direct, indirect and hub connectivity. Connectivity is a composite measure of the number of destinations, the frequency of services and the quality of the connections (in the case of hubbing or indirect services).

Frankfurt offers most direct connectivity in 2018 due to significant network expansion of both the Lufthansa Group and low-cost carriers such as Ryanair. Frankfurt takes the top position from Amsterdam Schiphol, which reached its capacity limit in 2017. London Heathrow, which has been capacity constrained for many years, went from 2nd to 3rd position. Over the past 10 years direct connectivity gains are entirely attributable to low-cost carriers. These carriers are currently responsible for around one-third of all direct flights from Europe’s airports.

The top-5 airports offering most hub connectivity (number of connecting flights through the hub airport weighted for their quality) remains unchanged, with Frankfurt still in top position followed by Amsterdam Schiphol and Dallas-Fort Worth. Although the majority of hub connectivity is provided by a few large hub airports, smaller hub airports show stronger growth in hub connectivity.