Centralmost world airport?

Factual Questions
21

Chronos is right; plotting the points on a flat map projection does affect what the median point is. If you remap those points to a flat map centered on the intersection of the International Date Line and the equator instead of the Prime Meridian and the equator, the median point will be different. The same with a transverse Mercator projection, etc. Consider a Mercator projection with a point in Honolulu and another in Tokyo. The median point on this projection would be in western Africa somewhere, when is ‘should’ be somewhere in the Pacific.

Thanks very much for the kind offer, septimus. I don’t know what sort of database would be best for you to work with, but I’ve been looking at a few sources:

https://openflights.org/data.html
http://ourairports.com/data/

This one has a field for whether there is scheduled service to the airport (only about ~4000 out of 50,000 listed airports):
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwio1ejt8MDdAhUBjq0KHY-8AUEQFjABegQIChAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbooksite.elsevier.com%2F9780340741528%2Fappendices%2Fdata-c%2Fairports.xls&usg=AOvVaw24VsJa1_KV-E_lk4dpj5-a

This was the only source I found that specifically addressed whether an airport was international or not, but it’s not free:
http://shop.fsbureau.org/online/database

I don’t know whether that helps, but I’m still looking.

22

For one week, that is likely OSH (site of AirVenture) which no longer even has commercial service.

Brian

23

I don’t think I’ll pursue this. The 50 largest airports include 15 in the USA, so that seems biased. Only 10,198 of the 41000+ airports listed at aviationfanatics.com have ICAO codes but that’s still a lot, with no way to tell which airports are “large” or international. Anyway, judicious eyeballing of a globe color-coded with population density might give a close-enough answer for OP.

I did find a free-to-download list of cities at simplemaps.com, showing longitude, latitude and population for 10000+ cities (total population = 2.455 billion). That list might be useful for some purposes, though checking Thailand I notice that, in addition to provincial capitals it lists only six other cities and is thus missing several (including Pattaya!) that are much bigger than the smallest provincial capitals.

24

Septimus, if I provided a .txt file of international airports formatted like the list from The Global Airport Database, with fields separated by colons, would that be usable, or would you need some other format?

25

I was thinking of a city in the midwest, like Omaha or Tulsa. Omaha has a flight to Toronto, so that rules that out. But Tulsa flies to 21 cites, all in the USA.

https://www.tulsaairports.com/flight-info/non-stop-destinations/

26

The answer’s going to depend on what you mean by “biggest”. But in terms of destinations & passenger numbers, I’ll nominate Beijing Nanyuan Airport, the secondary airport for Beijing. It flies to 60+ destinations, all within the PRC, and handled nearly 6 million passengers in 2017.

ETA: Ooh, even better: Zhuhai airport, with 9.2 million passengers in 2017. Counting destinations is harder for this one since it’s served by multiple airlines (Beijing Nayuan is only served by one.)

27

And as far as airports within the US, the busiest without international service appears to be Dallas Love Field, with 7.9 million passengers in 2017. (Tulsa only has about 2.9 million.)

28

Following that link, I get a list of 9300 airports of which 447 have “INTERNATIONAL” in their name. Are those the airports you mean? I’ll PM you my e-mail address in case you have a different list.

So, yes, I’ll volunteer to locate the centralmost International airport! With all that infrastructure in place, are there any other suggestions for investigation? (Perhaps we could have a Traveling Salesman contest? :slight_smile: )

29

I’m working on getting a more complete list, since not all internat’l airports have “International” in the name, but yes. I was mostly interested in whether the format was acceptable…

30

I think that format is better than most of the text formats I’ve been coping with these days. For example, with “Comma-separated values” files the first step is generally to remove the commas inside quote-marks! :smack:

31

And not all that do have international service. But it’s probably a reasonable correlation.

32

I know that some airports are called “international”, even though they don’t have direct service to anywhere in a different nation. But they have some flights that go to some domestic destination, and then the same flight number continues on to Canada or something, so they’re still considered the origin of an “international flight”.

33

Anyway, the winner has to be Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport, a dirt strip in Wyoming.

34

While waiting for the proper list, I wrote some code and tested it with the 447 airports named “International.” Here are the results:

Centralest airport (Min sum dist^0.05) is in COLUMBUS
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^0.10) is in NASHVILLE
…
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^0.85) is in NASHVILLE
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^0.90) is in CINCINNATI
…
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^1.05) is in CINCINNATI
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^1.10) is in DAYTON
…
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^1.20) is in DAYTON
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^1.25) is in CLEVELAND
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^1.30) is in PORT HURON
…
Centralest airport (Min sum dist^4.95) is in PORT HURON

I don’t know of any good reason not to just minimize sum dist^1; so Cincinatti is centralmost; but changing the exponent didn’t cause the center to move much anyway.

29% of the “International” airports were in the USA, but when I eliminated ALL of those and reran the program the centralmost airport was still nearby: Montreal. (Or Bahamas or Cuba for exponent < 1.)

I fear results will be similar with the better list. To make evacuation plans we’ll need to weight each airport by the population using it.


The two "International" airports furthest apart are in Shanghai and Uruguay.  Runner-up pairs include Taiwan-to-Paraguay, Venezuela-to-Bali, and Ecuador-to-Kuala Lumpur.
35

When you get a full list, you’ll probably find the furthest are Bermuda and Perth. Going by lat-long, they’re closer to being antipodal than Shanghai-Uruguay. Perth’s airport is just named Perth Airport, but it is an international.

36

I was going to say Stransky International in Savanna, IL now called Tri-Township for some reason. Back in the 70’s, a Canadian C-130 landed there to drop off and pick up some (can’t tell you). It had to sit on the ground until a US Customs agent from the Quad Cities came up to inspect the cargo. Note: We added the, “International” ironically.

37

I’ve got the full list now, and you’re right — Perth-Bermuda are more distant than any of the airport pairs I mentioned earlier.

However Perth-Bermuda is only in 12th place:

  1. 20003.5 is Distance from ESM (TACHINA,ECUADOR) to PDG (PADANG,INDONESIA)
  2. 19978.7 is Distance from UIO (QUITO,ECUADOR) to PKU (PEKANBARU,INDONESIA)
  3. 19974.7 is Distance from AQP (AREQUIPA,PERU) to DAD (DANANG,VIET NAM)
  4. 19962.9 is Distance from RES (RESISTENCIA,ARGENTINA) to WNZ (WENZHOU,CHINA)
  5. 19954.5 is Distance from MUB (MAUN,BOTSWANA) to KOA (KONA,USA)
  6. 19950.2 is Distance from CUE (CUENCA,ECUADOR) to SZB (SUBANG,MALAYSIA)
  7. 19941.8 is Distance from AGP (MALAGA,SPAIN) to AKL (AUCKLAND,NEW ZEALAND)
  8. 19940.3 is Distance from SMR (SANTA MARTA,COLOMBIA) to XCH (CHRISTMAS ISLAND,CHRISTMAS ISLAND)
  9. 19939.2 is Distance from SVQ (SEVILLA,SPAIN) to AKL (AUCKLAND,NEW ZEALAND)
  10. 19938.7 is Distance from LCG (LA CORUNA,SPAIN) to CHC (CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND)
  11. 19938.6 is Distance from AQP (AREQUIPA,PERU) to HUI (HUE,VIET NAM)
  12. 19938.2 is Distance from BDA (HAMILTON,BERMUDA) to PER (PERTH,AUSTRALIA)
    I use 40030 km for the circumference of a spherical Earth, so ESM –> PDG is less than 12 km from being exactly antipodal.

There are ten international airport pairs within 20 km of each other:
19.7 is Distance from YTZ (TORONTO,CANADA) to YYZ (TORONTO,CANADA)
19.1 is Distance from SXM (PHILIPSBURG,ANTILLES) to AXA (THE VALLEY,ANGUILLA ISL.)
17.9 is Distance from SPN (SAIPAN,MARIANA ISLANDS) to TIN (WEST TINIAN,MARIANA ISLANDS)
17.7 is Distance from OAK (OAKLAND,USA) to SFO (SAN FRANCISCO,USA)
17.4 is Distance from DXB (DUBAI,UNITED ARAB EMIRATES) to SHJ (SHARJAH,UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)
17.2 is Distance from JFK (NEW YORK,USA) to LGA (NEW YORK,USA)
16.7 is Distance from PIE (ST. PETERSBURG,USA) to TPA (TAMPA,USA)
15.3 is Distance from IGR (IGUAZU FALLS,ARGENTINA) to IGU (IGUASSU FALLS,BRAZIL)
12.6 is Distance from AKR (AKRON,USA) to CAK (CANTON,USA)
9.0 is Distance from BFI (SEATTLE,USA) to SEA (SEATTLE,USA)

38

Maximum distance is minimized with GOJ (NIZHNY NOVGOROD,RUSSIA) which is only 16208.4 km from DUD (DUNEDIN,NEW ZEALAND). IOW, there are no international airports within 3800 km of the antipode of Nizhny Novgorod.

And my guess that the centralmost airport would still be in the USA with the full list of 1221 international airports was shown to be a laughable mistake:

Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.05) is KLU (KLAGENFURT,AUSTRIA)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.30) is KLU (KLAGENFURT,AUSTRIA)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.35) is GRZ (GRAZ,AUSTRIA)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.50) is GRZ (GRAZ,AUSTRIA)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.55) is VIE (VIENNA,AUSTRIA)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.75) is VIE (VIENNA,AUSTRIA)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.80) is BRQ (TURANY,CZECH REPUBLIC)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^0.95) is BRQ (TURANY,CZECH REPUBLIC)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^1.00) is OSR (OSTRAVA,CZECH REPUBLIC)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^1.10) is OSR (OSTRAVA,CZECH REPUBLIC)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^1.15) is KTW (KATOWICE,POLAND)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^1.20) is KTW (KATOWICE,POLAND)
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^1.25) is LCJ (LODZ,POLAND)
…
Centralmost airport (Min sum dist^14.00) is LCJ (LODZ,POLAND)
As usual I show various exponents despite that there may be no good reason to minimize anything but Sum Distance itself (i.e. to use exponent 1).

Too bad OSTRAVA noses out its 209 km-distant neighbor Vienna. It would have seemed nifty if the centralmost airport were at the fabled capital of the great Habsburg Empire!

39

septimus, thanks again for doing the math on this. It looks like Ostrava is our winner!

Now that that question is answered, I’m wondering about what the spread of the, say, ten or hundred runners-up looks like. Is there a big difference in sum-of-distances, or are they all within a fraction of a percent? Are the top 50 or whatever all clustered around Ostrava, or is the distribution quantized somehow? What about some of the old favorites for the center-of-the-world, like Giza or Jerusalem - how far out of the running are they?

40

Inside the spoiler are the ten best average distances, the ten worst and in rank order, every tenth airport in between.

1: 5728.1 @@ OSR (OSTRAVA,CZECH REPUBLIC)
2: 5728.6 @@ BRQ (TURANY,CZECH REPUBLIC)
3: 5728.7 @@ ILZ (ZILINA,SLOVAKIA)
4: 5729.2 @@ PZY (PIESTANY,SLOVAKIA)
5: 5730.0 @@ PED (PARDUBICE,CZECH REPUBLIC)
6: 5730.5 @@ KTW (KATOWICE,POLAND)
7: 5730.5 @@ SLD (SLIAC,SLOVAKIA)
8: 5730.8 @@ BTS (BRATISLAVA,SLOVAKIA)
9: 5731.1 @@ KRK (KRAKOW,POLAND)
10: 5731.5 @@ VIE (VIENNA,AUSTRIA)
20: 5739.7 @@ POZ (POZNAN,POLAND)
30: 5745.5 @@ LUZ (SWIDNIK,POLAND)
40: 5751.4 @@ ZAG (ZAGREB,CROATIA)
50: 5761.5 @@ FMM (MEMMINGERBERG,GERMANY)
60: 5769.6 @@ PUY (PULA,CROATIA)
70: 5777.8 @@ FKB (RHEINMUNSTER,GERMANY)
80: 5785.7 @@ VBS (MONTICHIARI,ITALY)
90: 5791.4 @@ BLQ (BOLOGNA,ITALY)
100: 5799.2 @@ MSQ (MINSK 2,BELARUS)
110: 5804.8 @@ FLR (FIRENZE,ITALY)
120: 5811.8 @@ RIX (RIGA,LATVIA)
130: 5818.3 @@ AMS (AMSTERDAM,NETHERLANDS)
140: 5827.7 @@ CUF (LEVALDIGI,ITALY)
150: 5837.8 @@ CIA (ROME,ITALY)
160: 5850.8 @@ NAP (NAPLES,ITALY)
170: 5860.2 @@ KRS (KRISTIANSAND,NORWAY)
180: 5874.8 @@ TLN (HYERES,FRANCE)
190: 5883.3 @@ OSL (OSLO,NORWAY)
200: 5893.6 @@ LTN (LONDON,ENGLAND)
210: 5907.1 @@ LIG (LIMOGES,FRANCE)
220: 5916.3 @@ LPP (LAPPEENRANTA,FINLAND)
230: 5928.6 @@ JKH (CHIOS,GREECE)
240: 5938.3 @@ CAG (CAGLIARI,ITALY)
250: 5948.1 @@ CTA (CATANIA,ITALY)
260: 5955.1 @@ GRO (GERONA,SPAIN)
270: 5973.7 @@ SZF (SAMSUN,TURKEY)
280: 5985.9 @@ PIK (PRESTWICK,UK)
290: 6001.3 @@ NAV (NEVSEHIR,TURKEY)
300: 6009.1 @@ DUB (DUBLIN,IRELAND)
310: 6027.2 @@ NBE (ENFIDHA,TUNISIA)
320: 6054.3 @@ KUT (KUTAISI,GEORGIA)
330: 6066.4 @@ SNN (SHANNON,IRELAND)
340: 6092.4 @@ ECN (TYMVOU,CYPRUS)
350: 6107.1 @@ OVD (AVILES,SPAIN)
360: 6132.0 @@ EVN (YEREVAN,ARMENIA)
370: 6153.0 @@ CFK (ECH-CHELIFF,ALGERIA)
380: 6184.9 @@ GBB (QABALA,AZERBAIJAN)
390: 6215.3 @@ UFA (UFA,RUSSIA)
400: 6244.7 @@ AMM (AMMAN,JORDAN)
410: 6277.0 @@ N/A (NADOR,MOROCCO)
420: 6321.4 @@ KRW (KRASNOVODSK,TURKMENISTAN)
430: 6376.5 @@ SSH (SHARM EL SHEIKH,EGYPT)
440: 6422.9 @@ HMB (SOHAG,EGYPT)
450: 6542.8 @@ ASW (ASWAN,EGYPT)
460: 6640.9 @@ SYZ (SHIRAZ,IRAN)
470: 6726.6 @@ FNC (MADEIRA,PORTUGAL)
480: 6804.9 @@ PZU (PORT SUDAN,SUDAN)
490: 6848.4 @@ JAV (JAKOBSHAVN,GREENLAND)
500: 6893.9 @@ GOH (GODTHAAB,GREENLAND)
510: 6960.8 @@ KRT (KHARTOUM,SUDAN)
520: 7046.7 @@ ASM (ASMARA,ETHIOPIA)
530: 7155.8 @@ RYK (RAHIM YAR KHAN,PAKISTAN)
540: 7234.1 @@ YYT (ST. JOHN’S,CANADA)
550: 7352.3 @@ DEL (DELHI,INDIA)
560: 7452.3 @@ TML (TAMALE,GHANA)
570: 7552.4 @@ DSS (BLAISE DIAGNE,SENEGAL)
580: 7592.6 @@ BHO (BHOPAL,INDIA)
590: 7657.6 @@ ACC (ACCRA,GHANA)
600: 7704.2 @@ CKY (CONAKRY,GHANA)
610: 7773.6 @@ PWM (PORTLAND,USA)
620: 7833.6 @@ ROB (MONROVIA,LIBERIA)
630: 7891.0 @@ BDL (WINDSOR LOCKS,USA)
640: 7941.8 @@ SWF (NEWBURGH,USA)
650: 7995.6 @@ YTZ (TORONTO,CANADA)
660: 8042.2 @@ BQS (BLAGOVESCHENSK,RUSSIA)
670: 8108.9 @@ PNR (POINTE-NOIRE,CONGO)
680: 8135.8 @@ PEK (BEIJING,CHINA)
690: 8183.3 @@ CCJ (CALICUT,INDIA)
700: 8224.4 @@ LYA (LUOYANG,CHINA)
710: 8278.9 @@ MDL (MANDALAY,MYANMAR)
720: 8308.1 @@ MSP (MINNEAPOLIS,USA)
730: 8345.0 @@ LAD (LUANDA,ANGOLA)
740: 8393.0 @@ NYT (NAY PYI TAW,MYANMAR)
750: 8451.0 @@ FNJ (PYONGYANG,KOREA)
760: 8516.1 @@ YYC (CALGARY,CANADA)
770: 8546.4 @@ GMP (SEOUL,KOREA)
780: 8590.5 @@ MCI (KANSAS CITY,USA)
790: 8636.3 @@ HAN (HANOI,VIET NAM)
800: 8684.7 @@ MHH (MARSH HARBOR,BAHAMAS)
810: 8718.1 @@ SDD (LUBANGO,ANGOLA)
820: 8736.4 @@ LUN (LUSAKA,ZAMBIA)
830: 8758.3 @@ GEG (SPOKANE,USA)
840: 8790.3 @@ SJU (SAN JUAN,PUERTO RICO)
850: 8814.1 @@ BLZ (BLANTYRE,MALAWI)
860: 8841.6 @@ DEN (DENVER,USA)
870: 8857.9 @@ MFM (MACAU,MACAU)
880: 8880.6 @@ BBK (KASANE,BOTSWANA)
890: 8897.2 @@ SDQ (SANTO DOMINGO,DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)
900: 8934.9 @@ SDJ (SENDAI,JAPAN)
910: 8966.6 @@ PAP (PORT-AU-PRINCE,HAITI)
920: 8994.5 @@ RMQ (CHINGCHUAKANG,TAIWAN)
930: 9029.1 @@ HAV (HAVANA,CUBA)
940: 9079.2 @@ URT (SURAT THANI,THAILAND)
950: 9139.4 @@ KIN (KINGSTON,JAMAICA)
960: 9217.9 @@ TMM (TOAMASINA,MADAGASCAR)
970: 9250.7 @@ VCA (CANTHO,VIET NAM)
980: 9317.6 @@ REC (RECIFE,BRAZIL)
990: 9379.7 @@ MID (MERIDA,MEXICO)
1000: 9425.1 @@ IPH (IPOH,MALAYSIA)
1010: 9485.6 @@ SLW (SALTILLO,MEXICO)
1020: 9546.8 @@ RTB (ROATAN,HONDURAS)
1030: 9584.2 @@ CME (CIUDAD DEL CARMEN,MEXICO)
1040: 9675.0 @@ SLP (SAN LUIS POTOSI,MEXICO)
1050: 9707.5 @@ TGU (TEGUCIGALPA,HONDURAS)
1060: 9757.9 @@ PTY (PANAMA CITY,PANAMA)
1070: 9808.5 @@ SAL (SAN SALVADOR,EL SALVADOR)
1080: 9866.3 @@ MAO (MANAUS,BRAZIL)
1090: 9913.2 @@ PVR (PUERTO VALLARTA,MEXICO)
1100: 10069.6 @@ CEB (CEBU,PHILIPPINES)
1110: 10279.9 @@ ESM (TACHINA,ECUADOR)
1120: 10380.2 @@ BDJ (BANJARMASIN,INDONESIA)
1130: 10487.7 @@ GYE (GUAYAQUIL,ECUADOR)
1140: 10666.9 @@ CGR (CAMPO GRANDE,BRAZIL)
1150: 10933.5 @@ HNL (HONOLULU,USA)
1160: 11042.8 @@ AQP (AREQUIPA,PERU)
1170: 11415.7 @@ PDP (PUNTA DEL ESTE,URUGUAY)
1180: 11843.1 @@ TRW (TARAWA,KIRIBATI)
1190: 12230.5 @@ TSV (TOWNSVILLE,AUSTRALIA)
1200: 12837.2 @@ OOL (COOLANGATTA,AUSTRALIA)
1210: 13158.5 @@ VAV (VAVA’U,TONGA)
1211: 13184.2 @@ HBA (HOBART,AUSTRALIA)
1212: 13188.9 @@ PPT (PAPE’92ETE,TAHITI)
1213: 13231.2 @@ HUE (ALOFI,NEW ZEALAND)
1214: 13275.2 @@ TBU (TONGATAPU,TONGA)
1215: 13287.8 @@ NLK (NORFOLK ISLAND,AUSTRALIA)
1216: 13398.5 @@ RAR (AVARUA,COOK ISLANDS)
1217: 13766.6 @@ AKL (AUCKLAND,NEW ZEALAND)
1218: 13819.8 @@ ZQN (QUEENSTOWN INTERNATIONAL,NEW ZEALAND)
1219: 13874.2 @@ DUD (DUNEDIN,NEW ZEALAND)
1220: 13886.9 @@ CHC (CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND)
1221: 13892.7 @@ WLG (WELLINGTON,NEW ZEALAND)

(It suddenly occurs to me that, while the earlier list was biased toward USA, this list is biased toward Europe because of the small areal sizes of Europe’s countries — most airports will be International airports!)