Asia Pacific is home to three of the top five mega global airport
hubs, and Kuala Lumpur is the world’s most connected airport for
low-cost flights, a new survey shows.
OAG’s Megahubs 2024 report shows that overall, Kuala Lumpur is the
second most internationally connected airport in the world, behind
London Heathrow and ahead of Haneda Japan (3rd), Amsterdam (4th) and
Incheon Korea (5th).
Now in its 10th year, OAG’s Megahub rankings are generated by
comparing the number of scheduled connections to and from international
flights with the number of destinations served from the airport.
Kuala Lumpur does not have the highest volume of connections by
comparison to some of the biggest hubs in the index, but it does have a
high ratio of connections to destinations served, which is what pushes
it up the rankings, from 12th place in 2019 and 4th place in 2023.
Asia’s largest low-cost carrier, Air Asia, is the dominant carrier at
the airport, operating 35% of KUL’s flights in the 12 months to August
2024.
Manila moves up into 2nd place on the Low-Cost Megahubs list this
year, overtaking Incheon, with a high ratio of connectivity to 97
destinations. Singapore is the fourth biggest hub for low-cost carriers.
OAG notes that the Top 20 Global Megahubs continues to see a slight
shift towards Asia, highlighting the growing connectivity of Asian
cities in the global network.