The Top 10 Most Common Domiciles in the Nation

Based on data submitted to AirlinePilotCentral.com by pilots and airline professionals, we compiled a list of the ten most commonly listed domiciles for all domestic airlines. Some of the results may surprise you since they don’t necessarily match up with the top trafficked airports in the U.S. For example, Miami International takes the top spot with 17 airlines having established domiciles there yet is ranked twelfth by the FAA for air traffic. Most notably missing from the list is ATL (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International), which was named the busiest airport by the FAA in 2014. The biggest surprise on the list is ANC (yup, that’s in Anchorage Alaska) since it didn’t even crack the FAA’s top 50 list.

The nation’s busiest airport by total passenger traffic surprisingly had only seven airlines domiciled there in 2015, and the presence of Delta Air Lines may have largely influenced that number. ATL’s Delta Air Lines hub is the world’s largest airline hub and controls nearly three-quarters of all passenger traffic through that airport: 59.01 percent of passengers from ATL flew with Delta Air Lines, and 13.86 percent of passengers flew with Delta’s partner, ExpressJet.

Although MIA was ranked the 12th busiest airport, its location allows it to be the largest gateway between the U.S. and Latin America. MIA is a major hub for both passenger and cargo airlines throughout Latin America, Europe, and Western Asia. Cargo flights to East Asia are also frequently flown through MIA.

Anchorage, Alaska’s population hovers just above 300,000 plus its strategic location makes ANC a prime hub for many airlines. ANC is just 9.5 hours away from 90 percent of the industrial world which makes it the nation’s primary international air freight gateway. It is second in the nation in landed weight of cargo aircraft (MEM is first), with 26 percent percent of U.S. international air freight moving through Anchorage, and is among the top five airports in the world for cargo throughput.

The rest of the list falls in line nicely without much deviation. Although STL ranks highly relative to passenger traffic, the inclusion of the country’s 18th largest metropolitan area should not come as a surprise.