DALLAS — DFW International Airport is now flying to more destinations nonstop than any other airport in the country, a title it held briefly before the pandemic and that it has run away with as the Sun Belt becomes the dominant air travel corridor.
Carriers, including Fort Worth-based American Airlines, are flying to 239 total destinations from DFW in September, more than the 232 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the longtime leader in connections in the U.S. American flies to 220 destinations from DFW alone, the airline said.
The world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and Denver International Airport have service to 208 cities, according to flight schedule data from Diio by Cirium. Dallas Love Field, which is serviced primarily by Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, has 67 nonstop routes in the United States.
The years since the pandemic have reordered the hierarchy of the world’s airports, moving DFW into the second position for passenger traffic behind Atlanta and pushing back other airports more dependent on international and business travel, such as Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International and New York’s JFK Airport.
“The leisure markets have recovered at a far more rapid pace than those that have a stronger tendency toward business travel,” said Jim Bennett, former director for airports in Washington, D.C., and Phoenix and now a consultant with Fort Worth-based Paslay Group. “People have been willing to get out and travel, but companies are a little bit more cautious about putting their employees back on the road.”
From DFW, airlines fly directly to more destinations than they did before the pandemic. In the third quarter, airlines flew to 252 airports from DFW, two more than in 2019. Among the nation’s largest airports, Denver is the only other that has added destinations, while Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, LAX and JFK have all lost connections.
But at this moment, the country’s major business centers are at a disadvantage. Businesses have cut back on some travel in exchange for telecommuting and another looming economic crisis has corporate travel managers cutting back again.
“And airports that have a high concentration of international service such as San Francisco and LAX and JFK, those international markets have not recovered as quickly because of the travel restrictions in other countries, particularly Asia,” Bennett said. “It’s making that international long-haul restrictive.”
DFW’s strength is in both its connection to Fort Worth-based American Airlines, the largest airline in the world over the last three years, and in location. There are 188 nonstop flights within the U.S. from DFW, more than 174 at O’Hare and 149 in Atlanta.
“DFW is American Airlines’ largest and most powerful hub, and during the pandemic American connected a greater share of their passengers over DFW than ever before,” said John Ackerman, DFW’s executive vice president of global strategy and development.
Airlines have also moved more toward low-cost, high-profit hub flying, and DFW is the largest hub for the world’s largest carrier, American Airlines.
“We operate a connection factory here in DFW,” said Brian Znotins, American’s vice president for network and schedule planning.
Cost has a lot to do with that. Competition is fierce in Los Angeles and New York, prime destinations where all carriers want a major stake. Chicago O’Hare is a major hub for both American and Chicago-based United, and Southwest has a major operation at nearby Chicago Midway.
At DFW, there is little competition from major network carriers.
American can also funnel connecting passengers through DFW for cheaper. Airlines paid $15.63 per passenger in 2021 to DFW in landing fees, gate rentals and other costs, according to FAA data. That’s less than half of what it cost per passenger to fly into Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare or JFK.
So far this year, 84% of DFW’s 41.5 million passengers have flown on American’s mainline or regional jets, with more than 60% of those connecting at the airport, according to airport data.
“Our goal is to make DFW the biggest and best hub in the world and there are a number of things that have to happen,” Znotins said. “More importantly, we have to be able to connect those passengers in a cost-effective way.”
In early August, DFW Airport cut its landing fees by about 15% for the upcoming fiscal year while making up the costs with higher terminal rent and parking fees. However, costs are still higher than at some of the nation’s other major airports, where it only costs $5.71 per passenger or in Charlotte, which costs $3.89 per passenger.
When it comes to international flying, DFW is still a couple of spots down on the list. JFK is flying to 108 international destinations this month, even though international traffic is lagging. Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and even Houston Intercontinental all have more international connections than DFW.
From DFW, airlines fly to 51 international destinations from DFW, including 18 in Mexico alone.
And counting airports in other countries, DFW ranks fifth behind major international hubs in Istanbul (286 destinations), Frankfurt (278), Amsterdam (250) and Paris (250).
COVID has been a factor in DFW not getting more international flights.
In 2020, during the worst of the pandemic, American Airlines leaders said they would make DFW its “trans-Pacific hub,” meaning it would be the primary launching point for flights to Asia. That’s because airports such as Los Angeles had grown too expensive and the competition was too steep there, Znotins said at the time.
But American hasn’t resumed travel to several major Asian airport hubs, including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, which are still under strict COVID-19 restrictions. It’s still unclear when those flights will resume, although Japan recently eased COVID-19 travel restrictions.
In the near future, any airport in the U.S. could have trouble adding more destinations. A severe shortage of pilots due to retirements is forcing carriers including American to cut back on routes to small cities on regional airlines. That has meant dropping service to cities such as Dubuque, Iowa.
“You can’t make a pilot overnight, and it takes months, if not years, to train a new one,” Znotins said. “Justl like if you run out of 30-year-old scotch, you can’t make more and have it tomorrow.”
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