Tourism

Dallas Fort Worth Has More Passenger Destinations Than Any Other US Airport This Month

June 21, 2022

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas Fort Worth has 252 scheduled passenger destinations served non-stop this month, according to the latest data from Cirium. All other US airports have fewer, whether the renowned international gateways of JFK (175), Los Angeles (172), and Miami (160), or other major hubs, like Chicago O’Hare (242), Denver (209), and Atlanta (206).

Dallas Fort Worth surpasses many other airports globally by this measure, including Dubai International (211) and London Heathrow (201). Few beat it, but exceptions this month include Istanbul Airport (281, rising to 294 if one-stops are added), Frankfurt (272), and Amsterdam (254).

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252 non-stop destinations

American Airlines’ largest hub, Dallas Fort Worth has 252 non-stop passenger destinations this June, up from 245 in pre-pandemic June 2019. As you’d expect, American is responsible for almost all of these, with this one carrier linking the Texas airport to 239 destinations globally. That’s much more than Lufthansa at Frankfurt (175) and KLM at Amsterdam (139).

With 189 domestic destinations, three-quarters of Dallas Fort Worth’s expansive network is internal US. That’s a higher proportion than even Atlanta (71%). The network strength of Dallas is also driven by its proximity to Mexico, with 24 Mexican airports served on a scheduled passenger basis, more than any other US airport.

American has 85% of Dallas Fort Worth’s June flights, the definition of a fortress hub. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

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Dallas’ top ten destinations

Los Angeles is Dallas Fort Worth’s leading destination, as shown below. It has 590 outbound flights with between 17 and 20 each day. American is, of course, heavily dominant (it has 66% of the flights), trailed by Spirit (24%) and Delta (10%).

For context, Department of Transportation data indicates that, for quarter one of this year, some 46% of American’s Los Angeles-Dallas passengers were local (i.e., they didn’t transfer), with obviously much higher proportions for Delta (83%) and Spirit (87%).

Los Angeles: 590 departing flights from Dallas Fort Worth in June 2022
New York LaGuardia: 530
Las Vegas: 496
Denver: 469
Atlanta: 456
Chicago O’Hare: 454
Houston Intercontinental: 436
Austin: 406
Cancún: 401
Miami: 390

When writing, it is 07:30 in Dallas, with all of these flights to/from Dallas Fort Worth. Highlighted is AA996 from Buenos Airlines. Image:
Flightradar24
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Cancún is now ninth

Note the presence of Cancún in ninth position. Cirium shows that flights to this almost entirely tourist-driven destination have risen by 44% versus 2019, pushing the destination from 21st to within the top ten. However, it has fallen from seventh last year (albeit with fewer flights) as the recovery means higher domestic frequencies return.

With 401 flights this month, the route (technically market) between Dallas Fort Worth to Cancún sees between 12 and 15 daily flights. There are four carriers: American (53% of the market), Sun Country (25%), Spirit (15%), and Frontier (7%). The Texas airport has more Cancún flights than any other US airport.

Spirit began Dallas Fort Worth-Cancún in April 2013 and has 2x daily flights. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

At the other extreme…

Then there are the destinations with very few flights, typically because they’re served 1x weekly. Some 16 have four or fewer services this month, as detailed below. Most are international and heavily tourist-driven, with all served by American.