KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Kuala Lumpur has once again topped the OAG Megahubs ranking as the most connected airport in Asia-Pacific for low-cost flights, offering 14,583 possible low-cost connections (LCCs) across 137 destinations.

According to OAG, a data platform for the global travel industry, Asia-Pacific is home to three of the top five megahubs, namely Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo Haneda, and Seoul Incheon, providing reassurance these markets are back and pursuing growth.

“As Asia-Pacific continues its rise in the global rankings, OAG Megahubs reflects the growing recovery of international air travel and strong demand for low-cost travel in the Asia-Pacific region,” said OAG head of Asia-Pacific Mayur Patel in a statement.

For LCCs, Asia-Pacific airports dominate, making up 64% of the top 25 LCC megahubs, while AirAsia is the dominant carrier there with a 35% share of total flights and 48% of LCC capacity.

Connectivity growth in Asia is spread widely with an additional four megahubs in Southeast Asia making the list, and seven in Northeast Asia.

In addition, Tokyo’s Narita Airport makes a huge leap year-on-year in ranking, from 60th in 2023 to 15th this year, while Manila moves up into the second place on the LCC megahubs list this year, overtaking Incheon, with a high ratio of connectivity to 97 destinations.

Released by OAG, Megahubs 2024, a market ranking of the top 50 most internationally connected airports in the world, analyses not only the total number of destinations served, but also the number of scheduled connections to and from international destinations, including rankings by global regions and for low-cost carriers.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/726331