Which airports are most popular with which planes, revealed

Have you ever wondered which airport sees the most flights with each aircraft type? No, neither have I.



I wonder what they were drinking or smoking at the HQ of anna.aero, home to the airline-route-number-crunching elves, when someone suggested, “Hey, why don’t we see where the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 747 make the most appearances?” Yet, however random that concept might sound, the results reveal some real surprises, as well as intriguing insights into 21st century aviation.

The plane that visits the most airports around the world is the Airbus A320. Europe’s narrow-bodied staple is in regular service to 1,323 airports. 

The top three? I bet you can’t guess. 

In third place, Spain’s second city: Barcelona, home to Vueling and also served frequently by easyJet and many other all-Airbus operators.

Second, the main airport in China’s largest city: Shanghai Pudong. 

Clear winner, though, with 1,698 visits from an Airbus A320 each week (that’s slightly over 10 an hour) is Delhi.

Next most popular plane: the Boeing 737-800, which is the only plane operated by Europe’s biggest no-frills airline, Ryanair. You might imagine that either Dublin (its home airport) or Stansted, its biggest base, would see the most of this type. But instead the 1-2-3 goes Beijing, Jakarta and Sabiha Gokcen – Istanbul’s second airport.

Second airports do remarkably well in this survey. The planespotter with a thing for the Airbus A319 – the slightly shorter sibling to the A320 – should make his or her way to Gatwick, where one makes an appearance every 11 minutes on average. The Sussex airport is the main base of easyJet, which has the plane as its mainstay – though it is steadily up-gauging to the A320, which will change the standings next time around. 

The ATR72, the leading European propellor plane, is most frequently to be found a long way from home at Kuala Lumpur’s old Subang airport. It is the only aircraft type operated by Firefly, an offshoot of Malaysia Airlines, which buzzes around its home country as well as southern Thailand, Singapore and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Second place goes to Las Palmas on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria, while third is the immediate neighbour, Tenerife – but the secondary airport, Los Rodeos, rather than Reina Sofia. They are the main hubs of Binter Canarias, the airline that is the subject of the dreadful aviation joke, “Once you’ve Binter one of the Canaries, you’ve Binter them all.”

Wide-bodied, long-haul planes spend much more time in the air and less time on the ground than small aircraft, so they are far less frequent visitors. They also don’t fit so many airports.

“No wide-body aircraft type makes the top 12,” reports anna.aero, though “The Airbus A330 and its variants lead the way, appearing at 361 airports.” The twin-jet may be made in Europe, but its home is in Asia: Hong Kong, Beijing and Seoul Incheon comprise its most natural habitat.

Second most frequent visitor of all wide-bodies is also the dullest: the slow and unattractive Boeing 767. America, in the shape of New York JFK, makes an appearance, but it is sandwiched between the two Tokyo airports, Haneda and Narita.

Haneda and Narita are also the top airports of choice for the 787, with Heathrow finally making an appearance as third-most popular place for the Dreamliner.

Given that Emirates has ordered about half of all the Airbus A380s ever built, it’s inevitable that its hub in Dubai wins top place by a mile. Second is Heathrow, third Singapore.

And the Jumbo jet? It’s neck-and-neck between Frankfurt (210 flights a week) and Heathrow (209). But the 747 still flies to 100 airports worldwide. “That’s nearly twice as many airports as where the A380 can be spotted, which stood at just 55 airports during the summer,” says anna.aero. 

But it’s not as many airports as the new Russian-built Sukhoi Superjet, which serves 101 and counting. Predictably, the plane most frequently visits Moscow Sheremetyevo. Less predictably, the second-favourite airport for the plane constructed in Komsomolsk is Mexico City: a high old city that’s great for drinking. And smoking.

(culled from www.independent.co.uk)