While air traffic had remained curtailed in most of the world
over the summer 2021 season, taxiing times at airports have not – for the most part,
as they’ve shifted significantly since before the pandemic.
Indeed, every six months, Eurocontrol releases statistics over just how long
it takes to get from the gate to the runway
at airports all over the world. Follow along in this video to see which ones top the list!
If you’ve ever landed at Amsterdam Schiphol’s Polderbaan runway,
you know that the taxiing time adds an additional 15 minutes or so to your overall flight time.
The runway is the hub’s sixth and is located five kilometers away from the main terminal building.
As a result, Polderbaan even has its own control tower.
When measuring taxi times, more things than the distance to the runway impact the result. For
various reasons, cues often form with lines of aircraft waiting for their turn for take-off.
This phenomenon might be absent at airports such as Oslo Gardemoen or, say, Bradley International.
However, taxi times add up in busier locations despite the runway being nowhere near as far away
from the terminal as Schiphol’s Polderbaan. The European Organisation for the Safety of
Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol, publishes statistics over taxi in and taxi-out
times at airports across the world twice per year – once for each IATA season. When looking
at the data for AMS – Amsterdam Schiphol – it is nowhere near other airports across the globe
when it comes to reaching the runway. Despite the Polderbaan trek, passengers departing
Amsterdam can currently expect to spend on average 12.7 minutes taxiing from the gate.
Before we dive into the figures, we should mention that when comparing them to data
from the winter season of 2019/2020, nearly all numbers drop across the board. However,
rankings remain similar. Meanwhile, the current number one airport used to be number
two (although when corrected for the drop in traffic in the first few months of 2020,
we may have found it would have claimed first). In order not to spoil the statistic fun, we’ll reveal
the previous order at the end of the video... At the top of the lengthiest taxi times sits
Chinese airports serving the megapolises of Beijing and Shanghai. The latter’s Pudong, PVG,
takes the cake with a whopping 26.4 minutes on average. That is close to an extra half
hour waiting for the plane to get its turn on one of the airport’s four operational runways.
Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)
is not far behind as taxiing out there will add, on average, 21.6 minutes to the journey!
However, closer to Shanghai Pudong is Mexico City. Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)
is one of the highest in the world at an elevation of elevation 7,342 feet (2,238. meters) above sea
level. It also has the current second-longest taxi-out time of any airport in the world,
clocking in at 25.4 minutes on average. Other Mexican airports such as Cancun
International (CUN) and Guadalajara (GDL) also come in at above 16 minutes.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica’s San Jose International Airport (SJO) is slightly higher at 18.5 minutes.
Rio de Janeiro International (GIG) and São Paulo’s Guarulhos (GRU)
in Brazil have 19.5 and 16.2 minutes, respectively.
There are a few more airports where the time between the gate and take-off goes
above the 20-minute mark. Almost all of them can be found in the Americas.
Bogotá International (BOG) in Colombia comes in at 21.8 minutes. Meanwhile,
Chile’s Santiago Airport (SCL), or Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport
as is its full name, adds an average of 20.9 minutes to taxiing. SCL also has two runways.
Heading further north, New York JFK with four runways grabs the top spot in the US.
The Queens airport has an average taxi-out time of 22.8 minutes.
This puts it higher on the list than Newark Liberty (EWR), which comes with a comparatively
modest 18.8 minutes. However, Philadelphia (PHL) is not far behind at 22.5 minutes. Washington
Dulles International Airport (IAD) comes in a close third, with an average of 21.9 minutes.
Meanwhile, Chicago O’Hare (ORD) is also in the above-20 club with an average of 21.6 minutes.
O’Hare shares the fourth spot in the US with Charlotte Douglas International (CLT).
Right behind them is San Francisco International (SFO)
with 21.1, Miami International (MIA) at 20.8, and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) at 19.7.
Closing out the list for US airports, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) sits at 18.9
while Denver International (DEN) has a time of 18,8 minutes.
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) and Los Angeles International (LAX) both come in at 17.2.
North of the border in Canada, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has an average of
18.5 minutes of taxi-out time, whereas Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) has 17.
Pivoting back to Asia, we find a few more heavy-hitters.
Taxiing out from one of Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport’s three terminals to one
of its two runways takes on average 20.9 minutes. Meanwhile, the same procedure in Bangalore (BLR)
takes 18.6 minutes, and at Mumbai International Airport (BOM) 16.9- which is roughly the same time
as both Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Singapore Changi (SIN). Manila (MNL) clocks in at 19.2 minutes.
Taxiing at Tokyo Haneda (HAN) is also not done in a flash, as it takes an average of 19.8 minutes.
At Tokyo Narita (NRT), the figure is down to 17.2 minutes, although this is perhaps
not enough to warrant picking one over the other when traveling out of Tokyo.
Seoul Incheon (ICN) is nearly as efficient as Narita, at 17.1 minutes,
whereas the average taxiing out time in Hong Kong is 17.9 minutes.
In the Gulf region, the airports with the longest taxi times are Riyadh King
Khalid (RUH), Doha International (DOH), Dubai International (DXB), and Kuwait International
(KWI). All of these airports sit somewhere on a scale between 17.2 and 16.2 minutes.
Moving north, taxiing from the gate at Moscow’s three largest airports, Sheremetyevo (SVO),
Domodedovo (DME), and Vnukovo (VKO), takes 15.8, 17.1, and 16.4 minutes on average, respectively.
Meanwhile, Istanbul’s Sabiha Guckchen (SAW) comes in at 16.9,
and the new Istanbul Airport (IST) at 15.4. One would imagine that the busiest airports
in Europe would have figures similar to those across the globe. However, at least during
the past summer season, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CGD) saw average taxiing times of 14.7 minutes,
and Frankfurt only 12.6. Interestingly, figures were not much higher pre-pandemic!
Africa has only one airport where taxiing takes over 17 minutes,
and that is Brazzaville’s Maya–Maya Airport (BZV).
Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport, the busiest on the continent, sits at 16.7 minutes.
Nigeria’s two main airports in Abuja (ABV) and Lagos (LOS) come in at 16.5
and 16.3 rsespectively, whereas taxiing out at Addis Ababa’s Bolé
International (ADD) in Ethiopia takes on average 16.4 minutes.
Taxi times are not just a matter of passenger comfort. Longer time between the gate and take-off
also adds significantly to an airline’s fuel consumption. This increases both the
financial burden and environmental impact. During the pre-pandemic winter season of
2019/2020, taxiing times were on average higher. At the time, Delhi topped the list
with just over 28 minutes, while Shanghai sat at 26.3. Meanwhile, all major Canadian airports were
over 20 minutes, with Montréal–Trudeau International Airport reaching 25.8.
As traffic hopefully picks up following the crisis, airports would do well to see if there
are means of increasing operational efficiency and lowering taxi times. Not only would this lower
overall fuel consumption, but you’d probably much happier passengers- especially when it
comes to taxing to the gate after landing... How many of these airports have you flown out
of? And what is the longest time you’ve spent taxiing? Leave a comment and let us know!