I became curious about countries/regions where the (largest) airport of the largest city (provided it has scheduled service) is not the busiest. Examples that immediately came to my mind are USA (Atlanta, not NY), Germany (Frankfurt, not Berlin), China (Beijing, not Shanghai), Texas (DFW, not IAH), Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville), Sicily (Catania, not Palermo). However, most of these largest cities tend to have multiple airports, if they had one, the situation may have been different (e.g. PVG may soon become busier than either of Beijing airports).

Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland but Edinburgh is the capital and has the busier airport. PIK calls itself Glasgow Prestwick but even combined EDI is still comfortably ahead.

Canada (YYZ not YOW), Kazakhstan (ALA not TSE)

Dominican Republic. According to Wikipedia:

Punta Cana: about 50k residents - PUJ: 7M PAX
Santo Domingo: about 1M residents - SDQ - 4M PAX

Saudi Arabia. According to Wikipedia:

Riyadh: about 6 million residents - RUH: 20M PAX
Jeddah: about 4 million residents - JED: 27M PAX

However Makkah does not have its own airport (and pilgrims going to Makkah are those making the difference for JED), so Jeddah+Makkah combined are probably closer to the population figures of Riyadh.

Alexdk wrote:

................. Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville),

Here we go again. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida by land area and in population, only as to the city or perhaps better said, as to the municipality. While I'm not a fan of quoting wikipedia, this list is pretty accurate - Jax, as you can see, is 4th:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... of_Florida

And as is more relevant to this website, while I couldn't find catchment area by airport in a quick google search, I guarantee you that MIA, TPA and MCO's catchment areas are all larger than JAX and I'd say probably by substantial margins. Wouldn't be surprised if RSW is bigger than JAX too, though not sure.

ualcsr wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

................. Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville),

Here we go again. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida by land area and in population, only as to the city or perhaps better said, as to the municipality. While I'm not a fan of quoting wikipedia, this list is pretty accurate - Jax, as you can see, is 4th:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... of_Florida

And as is more relevant to this website, while I couldn't find catchment area by airport in a quick google search, I guarantee you that MIA, TPA and MCO's catchment areas are all larger than JAX and I'd say probably by substantial margins. Wouldn't be surprised if RSW is bigger than JAX too, though not sure.

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area, and as you state, Jacksonville leads FL on both counts.

MXP and BGY are busier than LIN, although both not being in Milan;
PSA is way busier than FLR despite the latter conglomerate with Prato counts about 1M residents, Pisa about 200k;
PMO and CTA's traffic are about the same, it's a high seasonal traffic anyway;

ATL is huge because of Delta's hub, no one wants to have a stopover in Atlanta if not constrained

mtnwest1979 wrote:

ualcsr wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

................. Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville),

Here we go again. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida by land area and in population, only as to the city or perhaps better said, as to the municipality. While I'm not a fan of quoting wikipedia, this list is pretty accurate - Jax, as you can see, is 4th:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... of_Florida

And as is more relevant to this website, while I couldn't find catchment area by airport in a quick google search, I guarantee you that MIA, TPA and MCO's catchment areas are all larger than JAX and I'd say probably by substantial margins. Wouldn't be surprised if RSW is bigger than JAX too, though not sure.

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area, and as you state, Jacksonville leads FL on both counts.

The Jacksonville/Miami example is a piss poor one though. The City of Miami as per the political boundary lines in just one part of wider metro Miami and by focusing only on the City of Miami, you are excluding several places such as Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, Aventura, Miami Gardens, Cutler Bay, Pinecrest, Miami Lakes, etc. that outside of local governance are considered as Miami.

mtnwest1979 wrote:

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area

Which, in the context of airports, is particularly inane... as (1) no airline uses only the city-proper for its market assessment, and (2) many large cities don't have an airport within the actual city limits, but usually a suburb

FatCat wrote:

MXP and BGY are busier than LIN, although both not being in Milan;

I don't think this applies to the OP's question. Milan (1.3 M residents) has two airports (LIN and MXP). BGY is in Bergamo (120 k residents) although advertised as "Milan" by FR. So the busiest airport is in the region of the largest city.

Are we looking at city proper or urban areas when it comes to listing the largest? It may affect a couple of entries into this discussion.

In India, Delhi is the larger urban area and the largest urban airport. However, if we go by metropolitan area definitions (which limit a city population to within the borders of the state it is in), then Mumbai is the larger city.

In China, the largest urban area is the Pearl River Delta - Guangzhou, Dongguan and Foshan at the core, and extendable to Shenzhen and even Zhuhai, Hong Kong, and Macau, while the largest city proper is Shanghai, and the largest airport is Beijing.

In Bolivia, the La Paz - El Alto urban area is larger than Santa Cruz de la Sierra proper, but the airport at the latter is busier (though this has more to do with La Paz's high and dry conditions that limit long haul operations).

Germany has a system of Metropolitan Regions that combine close-by and interconnected cities. The largest of these is the Rhine-Ruhr (which includes Dusseldorf, Essen, Cologne, Bonn, and a host of other notable cities), followed by Frankfurt Rhein/Main (includes Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz etc), and finally Berlin Metropolitan Region. The largest airport, meanwhile, is at FRA.

In Italy, the largest urban area is centred in Milan, while the largest single city is Rome. The busiest airport is Rome's FCO.

In Cambodia, things are less complicated. The largest city is the capital, Phnom Penh, but the largest airport is the tourist hub, Siem Reap (REP).

In Bhutan, the largest city is the capital, Thimphu. The largest (and only international airport) is located in the nearby city of Paro instead thanks to the mountainous terrain.

From personal experience:

Iceland's largest airport KEF is in Keflavik, not in Reykjavik. Reykjavik's city airport RKV is much smaller.

Greenland's largest airport SFJ is in Kangerlussuaq, not in Nuuk. Nuuk's city airport GOH is much smaller.

Ecuador's largest airport UIO is in Quito. The city of Guayaquil is slightly larger, but has a slightly less busy airport GYE.

Honduras' largest airport SUP is in San Pedro Sula. The city of Tegucigalpa is about twice the population, but it's airport TGU is less busy.

Cyprus' largest airport LCA is in Larnaca, the airport NIC of the largest city Nicosia is existent but closed.

India's largest airport BOM is in Mumbai, the airport DEL of the largest city Delhi is less busy.


Gruß, masi1157

mtnwest1979 wrote:

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area, and as you state, Jacksonville leads FL on both counts.

A city is a city not municipal. Random artificial boundary doesn't make sense when defining limit of a city

Jamaica - Montego Bay is the busiest airport. Kingston is the largest city.

"Canada (YYZ not YOW),"

Toronto is the largest city as well as the busiest airport in Canada.....

"India's largest airport BOM is in Mumbai, the airport DEL of the largest city Delhi is less busy."

As far as India is concerned, Kolkata is probably the largest city.....and I think the busiest airport is now DEL.....but it could be BOM.....not sure....

In Fiji, NAN is the busiest airport, but SUV is the biggest city - NAN serves as the gateway to the tourism trade.

Cheers,

C.

In Korea, ICN is the busiest airport, while SEL (with GMP) is the biggest city - although ICN serves SEL, Incheon is a separate city to Seoul.

Cheers,

C.

ro1960 wrote:

FatCat wrote:

MXP and BGY are busier than LIN, although both not being in Milan;

I don't think this applies to the OP's question. Milan (1.3 M residents) has two airports (LIN and MXP). BGY is in Bergamo (120 k residents) although advertised as "Milan" by FR. So the busiest airport is in the region of the largest city.

Malpensa is completely inside the province of Varese, so it is not Milan by any means. And the distance from MXP to Milan is similar than from BGY to Milan.

Advertising Malpensa as Milan-Malpensa is as wrong or right as advertising Bergamo as Milan-Bergamo.

In fact BGY is pretty much at the centre of the Lombardia region while MXP is more eccentric, in the border with Piemonte and close to Switzerland. And that is ultimately why BGY is so successful; because its natural catchment area is larger than MXP's.

In Bhutan, Paro is the busiest airport, but Thimphu is the biggest city.

Cheers,

C.

ro1960 wrote:

FatCat wrote:

MXP and BGY are busier than LIN, although both not being in Milan;

I don't think this applies to the OP's question. Milan (1.3 M residents) has two airports (LIN and MXP). BGY is in Bergamo (120 k residents) although advertised as "Milan" by FR. So the busiest airport is in the region of the largest city.

Incorrect, as MXP is neither in the city, nor in the boundary or even in the Milan municipality. It is closer to LUG than to LIN.
It takes a good 40 minutes of train if you're lucky, from Milan. Same in FCO, as it isn't in Rome, but in Fiumicino, that was a town long before the airport's construction. It resides in the same municipality, anyway.
FR's marketing idea is catchy and apparently works, as BGY is the third airport in pax traffic in Italy, thanks to FR, first being FCO and second MXP (IIRC)...

I think the title defines the question well, the actual post is rather confusing with largest airport in the largest city....

SCQ83 wrote:

ro1960 wrote:

FatCat wrote:

MXP and BGY are busier than LIN, although both not being in Milan;

I don't think this applies to the OP's question. Milan (1.3 M residents) has two airports (LIN and MXP). BGY is in Bergamo (120 k residents) although advertised as "Milan" by FR. So the busiest airport is in the region of the largest city.

Malpensa is completely inside the province of Varese, so it is not Milan by any means. And the distance from MXP to Milan is similar than from BGY to Milan.

Advertising Malpensa as Milan-Malpensa is as wrong or right as advertising Bergamo as Milan-Bergamo.

In fact BGY is pretty much at the centre of the Lombardia region while MXP is more eccentric, in the border with Piemonte and close to Switzerland. And that is ultimately why BGY is so successful; because its natural catchment area is larger than MXP's.

Your explanation that is precise and correct proves that yo cannot have such a discussion as asked by the OP because it is almost impossible to compare oranges and apples. Cities, regions, states, counties, catchment areas, metropolitan areas, official and unofficial city airports, etc. make it very complicated.

Gr8Circle wrote:

"Canada (YYZ not YOW),"

Toronto is the largest city as well as the busiest airport in Canada.....

"India's largest airport BOM is in Mumbai, the airport DEL of the largest city Delhi is less busy."

As far as India is concerned, Kolkata is probably the largest city.....and I think the busiest airport is now DEL.....but it could be BOM.....not sure....

As an Indian, let me assure you all that the largest metro area is Delhi (25mn in the urban area) followed by Mumbai (~21 mn) and then Kolkata (~14mn) . In terms of city proper population, its Mumbai (14 mn) > Delhi (12 mn). Kolkata proper has only 4.5 mn.

In terms of air traffic, its Delhi at 63.5 mn pa, followed by Mumbai at 45mn pa and then Bangalore at around 25mn. Chennai and Kolkata clock in 20 and 19 mn resp.

Everyone is missing the obvious one. Actually obvious 2.

SCQ83 wrote:

Dominican Republic. According to Wikipedia:

Punta Cana: about 50k residents - PUJ: 7M PAX
Santo Domingo: about 1M residents - SDQ - 4M PAX

.

Correct. Punta Cana is the busiest airport in the Dominican Republic, almost 100% of travelers are turist
Incorrect - Santo Domingo passed already the 3M residents and the airport is used mostly for locals and etnic travalers, arround 14% Tourist.

Bobloblaw wrote:

Everyone is missing the obvious one. Actually obvious 2.

Care to enlighten???

China - PEK busiest airport, largest city is Shanghai (or Guangzhou, depending on how you measure).

Chongqing is probably the largest city on the planet but bjs is a much busier airport

ro1960 wrote:

Your explanation that is precise and correct proves that yo cannot have such a discussion as asked by the OP because it is almost impossible to compare oranges and apples. Cities, regions, states, counties, catchment areas, metropolitan areas, official and unofficial city airports, etc. make it very complicated.

Agree.
Also big airports should be built outside big cities, because big cities tend to become bigger cities

Alexdk wrote:

I became curious about countries/regions where the (largest) airport of the largest city (provided it has scheduled service) is not the busiest. Examples... Texas (DFW, not IAH), ....

The DFW metro is the largest in Texas.

dfdubflyer wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

I became curious about countries/regions where the (largest) airport of the largest city (provided it has scheduled service) is not the busiest. Examples... Texas (DFW, not IAH), ....

The DFW metro is the largest in Texas.

Which is not what he said, he said city. Houston is more populous than Dallas and Fort Worth combined.

LAX772LR wrote:

mtnwest1979 wrote:

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area

Which, in the context of airports, is particularly inane... as (1) no airline uses only the city-proper for its market assessment, and (2) many large cities don't have an airport within the actual city limits, but usually a suburb

Exactly. Otherwise we are discussing stupid stuff like CVG is the busiest in KY despite being in Hebron while the largest city is Louisville.

Galwayman wrote:

Chongqing is probably the largest city on the planet but bjs is a much busier airport

It highly depends on the definition.

By municipality limit, yes, Chongqing is the largest city in China, but that's b/c its "city" limit is so big.

By Urbanized Area population, it's 6th, after Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Tianjin.

But either way, Shanghai by all definition is a larger city than Beijing, but PEK is busier than PVG or SHA. It will probably changed after Daxing is opened, though.

Now, the ultra-arbitary "urban agglomeration" usually has Guangzhou (add in Foshan) larger than Shanghai and Beijing. Going even further, though, you can argue that Yangtze Delta (Since the "agglomeration" definition contains such a huge area, aka the whole triangle formed by Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou) has more people than Pearl River Delta, even though YRD would contain multiple metropolitan areas (Shanghai, Su(zhou)-(Wu)xi-Chang(zhou), Nanjing, Hangzhou; or even as far as Hefei and Ningbo).

dfdubflyer wrote:

The DFW metro is the largest in Texas.

Yes, but DFW technically is not even in the city of Dallas nor the city of Fort Worth (The land DFW seats on is own by the two cities, however). City of Dallas and City of Fort Worth by themselves are smaller than City of Houston, even if you add up the population of Dallas and Fort Worth. But can you ignored the like of Arlington (7th Largest city in TX), Plano (9th Largest), Garland (12th largest), Irving (13rd largest), etc.? No.

Which is why using city limit, especially in US, is absolutely stupid. Jacksonville has more people than Miami within its city limit, so what? Miami metro is a LOT larger. On the other hand, MCO is busier than MIA, so Florida is still an example where largest city/metro area doesn't have the busiest airport.

EDIT:
Going by sub-region and city limit. Koln is the most populous city in Nordrhein-Westfalen State, but DUS is busier than CGN. Using Metro Area within the state, Ruhr (Dortmund + Essen + Duisburg + Bochum) is largest in the state, above Dusseldorf metro (Dusseldorf + Wuppertal + Moncheglabach) and Cologne-Bonn. Of course, it gets more complicated as Dusseldorf and Ruhr Metro (Essen) are sometimes combined, and all 3 "metro" are also sometimes combined to form the wider Rhine-Ruhr EMR.

Alexdk wrote:

I became curious about countries/regions where the (largest) airport of the largest city (provided it has scheduled service) is not the busiest. Examples that immediately came to my mind are USA (Atlanta, not NY), Germany (Frankfurt, not Berlin), China (Beijing, not Shanghai), Texas (DFW, not IAH), Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville), Sicily (Catania, not Palermo). However, most of these largest cities tend to have multiple airports, if they had one, the situation may have been different (e.g. PVG may soon become busier than either of Beijing airports).

Obviously though with New York, the traffic is split between three airports (EWR, JFK and LGA) and if you enlarge the catchment area it includes SWF, ISP, HPN, TTN, ABE and even go as far as ACY and PHL if you include the Metropolitan area as a whole.

As with many such questions on this site we get into two particular inane arguments:

1. “City” population based on municipal boundaries which is meaningless for determining air traffic and market size

2. Whether or not an airport is locaed within a city’s boundaries, also irrelevant

So maybe we should rephrase it to:
“Countries and regions where the largest airport is not the one serving the largest metropolitan area”

There are several reasons why this can be the case, as illustrated by the examples here:

1. Traffic at the largest metropolitan area is split between multiple airports (NYC, ATL is larger).

2. The largest metropolitan area is not a large business hub (TXL, FRA is larger).

3. The largest metropolitan area is not a large tourist hub (SDQ, PUJ is larger).

4. The largest metropolitan area has more local demand, but not as many connecting passengers (hence ATL being busier than airports with much more local demand).

ro1960 wrote:

Your explanation that is precise and correct proves that yo cannot have such a discussion as asked by the OP because it is almost impossible to compare oranges and apples. Cities, regions, states, counties, catchment areas, metropolitan areas, official and unofficial city airports, etc. make it very complicated.

That is why city codes like PAR, LON or MIL are useful.

A tricky discussion are areas where many airports overlap. A typical example of this (already mentioned) in NRW in Germany, where DUS and CGN (and to some extent DTM, NRN and even FRA) overlap.

Another tricky point regarding metro areas is large cities that do not have their own airport because there is a nearby larger city with an airport, yet they are not part of the same metro area. This would be the example of Jeddah/Makkah that I mentioned, but also Tel Aviv/Jerusalem or Osaka/Kyoto. Makkah, Jerusalem or Kyoto are major cities on their own but they "use" the closest major airport (JED, TLV or KIX/ITM).

Ok guys. I get your points about metropolitan areas. So nevertheless we have DUS for Germany, CAN for China, MIA for Florida which are still not the busiest.

DolphinAir747 wrote:

As with many such questions on this site we get into two particular inane arguments:

1. “City” population based on municipal boundaries which is meaningless for determining air traffic and market size

2. Whether or not an airport is locaed within a city’s boundaries, also irrelevant

So maybe we should rephrase it to:
“Countries and regions where the largest airport is not the one serving the largest metropolitan area”

There are several reasons why this can be the case, as illustrated by the examples here:

1. Traffic at the largest metropolitan area is split between multiple airports (NYC, ATL is larger).

2. The largest metropolitan area is not a large business hub (TXL, FRA is larger).

3. The largest metropolitan area is not a large tourist hub (SDQ, PUJ is larger).

4. The largest metropolitan area has more local demand, but not as many connecting passengers (hence ATL being busier than airports with much more local demand).

And also probably politics for Beijing.

Few that I just think of:

In Cape Verde, Praia (the capital) is the largest city, and is located in the most populous island (Santiago Island). RAI (Praia Airport), however, is not as busy as SID (Sal), since Sal get a ton more tourist traffic to/from CV. If anything, RAI is just slightly busier than BVC (Boa Vista), another airport with tons of tourist traffic.

In the Canary Islands, LPA (Gran Canaria) is busier than TFS (Tenerife South), although Tenerife has more people than Gran Canaria, and TFS + TFN combined has more pax than LPA.

While I'm in Spain, in Andalusia Sevilla is more populous than Malaga, but AGP is way busier than SVQ. Same applied for Valencian Country, where ALC is busier than VLC even though Valencia is the much larger city than Alicante (Of course, Alicante, much like Malaga, gets tons of tourist traffic).

EDIT:

Alexdk wrote:

Ok guys. I get your points about metropolitan areas. So nevertheless we have DUS for Germany, CAN for China, MIA for Florida which are still not the busiest.

Only by VERY lenient definition would CAN (Guangzhou) the largest city/metro area in China. By 99% of definition, Shanghai is the largest, Beijing #2, and Guangzhou #3 (After that it's Shenzhen then Tianjin, usually). Doesn't change the fact the PEK is busier than PVG or SHA due to Shanghai having two airports, though.

mtnwest1979 wrote:

ualcsr wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

................. Florida (Miami, not Jacksonville),

Here we go again. Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida by land area and in population, only as to the city or perhaps better said, as to the municipality. While I'm not a fan of quoting wikipedia, this list is pretty accurate - Jax, as you can see, is 4th:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... of_Florida

And as is more relevant to this website, while I couldn't find catchment area by airport in a quick google search, I guarantee you that MIA, TPA and MCO's catchment areas are all larger than JAX and I'd say probably by substantial margins. Wouldn't be surprised if RSW is bigger than JAX too, though not sure.

Exactly. He specifically said "city" , not catchment area, and as you state, Jacksonville leads FL on both counts.

To be fair, when your talking about airports, catchment area is what drives the service and passenger levels so while OP might have intended just city populations, that's not an accurate way of looking at it, at least in the scope of how airlines and route planners do.

The US Census uses Urban Areas (or Metropolitan Centers)versus Cities with all of the area having at least 1,000 persons per square mile. For example the Cities of Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue are all in one Metropolitan area of 3.7 million people. Seattle is the largest city, but it has only has 713K. SEA (SEATAC) airport serves the metro area which is the largest.

LAX is one of 5 airports serving the LA Metro Area, LA is small itself but the Metro Area is the largest population center in the US.

JayinKitsap wrote:

The US Census uses Urban Areas (or Metropolitan Centers)versus Cities with all of the area having at least 1,000 persons per square mile. For example the Cities of Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue are all in one Metropolitan area of 3.7 million people. Seattle is the largest city, but it has only has 713K. SEA (SEATAC) airport serves the metro area which is the largest.

LAX is one of 5 airports serving the LA Metro Area, LA is small itself but the Metro Area is the largest population center in the US.

1 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA MSA 20,320,876 19,567,410 +3.85% New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA
2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA MSA 13,353,907 12,828,837 +4.09% Los Angeles-Long B

The state of Delaware. Largest city Wilmington. State capital Dover. Last I checked the entire state has NO commercial service at all. Does that count?

zakuivcustom wrote:

Few that I just think of:

In Cape Verde, Praia (the capital) is the largest city, and is located in the most populous island (Santiago Island). RAI (Praia Airport), however, is not as busy as SID (Sal), since Sal get a ton more tourist traffic to/from CV. If anything, RAI is just slightly busier than BVC (Boa Vista), another airport with tons of tourist traffic.

In the Canary Islands, LPA (Gran Canaria) is busier than TFS (Tenerife South), although Tenerife has more people than Gran Canaria, and TFS + TFN combined has more pax than LPA.

While I'm in Spain, in Andalusia Sevilla is more populous than Malaga, but AGP is way busier than SVQ. Same applied for Valencian Country, where ALC is busier than VLC even though Valencia is the much larger city than Alicante (Of course, Alicante, much like Malaga, gets tons of tourist traffic).

EDIT:

Alexdk wrote:

Ok guys. I get your points about metropolitan areas. So nevertheless we have DUS for Germany, CAN for China, MIA for Florida which are still not the busiest.

Only by VERY lenient definition would CAN (Guangzhou) the largest city/metro area in China. By 99% of definition, Shanghai is the largest, Beijing #2, and Guangzhou #3 (After that it's Shenzhen then Tianjin, usually). Doesn't change the fact the PEK is busier than PVG or SHA due to Shanghai having two airports, though.[/




Valencia country? Read your books

masi1157 wrote:

From personal experience:

Iceland's largest airport KEF is in Keflavik, not in Reykjavik. Reykjavik's city airport RKV is much smaller.

Greenland's largest airport SFJ is in Kangerlussuaq, not in Nuuk. Nuuk's city airport GOH is much smaller.

Ecuador's largest airport UIO is in Quito. The city of Guayaquil is slightly larger, but has a slightly less busy airport GYE.

Honduras' largest airport SUP is in San Pedro Sula. The city of Tegucigalpa is about twice the population, but it's airport TGU is less busy.

Cyprus' largest airport LCA is in Larnaca, the airport NIC of the largest city Nicosia is existent but closed.

India's largest airport BOM is in Mumbai, the airport DEL of the largest city Delhi is less busy.


Gruß, masi1157

It's SAP, my friend

And you're right. It was precisely the example I was about to use. However, population-wise, San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa are not far from each other. San Pedro's metro area (which include nearby municipalities with close or over 100,000 inhabitants) is bigger and almost as populated as Tegucigalpa's.

Kadish wrote:

zakuivcustom wrote:

Few that I just think of:

In Cape Verde, Praia (the capital) is the largest city, and is located in the most populous island (Santiago Island). RAI (Praia Airport), however, is not as busy as SID (Sal), since Sal get a ton more tourist traffic to/from CV. If anything, RAI is just slightly busier than BVC (Boa Vista), another airport with tons of tourist traffic.

In the Canary Islands, LPA (Gran Canaria) is busier than TFS (Tenerife South), although Tenerife has more people than Gran Canaria, and TFS + TFN combined has more pax than LPA.

While I'm in Spain, in Andalusia Sevilla is more populous than Malaga, but AGP is way busier than SVQ. Same applied for Valencian Country, where ALC is busier than VLC even though Valencia is the much larger city than Alicante (Of course, Alicante, much like Malaga, gets tons of tourist traffic).

EDIT:

Alexdk wrote:

Ok guys. I get your points about metropolitan areas. So nevertheless we have DUS for Germany, CAN for China, MIA for Florida which are still not the busiest.

Only by VERY lenient definition would CAN (Guangzhou) the largest city/metro area in China. By 99% of definition, Shanghai is the largest, Beijing #2, and Guangzhou #3 (After that it's Shenzhen then Tianjin, usually). Doesn't change the fact the PEK is busier than PVG or SHA due to Shanghai having two airports, though.[/




Valencia country? Read your books

Read WHAT book? Yes, Valencian Community is the official name, but it's not like Valencian Country cannot be used, either.

In Israel the main airport, Ben Gurion International (TLV), is in Tel Aviv and not in Jerusalem. Jerusalem Airport (JRS) is closed and therefor doesn't see any traffic.

According to Wikipedia (not a reliable source, I know, but reliable enough) Jerusalem has 882.652 inhabitants against 438.818 in Tel Aviv. However, looking at the metro areas Tel Aviv is bigger with 3.854.000 against 1.253.900 in Jerusalem. But it should be noted that Tel Aviv does have a second airport (Sde Dov, SDV) so not every passenger bound for Tel Aviv passes through Ben Gurion.

In Cyprus the largest city is Nicosia, but Nicosia airport (NIC) has been closed since 1974. Now Larnaca airport (LCA) has become the main airport for Cyprus, however Larnaca is a much smaller city than Nicosia.

In Germany the Rhein-Ruhr area served primarily by DUS and CGN is the most populous (10 million) and most industrial area, and Berlin is the capital as the single biggest city (3.5 million), but Franfurt (600 thousand) has the busiest airport FRA.

And to top it all off in the German state Northrhein-Westphalia Cologne is the most populous city (1 million) but Düsseldorf (600 thousand) is the state capiral and has the busiest airport in the state.

Go figure!

JayBCNLON wrote:

In Germany the Rhein-Ruhr area served primarily by DUS and CGN is the most populous (10 million) and most industrial area, and Berlin is the capital as the biggest single city (3.5 million), but FRA (600 thousand) has the busiest airport.

And to top it all off in the German state Northrhein-Westphalia Cologne is the most populous city (1 million) but Düsseldorf (600 thousand) is the state capiral and has the busiest airport in the state.

Go figure!

Took a awhile but that is the most obvious one. FRA is the busiest but Berlin is the largest city.