These airports are served by the most Star Alliance airlines.
Star Alliance is the world's largest global alliance. OAG shows that member carriers have 489,000 flights in October, against 375,000 for SkyTeam and 336,000 for oneworld. Put another way, across all flights worldwide, one in six are by Star members.
United Airlines is the top Star airline, with Air China, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, and Air Canada completing the top five. In terms of airports, Istanbul Airport has more Star flights than any other in October and is, therefore, the alliance's leading facility by this metric.
This table shows the airports with at least 16 Star Alliance members in October:
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Few of the airports in the above table are 'true' Star hubs; many of the alliance's busiest don't feature highly by actual Star airlines serving them. Istanbul Airport, Denver, Houston Intercontinental, Newark, Beijing Capital, and Toronto are among the top 10 busiest Star hubs, but none rank high enough by carrier diversity to be included in the table.
It is, of course, because they mainly revolve around one very dominant operator. Take Istanbul Airport. In October, it has more Star flights than any other hub but is served by 'only' eight of the alliance's members.
Despite Istanbul's enormous metro population of ~16 million, it has fewer Star airlines than Copenhagen (15), Vienna (14), and Stockholm Arlanda (11). With its enormous route network, Turkish Airlines is responsible for 98% of flights; no wonder the airport is keen to attract more Star carriers.
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The table shows the importance of 'global airports,' where demand is extreme locally to attract many members. London Heathrow, CDG, JFK, and Los Angeles epitomize this. In contrast, Frankfurt has the broadest array of member airlines of 'proper' Star hubs.
Which of the airports in the table have you visited? And which Star carrier have you most often flown? Let us know in the comments.
Route Development Analyst – James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough and Cranfield, James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. Now writing data-driven analysis for Simple Flying. Based near London, UK.