Each six months I look at how well connected by air countries are to each other – the Flight Connectivity Index (FCI).  Previous updates - FCI 30 June 2009, FCI 31 December 2009,  FCI 30 June 2010, FCI 31 December 2010 and FCI 31 June 2011.

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

The Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.

With South Sudan joining the United Nations in the past six months there are now 193 member countries of the UN, and the maximum FCI score is 192.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 111 (+1 from a year ago and the highest index I’ve yet recorded).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.19, unchanged from December 2010.

Since the last update there has been the usual seasonal changes.  In the first half of 2011 most of the spring revolution countries (North Africa plus Syria) lost some connectivity.  In the second half of 2011 most of these countries saw normal air service resume.  Libya is the notable exception and in the past 12 months has seen the flight connectivity index reduce from 39 to just 10 – by far the biggest annual change in connectivity I’ve recorded to date (the next biggest annual change was Togo increasing their score by 10 in 2010).  Indeed, if we ignore the 2011 change in Libya’s connectivity the average FCI would be 0.30 higher.

More results after the jump.

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Each six months I look at how well connected by air countries are to each other – the Flight Connectivity Index (FCI).  Previous updates – FCI 30 June 2009, FCI 31 December 2009,  FCI 30 June 2010 and FCI 31 December 2011.  Since the last update there has been the usual seasonal changes, Turkey has become more connected while United Arab Emirates has partially reversed it’s ongoing growth in flight connectivity.   The effect of the spring revolutions has been seen with Egypt and Libya both losing some connectivity (5 and 4 countries respectively).

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

The Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.

With 192 member countries of the UN, the maximum FCI score is 191.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 110 (unchanged from 6 months ago).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.7, up 0.5 from December 2010 and up 0.03 from a year ago.

More results after the jump.

Read More…

Each six months I look at how well connected by air countries are to each other – the Flight Connectivity Index (FCI).  Previous updates – FCI 30 June 2009, FCI 31 December 2009, and FCI 30 June 2010.  Since the last update there has been the usual seasonal changes, United Arab Emirates continues it’s relentless growth in flight connectivity, and some poorly connected countries in Africa (Burundi and Sao Tome & Principe) and the Caribbean (Dominica and Haiti) lost some air routes to become even less connected.

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

The Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.

With 192 member countries of the UN, the maximum FCI score is 191.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 110 (up 1 since June but unchanged from a year ago).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.2, down 0.5 from June but up 0.9 from last year.

More results after the jump.

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The how to get to series of posts have now been updated for TAM and Aegean joining Star Alliance, Shanghai leaving Star Alliance, Vietnam Airlines and TAROM joining Sky Team.  Apologies for the delay.

Advice has been changed for:

• Bolivia
• Burma (aka Myanmar)
• China
• Vietnam

Flying to central Asia on an award ticket, an around the world fare or other discounted air fares has long been problematic.  This is because there have been few flights to Central Asia and most of these originate in Europe.  Backtracking between Europe and Asia is not permitted on round the world fares.  Availability of award and discounted paid seats are also relatively low.  Flying to central Asia is becoming easier as more flights to the region are being added, and with a rule change.

In Star Alliance, Asiana provides a Central Asia connection with South Korea through flights to Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Tashkent (Uzbekistan), while various airlines fly from Europe.  In Sky Team, China Southern Airlines now provides flights from China to several cities in Central Asia with Aeroflot providing connections to Europe.  To date Oneworld has no service to central Asia other than on codeshares.

With the pending entry of S7 to Oneworld, the rules for the Oneworld Explorer RTW have been amended to include Central Asia within the Europe continental definition, which means back-tracking is permitted.  S7 flies to all the major cities in Central Asia so these will all be available from later this year.

A year ago I posed the question “which countries have flights to the most & least number of other countries?” to launch the Flight Connectivity Index at 30 June 2009.  An update of the Flight Connectivity Index at 31 December 2009 revealed significant seasonal shifts for some countries.  Since the last update, there have been some significant changes in the connectivity of some hard to reach countries.  For details, read on.

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

Before I post the stats, here is a quick recap of the index.  The Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.

With 192 member countries of the UN, the maximum FCI score is 191.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 109 (down 1 since December but up 3 on last year).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.7, up 1.4 since December and up 0.7 on last year.

More results after the jump.

Read More…

In the last couple of weeks I have looked at how far and wide you can travel on Star Alliance flights and on Oneworld flights, and now I do the same for the Sky Team alliance.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Sky Team (below).

The 3 main airline alliances have been busy recruiting airlines. Here are some recent and upcoming changes.

Star Alliance

• TAM joined 13 May 2010 – restoring much South America coverage lost when Varig failed.
• Aegean Airlines (and Olympic Air) joins 30 June 2010.
• Air India will join, eventually (originally due to join early 2009).

Oneworld

• S7 will join in 2010.
• Kingfisher Airlines will join in 2011.

Sky Team

• Vietnam Airlines joined on 10 June 2010.
• On 22 June 2010 associate member airlines Air Europa and Kenya Airways became full members.
• TAROM joined on 25 June 2010.
• China Eastern Airlines will join in 2011.

The “how to get to” series of posts will be updated in due course.  All the recent changes have been allowed for in the recent posts on the global reach of the airline alliances – Star Alliance, Oneworld and Sky Team (coming soon).

Last week I looked at how far and wide you can travel on Star Alliance flights, and now I do the same for the Oneworld alliance.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Oneworld (below).   

See also the global reach of Sky Team.

The airline alliances connect many places all around the world. Last year I mapped which countries are reached by each alliance. Since then the global reach has been added to by new alliance members and by new destinations for existing alliance airlines.

Another way of looking at it is shown by Passport Stamp maps showing the countries served by Star Alliance (below).

See also the global reach of Oneworld and the global reach of Sky Team.