Europe's most competitive airport and city pairs

The research looked at the airport and city pairs served by the highest number of airlines during the peak summer season, in this case the week beginning 5 August 2019.

It found that the most-competitive airport pair is Stockholm Arlanda - Antalya, which is operated by eight carriers. According to OAG Schedules Analyser, two airlines flying the route are low-cost and six are mainline.

TUIfly Nordic, Thomas Cook Scandinavia, Pegasus Airlines, TUI Airways, SunExpress, Corendon Airlines, Nova Airlines and Turkish Airlines all offer flights between the Mediterranean coastal city and Sweden’s capital.

A further seven airport pairs each have seven airlines offering services. Antalya features in two of them, to Düsseldorf Airport and Stuttgart Airport, while three others in the seven are ‘summer sun’ routes. They are Dusseldorf - Heraklion, Munich - Palma de Mallorca and Stockholm - Chania.

Airport pairs in Europe by the highest number of airlines (w/c 5 August 2019):

No of carriers From To Airlines (weekly frequencies)
8 Stockholm (ARN) Antalya (AYT) TUIfly Nordic (3), Thomas Cook Scandinavia (2), Pegasus Airlines (2), TUI Airways (2), SunExpress (2), Corendon Airlines (1), Nova Airlines (1), Turkish Airlines (1)
7 Sochi (AER) St. Petersburg (LED) Aeroflot (18), Pobeda (7), Red Wings Airlines (7), Yamal Airlines (7), Siberia Airlines (5), Nordavia - Regional Airlines (2), Nordwind (1)
Stockholm (ARN) Chania (CHQ) Norwegian (3), TUIfly Nordic (2), Nova Airlines (2), TUI Airways (2), Thomas Cook Scandinavia (1), SAS Scandinavian Airlines (1)
Dusseldorf (DUS) Antalya (AYT) SunExpress (39), Condor (11), Onur Air Tasimacilik (7), Corendon (7), Pegasus Airlines (5), TUIfly (3), Turkish Airlines (2)
Stuttgart (STR) Antalya (AYT) SunExpress (17), Onur Air Tasimacilik (9), Condor (7), Pegasus Airlines (7), Turkish Airlines (2), Corendon Airlines (2), Eurowings (1)
Dusseldorf (DUS) Heraklion (HER) Condor (7), TUIfly (7), Eurowings (5), Aegean Airlines (3), SunExpress Deutschland (3), Corendon Airlines Europe (2), Laudamotion (1)
Munich (MUC) Palma de Mallorca (PMI) Eurowings (25), Lufthansa (16), Laudamotion (13), Norwegian (7), Condor (7), Vueling (6), TUIfly (3)
Bucharest (OTP) Tel Aviv (TLV) El Al Israel Airlines (12), Tarom (10), Wizz Air (9), Blue Air (5), Israir (3), Arkia - Israeli Airlines (3), Ryanair (2)

Looking at the most-competitive city pairs in Europe for the same week in August 2019, Moscow features prominently.

According to the data from OAG Schedules Analyser, eight or more carriers offer scheduled service on seven routes to/from the Russian capital’s three airports - Sheremetyevo (SVO), Domodedovo (DME) and Vnukovo (VKO).

The domestic route between Moscow and Sochi (AER) has a total of 12 different carriers serving the market across a combined 267 flights. Five airlines serve DME-AER, four serve VKO-AER and three serve SVO-AER.

The next three most-competitive city pairs by number of carriers are also Russian domestic routes to/from Moscow. The OAG data shows Moscow - Mineralnye Vody is served by ten different carriers, while Moscow - St Petersburg and Moscow - Krasnodar each have nine serving the market.

A further five city pairs are served by eight airlines, three of which involve Moscow (to Antalya, Anapa and Ufa). The only two which do not are Paris - New York and Stockholm - Antalya.

City pairs in Europe by the highest number of airlines (w/c 5 August 2019):

No of carriers From To Routes and airlines (weekly frequencies)
12 Sochi Moscow AER-SVO: Aeroflot Russian Airlines (84), Nord Wind (23), Pegas Fly (1)
AER-DME: Siberia Airlines (42), Red Wings Airlines (15), Ural Airlines (13), NordStar (6), ALROSA Air Company (3)
AER-VKO: Pobeda (36), UTair Aviation (35)
10 Mineralnye Vody Moscow MRV-DME: ALROSA Air Company (1), Nordavia - Regional Airlines (6), NordStar (4), Siberia Airlines (14), Ural Airlines (7)
MRV-SVO: Aeroflot Russian Airlines (42), Nord Wind (5), Pegas Fly (1), Pobeda (7), UTair Aviation (21)
9 Moscow St. Petersburg DME-LED: NordStar (2), Siberia Airlines (84), Ural Airlines (9), Yamal Airlines (2)
SVO-LED: Aeroflot Russian Airlines (140), Nord Wind (20), Pegas Fly (17)
VKO-LED: Aeroflot Russian Airlines (62), Pobeda (14), UTair Aviation (28)
9 Krasnodar Moscow KRR-DME: ALROSA Air Company (2), Red Wings Airlines (4), Siberia Airlines (35), Ural Airlines (1)
KRR-SVO: Aeroflot Russian Airlines (56), Nord Wind (7)
KRR-VKO: AZIMUTH Airlines (7), Pobeda (14), UTair Aviation (32)
David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.