Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2025 February 2

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February 2

Airports in Europe gateway to different continents

Miami International Airport has been dubbed as gateway to Latin America for American Airlines. What about airports in Europe? Have they been dubbed as gateway to Africa, Asia or Atlantic Ocean? --Donmust90-- Donmust90 (talk) 02:53, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

Geography would seem to dictate no. There are too many European airports for too much Africa. Ditto for Asia. As for the Atlantic, there aren't a lot of people booking flights to Atlantis. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:21, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

Istanbul Airport (and its recently closed predecessor) is the main airport for the western end of Asiatic Turkey, including the Asian parts of Istanbul itself. It's also a transit hub for many Europeans wanting to reach parts of Asia and Africa. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:51, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

"[ Croydon Airport ] was once the gateway to Europe" -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 19:37, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

Best of luck trying to buy a ticket to get you to the Atlantic Ocean. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:44, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

Now you've got me thinking of this incident. Or for that matter this journey, which was not a passenger flight but did involve multiple landings on the Atlantic. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 21:55, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

• Shannon Airport on the west coast of Ireland was once Europe's gateway to America (and vice versa), in an era when aircraft didn't have as much range and needed to stop to refuel before crossing the Atlantic. As a neutral, non-NATO nation, it was also a place during the Cold War where both Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc planes could land and passengers could transfer. If a Russian got permission to visit America or vice versa, it would probably involve a change at Shannon. Both concerns are long gone, and Shannon is struggling for a purpose now, although it still has US customs pre-clearance and a dedicated US Border Protection presence. Smurrayinchester 11:11, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

  I heard once that flights from Heathrow and/or Gatwick to America would refuel at Shannon because, if they carried enough fuel for America, they were too heavy for London's shorter runways. —Tamfang (talk) 21:41, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Gateways to some continent, not really, although some hub airports are better connected to some continents than other hubs. For both geographical and linguistic reasons, Madrid has always been pretty big on routes to South America. As Congo was a Belgian colony, Brussels developed into a kind of gateway to Central Africa, despite being a smaller airport. Thanks to an open skies treaty between the US and the Netherlands, Amsterdam became for a while a gateway to North America. It's still one the main hubs in Europe and well connected to the US. For geographical reasons, Helsinki tried to become a gateway to East Asia and Keflavík to North America, but those weren't very successful. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:26, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

According to AENA, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport is a true bridge rather than a mere gateway:

The airport has been consolidated as a hub airport where airlines can increase connectivity between Latin American, domestic and European markets. Making it a true bridge between Europe and Latin America.

--Error (talk) 17:20, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Not an airport, but still allegedly a gateway. Chuntuk (talk) 12:02, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Ah, yes. "An age-old city, half as gold as green". {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.7.205.116 (talk) 03:41, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

"A rose-red city, ...".^[1]  ‑‑Lambiam 05:34, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

References

I think the problem is the comparison in the question. It states that Miami is the gateway for American Airlines. It didn't state that Miami is the gateway for all airlines. The comparison must be an airline/city combination in Europe, for which there are many. If you are flying Finnair, the gateway is surely Helsinki Airport. If you are flying British Airways, it would be London-Heathrow. KLM would be Amsterdam. But, there is more to it. American Airlines, like most airlines, uses a hub and spoke system. They have a major hub in Dallas-Fort Worth and a minor hub in Charlotte. Miami is a secondary hub (or a tertiary one after Charlotte). So, it is noted that it is a hub primarily for Central and South American flights. Using that information, do any European airlines have a secondary hub specifically for another continent (ignoring that Central America is the same continent as Miami). That gets hard because an airline like KLM has a secondary hub in Frankfurt, but that hub doesn't service anything that the main hub in Amsterdam doesn't service. It is just an extra hub. So, this question quickly becomes very difficult to answer and, once answered, the airline will probably close the extra hub to consolidate and save money. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 19:05, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

Well... Most airlines in Europe are either cheap airlines for holiday traffic, using a point-to-point model, or charters, so no real hubs, or they are the traditional flag carriers, with strong ties to one country (some exceptions, like Scandinavian Airlines), giving very limited opportunities for multiple hubs. Many countries only have one big airport. That changes when you don't consider individual airlines, operating under one brand, but airline conglomerates, like Air France-KLM-Hop-Transavia (I may forget some) or International Airlines Group, or even entire alliances. PiusImpavidus (talk) 21:05, 5 February 2025 (UTC)