On some days due to cargo. Bought my son a phone and it went from China to Anchorage to me.
This is now the world's busiest airport... on Saturdays | CNN
Dunno about busiest, but here in Australia in a FMCG business, with the restrictions on international flights it is not unusual for purchase orders from factories in northern China and Japan to be routed via Anchorage and Honolulu. Takes a week longer than usual, costs five times as much and the proportion of damaged cartons and units extraordinary. But there is bugger all alternative at this stage.
And the stock doesn’t earn frequent flier points.
During Airventure (not happening this year), Oshkosh (OSH) is the busiest.
Brian
You forgot to mention what “FMCG” is before you used the abbreviation.
Fast moving consumers goods eg electronics, appliances, white goods etc
Measured by takeoffs and landings, sure. But not a lot of cargo or passengers pass thru Oshkosh, this or any year.
Anchorage used to be a very busy place back when planes needed to refuel more often. It was dubbed “Air Crossroads of the World”, and much of the overseas traffic passed through there, using the ‘polar route’. It was a major hub for Northwest Airlines, who my stepfather worked for.
I thought Atlanta’s airport was the world’s busiest? The airport in Doha, Qatar seems to not be all that far behind.
I enjoy watching this website sometimes. Obviously, it’s not as saturated as it was just a few months ago.
If I understand correctly, wasn’t this also related to the fact that during the Cold War the Soviet Union didn’t allow western airlines to overfly their airspace? This required flights to and from Asia to use a less direct routing, which in turn necessitated a fuel stop in Anchorage.
Eldest is a freight dog and passes through Anchorage multiple times a week. He told me it had become the busiest now that the pandemic’s here. According to him, modern planes are capable of skipping it, but going light on fuel (and accepting a stop) allows more tonnage in the back.
I would think a fuel stop would be pretty fast , less than an hour. No worry about passengers or luggage either for a cargo plane.