2016 Summer Olympics - Stacking up the Candidate Cities, Air Service Style by Laura Jackson

On October 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. On this date, the IOC will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to vote on the four final candidate cities. In advance of this historic announcement, this week I will highlight some air service facts for each finalist.
Chicago, USA
Chicago is home to two airports – O’Hare (ORD) and Midway (MDW). O’Hare ranks as the second-busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and accounts for over one-third of flights for all the candidate cities combined. In addition, O’Hare has service to the most nonstop destinations – 167 – and is the only airport that enjoys nonstop service to other three finalist cities. With the exception of service to Toronto’s City Centre Airport, Midway is a domestic airport that links Chicago with large metropolitan areas in the USA.
Madrid, Spain
Madrid is the only one of the four cities with a single airport. Barajas International Airport (MAD) is home to more airlines than any other candidate city airport – 67 carriers provide nonstop service to and from Madrid. Despite the number of airlines serving MAD, over half of the airport’s service is provided by Spanish-flag carrier Iberia. Another Spanish carrier – Spanair – ranks second to Iberia, accounting for nearly 10 percent of total flights.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro’s two airports – Galeao International Airport (GIG) and Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) – have numerous similarities. Service levels are comparable – GIG averages 286 daily flights while SDU averages 225. Both airports are overwhelmingly domestic – all flights at SDU are to/from Brazilian cities, while nearly 90 percent of flights at GIG are domestic. Despite the high volume of domestic flights, GIG serves as Rio’s primary international airport with service to 14 cities in 10 countries. One area where the airports diverge is the number of carriers. SDU is served by six carriers, while GIG has service on 17 carriers. In addition, the top carrier at each airport is different – TAM is the busiest carrier at SDU while VARIG-GOL dominates at GIG.
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, like Chicago and Rio, has two airports – Haneda (HND) and Narita (NRT). In 2008, Haneda ranked as the world’s fourth-busiest airport; combined, Haneda and Narita serve nearly 100 million annual passengers. Interestingly, although Haneda is twice as busy as Narita in terms of operations, Narita serves nearly twice as many nonstop destinations than Haneda. Another similarity to Chicago and Rio is the fact that one airport – Haneda – handles primarily domestic service. Currently over 97 percent of Haneda’s operations are to cities in Japan, although negotiations are underway to increase Haneda’s international operations.
Final Thoughts
Later this week, one of these cities will be chosen to be in the world’s spotlight over the next seven years as the journey begins to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Good luck to all, and may the best city win!
Note: This article was corrected on September 28, 2009.
Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes for September 2009 only, unless otherwise noted; includes only airports with scheduled commercial air service; Airports Council International.