America's Most 'Well-Connected' Airport Is Located In The Midwest

When aviation analytics company Cirium named the best-connected airports in the world, it looked at which hubs offered the most nonstop flights on a daily basis. For Chicago O'Hare International Airport, that number came to 270. While it tied with Schiphol as the fourth best-connected airport in the world, O'Hare is the highest-ranked in North America. All those flights departing from Chicago carry more than 86 million passengers and 1.5 tons of cargo around the world annually.

Much of the airport's connectivity is due to Chicago's service to destinations throughout the U.S. The airport offers 963 flights to 166 U.S. cities, which makes up the vast majority of its daily service. These direct flights include dozens of smaller cities across the Midwest. Internationally, 116 direct flights depart from O'Hare daily, serving 59 cities across the globe — you can even catch a nonstop flight to the Caribbean. When considering the number of international destinations and scheduled connections, FDI Markets ranked JFK International Airport in New York as the No. 2 best-connected airport in the world, while Chicago only makes it to No. 10. However, you might want to avoid flying through JFK unless you want your luggage to be lost.

Nearly half of the air traffic at O'Hare — 48%, to be exact — belongs to United, which is based out of Chicago. The aviation company was founded by William E. Boeing and Frederick B. Rentschler and started serving a transnational route from Seattle and San Francisco to New York via Chicago in 1930. Today, United's flights depart from Terminal 1 and arrive in Terminal 5. United also partners with the Star Alliance network, which includes Air Canada, Air India, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, Copa Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss International, TAP Air Portugal, and Turkish Airlines. These airlines can be found populating O'Hare's Terminal 5 as well.

O'Hare is also one of American Airlines' largest hubs, and it has served passengers flying from New York to Chicago since 1936. The largest American Airlines hub is in Dallas, the second most well-connected American airport in the Cirium rankings. However, it is also one of the worst airports in the U.S., according to travelers. American's Chicago hub connects passengers in the Midwest and to worldwide destinations, operating out of terminals 3 and 5 at O'Hare.