Many cities have more than one airport. These have come about for different reasons - often to
meet rising travel demand, but also due to limited land availability for existing airport expansion.
Controversially, London and New York top the list with six commercial
airports each, but which other cities have multiple airports?
London and New York both operate six commercial airports - we give London the
top spot in the list as (in normal times) it reports higher total passenger volume.
London Heathrow and Gatwick are the largest airports,
but there’s also London City as well as more distant Stansted, Luton, and Southend.
With these six airports, London is the busiest city for air travel globally.
Just Heathrow and Gatwick combined account for over 127 million passengers,
based on 2019 Airports Council International data.
New York City also claims six commercial airports. The three main airports are Newark-Liberty,
LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy International. But three others within a reasonable distance of the
city also have scheduled flights marketed as serving the New York metropolitan area.
These are Long Island MacArthur Airport, New York Stewart International Airport,
and Westchester County Airport. The appearance of New York Stewart is rather
controversial. Some budget airlines from Europe have flown to this airport, marketing the flights
as services to New York. While they’re right in that the aircraft land in New York State,
Stewart Airport itself is 71 miles, or 114 km away from New York City. What do you think
though? Should this airport be considered as an airport that serves the big apple?
Several other US cities have multiple airports. After New York, Los Angles has the most airports,
with five airports close to the city. LAX is clearly the largest,
but the greater Los Angeles area is also served by Long Beach Airport, Ontario International Airport,
Burbank Airport, and John Wayne Airport.
San Francisco has the main San Francisco International but the city can also be accessed
by flying into San Jose International and Oakland International. The smaller, domestic only, Charles
M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport takes the count up to four. Miami and Boston also have four airports.
Outside the US, there are a few cities that claim four airports. Moscow has four busy international
airports, all within around 40 kilometers of the city. The largest are Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo.
However, there are also the smaller airports of Zhukovsky and Vnukovo.
Tokyo is an interesting case, with two major international airports, Narita and
Haneda. It also has two much smaller ones, Ibaraki and Chofu. Ibaraki is further
from the center and serves as a low-cost airport for domestic and regional flights
while Chofu is a small, central airport with limited scheduled services to the Izu Islands.
Completing the list, Stockholm also claims four commercial airports. The
main Stockholm Arlanda Airport is also joined by Bromma, Skavsta, and VasterAs.
Some of these cities and their airports might be a tad controversial,
especially consider how far away some of these might be to the city center. What’s your criteria
for considering an airport as belonging to a particular city? Let us know by leaving a comment.