London is the most connected city in the world with direct flights to 351 global destinations, while Hong Kong takes the same ranking in Asia connecting to 147 cities.
These are findings from the inaugural Global Connectivity Ranking produced by multimodal search specialist, Rome2rio, and social commentator and KPMG partner, Bernard Salt.
The ranking, which utilises data from the global search engine, measures the connectivity of a city via the number of direct flights to international destinations. It includes a top 20 global ranking, shows the most connected cities by region, highlighting a city’s changing global importance (see chart below).
Global Connectivity Ranking is the first project under Rome2rio Labs, a new data-centric series of globally focussed travel and transport related reports.
Key highlights:
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London is the world’s most connected city. (Image credit:sborisov/iStock)
London is world’s most connected city with direct flights to 351 international destinations.
- Paris is second with connectivity to 291 destinations, followed by Frankfurt (278) and A Amsterdam (242)
- Toronto is the most internationally connected city in North America with 154 different destinations. mostly within the US.
- New York with its three airports connects with 137 different international destinations. Its airport connectivity is dominated by internal linkages as opposed to external linkages. The city is not as ‘global’ as are 20 other world cities (mostly European).
- Manchester is the second most connected city in the Englishspeaking world with 162 international connections.
- Glasgow, transformed since the 2014 Commonwealth Games, now connects with 76 international cities, up from 55 just two years ago.
- Kiev in Ukraine suffered the greatest reduction in connectivity since 2014, down to 60 global connections today from 83. There are no flights between Kiev and at least seven regional destinations in Russia, which existed before the Crimean conflict.
- Istanbul is the most globally connected city in the Muslim world, with connectivity jumping 20% with 40 new destinations. The city’s business activity, as well as its rising middle class, is demanding new destinations.
- Asia: Hong Kong is the most globally connected cities in Asia connecting 147 cities (includes mainland China), followed by Seoul with 141, Bangkok 131 and Singapore 129.
- China: However these shifts in global connectivity pale in comparison with the globalisation of China’s second tier cities. Since 2014 Beijing has connected with 22 new global cities, while Shanghai has added 17 cities and Guangzhou 12.
“This measurement provides insights beyond mere passenger counts per airport; it is a proxy for real business activity and changes in consumer confidence using data about global travel routes. The market for global connectivity is growing strong, only a minority of cities (201) experienced falling connectivity while the vast majority (724) increased their global connections,” said Salt.
Rome2rio CEO, Rod Cuthbert added: “Each month we attract millions of users from around the globe, all planning journeys that might include air, rail, road or ferry components.
“Analysing that data, particularly when upcoming reports factor in the impact of highspeed rail networks, is going to throw a bright light on economic activity and trends that should be of wide interest to both industry and the research community”.
