FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
AIRPORT RANK REPORT
2) WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT?
4) HOW MANY AIRPORTS ARE CONSIDERED?
5) HOW ARE THE SEATS CALCULATED?
6) WHY INTERNATIONAL SEATS, BUT DOMESTIC REVENUE?
2) WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT?
The goal is to show airports gaining or losing ground relative to the rest of the country over the last 30+ years. Is an airport growing faster than average or shrinking more than average? This report answers that for both seat capacity and also resident/visitor ticketed revenue. Revenue does not include passengers connecting through this city, only residents of and visitors to the city.
3) HOW DO I READ IT?
BLUE is the airport's % ranking on seats among the largest 150 U.S. airports. For example, the 75th largest airport on seats would be on the 50 line (75/150=50%). Seats are from T100 domestic only until 2000 (the red zone of the chart) and then include international for all published airlines after 2000. Seats go out into the future published schedule.
The RED zone of the chart indicates the source of seat capacity is from DOT's T100 domestic only reporting. This is until 2000, and then following 2000 all published airlines are included even for international routes . Seats go out into the future published schedule.
GREEN shows the airport's domestic O&D revenue. Revenue does not include passengers connecting through this city, only residents of and visitors to the city.
INTERPRETATION: Generally if the green line is above the blue area the airport is "doing well" as revenue is outpacing capacity (aka cost). If Blue is outpacing green it is either a hub (since many seats don't serve the local market) or the airport is performing poorly financially. There are exceptions for markets like Hawaii where there are few seats, but lots of revenue due to a longer stage length.
4) HOW MANY AIRPORTS ARE CONSIDERED?
The largest 150 airports as ranked by seats are included for each month of data. An airport may drop in and out of the ranking if it is near the 150 airport cutoff. The cutoff was necessary to accentuate changes in chart position. With 300+ airports it was less obvious to see changes in airport ranking.
5) HOW ARE THE SEATS CALCULATED?
Generally the average number of seats per type is calculated from an airline's DOT financial reporting and applied to departures.
6) WHY INTERNATIONAL SEATS, BUT DOMESTIC REVENUE?
It's not optimal, but it is based on the datasets I have access to. DOT does not allow use of its international revenue data in a public publishing environment, and only includes non-foreign carriers anyway. All products below INTL TIER use DOT-based data sources only for applicable reports. Prior to 2000, seats are also domestic only, again due to data availability.
7) HOW DO I SEE AN AIRPORT'S EXACT RANK?
There are 150 airports included in each months's data point, with the largest airports included. If an airport's seats or revenue are on the 90 line that means that the airport is 90th percentile among the 150 airports ((1-90%) x 150)) or 15th highest rank.
8) WHICH AIRLINES ARE INCLUDED?
For the revenue line, all airlines reporting DOT DB1B have their revenue included for domestic trips. This means that carriers exampt from reporting due to carrier size (too small) may not appear. For the seat line, in the red zone prior to 2000, only U.S. carriers reporting DOT T100 are included and only for domestic service. Typically regional carriers were exempt from reporting due to size. After 2000, all carriers are included for domestic and international, and even non-USA carriers. In all cases only scheduled service is included.