Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport Is Latin America’s Third Biggest Hub

Colombia’s biggest airport has been ranked as one of the world’s 50 “megahubs,” making Bogotá’s airport one of the most connected on the planet, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. With a connectivity index score of 228 in a report detailing “The World’s Most Connected Airports,” El Dorado International Airport ranks 39th overall and third in Latin America.

The only two airports in the region ahead of El Dorado are Mexico City International Airport in the Mexican capital and São Paulo–Congonhas Airport in Brazil’s largest city. By comparison, Bogotá has a population of roughly eight million while there are more than 20 million in the metro areas of both Mexico City and São Paulo.

The United States dominates the megahub global rankings. Nine of the top 10 are in the country, with Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta being the only non-U.S. airport.

The U.S. airports amont the top 10 include: O’Hare International Airport (Chicago), Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Denver International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

OAG Aviation Worldwide, a research firm covering the industry, published the study in late November based on its connectivity index, a measure of the ratio of scheduled seat capacity to the number of destinations served by the airport.

Specifically, the company came up with the score for each location by calculating “the total number of possible connections between inbound and outbound flights within a six-hour window at the largest 100 airports in the world based on the busiest day for global aviation in 2016,” stated OAG in its report.

To increase its capacity to handle more flights, Bogotá has embarked on a major overhaul to its aviation infrastrucutre. It is currently adding a new terminal to El Dorado and will soon begin building a new airport — so far deemed “El Dorado II” — farther to the west of its current megahub on the outskirts of the capital.

Photo Credit: Jared Wade