INTERNATIONAL. The COVID-19 crisis has reshaped the rankings of the world’s most connected cities, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The airlines association has released data about the pandemic’s impact on international connectivity.
- London, the world’s number one most connected city by air in September 2019, has seen a -67% decline in connectivity. By September 2020, it had fallen to number eight.
- Shanghai is now the top ranked city for connectivity with the top four most connected cities all in China—Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
- New York (-66% fall in connectivity), Tokyo (-65%), Bangkok (-81%), Hong Kong (-81%) and Seoul (-69%) have all exited the top ten.
- The study reveals that cities with large numbers of domestic connections now dominate, showing the extent to which international connectivity has been shut down.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth in air connectivity was “a global success story,” said IATA. Over the last two decades the number of cities directly linked by air (city-pair connections) more than doubled while over the same period, air travel costs fell by around half.
The ten most connected countries in the world mostly saw significant increases over the 2014-2019 period. The USA remained the most connected country, with growth of +26%. China, in second place, grew connectivity by +62%. Other standout performers in the top ten included fourth-place India (+89%) and ninth place Thailand (+62%).
